TFP - I am at my wit's end. I've had sand coming back into my pool for the last year. After doing lots of research on this site, I decided to do the following:
First, I replaced the key cover and handle assembly. I did this because I had taken off the old key cover and the spider gasket looked pretty worn down. I figured this could be the cause - if the spider gasket wasn't sealing the ports maybe sand was coming through that way. That didn't solve the problem.
Next, today I decided to go ahead and replace the lateral assembly. I also put in new sand (HTH pool sand) just because I didn't want to have to figure out how to get the old sand back in.
After doing that, I'm still seeing the same problem. When I run the filter, sand gets thrown all around the pool. It's clearly sand on the steps. On the bottom it does kind of look like dead algae but it can't be algae because it only comes out when the filter is running. I can vacuum the pool with my Dolphin S200 then leave the filter off overnight and there's nothing on the bottom. Then after an hour of running the pump there's sand / black stuff back on the bottom, and it's more concentrated around the jets. Also it feels gritty and I can actually capture it on the steps. But it's not a lot of sand - I've heard w/ a broken lateral it will dump mounds of sand on the bottom - this is small amounts throughout the pool.
I test religiously using the Taylor TF-100 kit and follow the TFP method for keeping my pool sanitized. Current levels:
FC: 6.5
CC: < 0.5
CYA: 30
pH: 7.4
TA: 110
Also, last night FC was 7.0, so only 0.5 PPM loss overnight, which again indicates it's not algae.
What else could possibly be causing this??? Any help greatly appreciated!
First, I replaced the key cover and handle assembly. I did this because I had taken off the old key cover and the spider gasket looked pretty worn down. I figured this could be the cause - if the spider gasket wasn't sealing the ports maybe sand was coming through that way. That didn't solve the problem.
Next, today I decided to go ahead and replace the lateral assembly. I also put in new sand (HTH pool sand) just because I didn't want to have to figure out how to get the old sand back in.
After doing that, I'm still seeing the same problem. When I run the filter, sand gets thrown all around the pool. It's clearly sand on the steps. On the bottom it does kind of look like dead algae but it can't be algae because it only comes out when the filter is running. I can vacuum the pool with my Dolphin S200 then leave the filter off overnight and there's nothing on the bottom. Then after an hour of running the pump there's sand / black stuff back on the bottom, and it's more concentrated around the jets. Also it feels gritty and I can actually capture it on the steps. But it's not a lot of sand - I've heard w/ a broken lateral it will dump mounds of sand on the bottom - this is small amounts throughout the pool.
I test religiously using the Taylor TF-100 kit and follow the TFP method for keeping my pool sanitized. Current levels:
FC: 6.5
CC: < 0.5
CYA: 30
pH: 7.4
TA: 110
Also, last night FC was 7.0, so only 0.5 PPM loss overnight, which again indicates it's not algae.
What else could possibly be causing this??? Any help greatly appreciated!