Sight Glass/Clear Water

[hatsoff389]

Hi everyone,

I hope someone can help. I opened my pool today and shocked, and the filter has been running for about eight hours. The water pressure dropped going back into the pool which is normal when I first open it but when I back washed the water in the sight glass remained clear. Usually, the water in the sight glass looks dirty when I backwash, then runs clear, and then I switch to rinse. The water pressure back into the pool is now back to normal but isn't it odd the water ran clear the entire time in the sight glass.

Ryan

 

[JamesW]

Did you initially add DE?

When was the filter last taken apart and cleaned?

 

[hatsoff389]

Did you initially add DE?

When was the filter last taken apart and cleaned?

I have added small amounts of de throughout the summer in the skimmer. I did not add any de today. the filter is probably 15 years old and has never been cleaned. Everything is operating normal, it's just losing pressure after about an hour of running, and when I backwash, the pressure goes back to normal, but the water in the sight glass remains clear. It's never run clear from beginning to end during back washing. Should I try the deep cleaning that's posted on this website or could there be something else wrong? Thanks for the help.

Ryan

 

[JamesW]

Time to open it up and clean the cartridges.

 

[hatsoff389]

Time to open it up and clean the cartridges.

It's a sand filter. I'm going to follow the cleaning method on the website today.

 

[JamesW]

Ok. The signature says cartridge filter.

 

[hatsoff389]

Ok. The signature says cartridge filter.

Your right. I never created that signature. Anyway, I opened the filter up and it looks like I've lost a ton of sand. The sand was only a quarter of a way up the filter. I got rid of the rest of the sand and inspected the laterals and the pipe that connects to the laterals and I do not see any cracks. I just put 100 pounds of new sand in the filter. I backwashed the filter after changing the sand and now I see sand coming out of the backwash. Is this normal after changing sand?

 

[JamesW]

Sand coming out of the backwash is usually due to too much sand in the filter or too much water flow when backwashing. You only want 15 gpm per square foot of sand surface area.

You probably lost most of the sand in the filter due to excessive water flow during backwashing.

 

[Papajeff]

Did you initially add DE?

When was the filter last taken apart and cleaned?

I had lost pressure too just this morning and my water was a little cloudy. I backwashed and rinsed as you did and never saw anything but clean water in the glass. Nevertheless the problem resolved. I added 80% DE after the backwash and I'm hoping the cloudiness will resolve.

 

[Papajeff]

Did you initially add DE?

When was the filter last taken apart and cleaned?

I'm new to this site so I'm not certain this question is meant for me. My system is in it's 3rd season and I don't believe it's every had anything done other than a backwash. I did the backwash, rinse cycle twice today and added 3 lbs of DE afterwards. The pool is still a bit cloudy but the pressure is back to normal.