Normal for this much DE in bottom of filter?

[Flyguppy]

Took mine apart to clean today. Drain plug is very hard to reach, so shop-vacced out the standing water in filter housing.

Is it normal to have about 10-12" of sludge in the bottom? Seemed like it was mostly DE.....pretty thick after sucking out the water.

Just wondering if it had been over DE'd last time.

 

[jblizzle]

Not uncommon. Which is why a full tear down is recommended yearly. Backwashing just does not work very well.

 

[chiefwej]

Each time you turn off the pump, much of the DE drops off of the grates in the filter to the bottom, when the pump comes back on it swirls around and is redeposited on the grates. Naturally when you tear down the filter you find a lot of DE in the bottom.