I just opened the pool (first time owner) and coated my DE filter for my first time. I ran the filter for 3 days straight and it seems to be functioning as I understood it would. My base reading after coating it was about 10lbs of pressure. It gradually climbed up to 20 almost after only a day so I backwashed it and recoated it. I read to use 80% of the normal amount after a backwash so I did that. Base reading went back down to normal. 2 days later it was up there again so I repeated the process. Starting yesterday I felt it was time to start running it for 8-10 hours a day instead of 24/7. I noticed after shutting it off that I got some DE in my pump. Letting it sit for awhile the DE actually seeped down into the bottom drain of the pool.
If I start the pump back up it all got sucked up but I was concerned so I did a full clean of the filter. Drained it of air and water, took the top off, washed everything with a hose and repeated my initial startup sequence with the full amount of DE. I ran the filter for about 5 hours and then shut it off before going to bed. This morning I went out and there was DE in my pump. Didn't notice any in the pool but it could have just settled enough not to notice it.
My skimmers don't get much suction (not enough to produce any kind of visible cyclone) so when I put the DE in I close off my bottom drain. The very first time I put a plug in my close skimmer to generate a good cyclone in the far one. I gradually just dumped in the required DE media a little at a time. I had read you should put it into the closer of the skimmers so the second time I plugged up the far one and slowly put the DE in the close one. This time I created a slurrly as the manual suggested and put it in the close one again. I am not sure how good the slurry was though as I got down to the bottom it was pretty thick and I had to keep adding water and mixing it more before pouring it in. I tried not to let any of the thicker stuff go in.
I made sure the air is out of the filter and not sure what else I can do here. It's a 37.5 sf filter. I bought the recommended pre-measured scoop. It says 1 scoop per 5 sqft. I added 7.5 scoops on the fresh coat and 6 scoops on the re-coat after backwash. Should I just add less maybe?
If I start the pump back up it all got sucked up but I was concerned so I did a full clean of the filter. Drained it of air and water, took the top off, washed everything with a hose and repeated my initial startup sequence with the full amount of DE. I ran the filter for about 5 hours and then shut it off before going to bed. This morning I went out and there was DE in my pump. Didn't notice any in the pool but it could have just settled enough not to notice it.
My skimmers don't get much suction (not enough to produce any kind of visible cyclone) so when I put the DE in I close off my bottom drain. The very first time I put a plug in my close skimmer to generate a good cyclone in the far one. I gradually just dumped in the required DE media a little at a time. I had read you should put it into the closer of the skimmers so the second time I plugged up the far one and slowly put the DE in the close one. This time I created a slurrly as the manual suggested and put it in the close one again. I am not sure how good the slurry was though as I got down to the bottom it was pretty thick and I had to keep adding water and mixing it more before pouring it in. I tried not to let any of the thicker stuff go in.
I made sure the air is out of the filter and not sure what else I can do here. It's a 37.5 sf filter. I bought the recommended pre-measured scoop. It says 1 scoop per 5 sqft. I added 7.5 scoops on the fresh coat and 6 scoops on the re-coat after backwash. Should I just add less maybe?
