I decided to try adding some DE to my sand filter to try and improve my clarity a bit more. I should have added it more gradually but I eyeballed it. After a few minutes I checked filter pressure and it was up just a bit more than 1psi (19psi->20.5) so I thought I was golden. I just checked 3 hours later and pressure is up about 4-5psi (24psi). Any risk in damaging my pump or filter system with that much pressure rise?
Adding DE to sand filter
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DamianS
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Is it possible that the additional rise in pressure is due to the filter catching a lot of the finer debris that the sand alone was missing?
I woke this AM and walked out to the pool. WOW. The DE had really helped. Water was glass all the way to the bottom.
However, i realized that the jets were just bubbling a tiny bit and little water was coming out. I went out to the pump
and pressure was up near 28psi, condensation in the pressure gauge (it rained last night), and the pump was not pumping
much. I have had a small intermittent pressure leak at my filter that occassionaly will allow some air/water out the backwash
port if the valve mechanism does not seal well. I think the added pressure causes the leak to come back and get slightly worse.
I think I need to replace a seal in the filter. I decided to backwash the DE out, and the pump went back to the old pressure.
Probably some of the better clarity in the pool was due to jets not moving the water, but I still think the DE made
a noticable difference. As for backwashing, I had a pretty bad pool starting the season, so I was backwashing every
day for a about a week. Then I went to every few days. Now I am at about 2-3weeks
Additionally, one of my 3 jets seems to have a decent amount of air (bubbles/fizz) in the water stream, even when my pump is holding at 19psi.
Hunting this down is on my to-do list.
All in all I am happy with the DE experiment but I need to hunt down some leaks before I do again.
However, i realized that the jets were just bubbling a tiny bit and little water was coming out. I went out to the pump
and pressure was up near 28psi, condensation in the pressure gauge (it rained last night), and the pump was not pumping
much. I have had a small intermittent pressure leak at my filter that occassionaly will allow some air/water out the backwash
port if the valve mechanism does not seal well. I think the added pressure causes the leak to come back and get slightly worse.
I think I need to replace a seal in the filter. I decided to backwash the DE out, and the pump went back to the old pressure.
Probably some of the better clarity in the pool was due to jets not moving the water, but I still think the DE made
a noticable difference. As for backwashing, I had a pretty bad pool starting the season, so I was backwashing every
day for a about a week. Then I went to every few days. Now I am at about 2-3weeks
Additionally, one of my 3 jets seems to have a decent amount of air (bubbles/fizz) in the water stream, even when my pump is holding at 19psi.
Hunting this down is on my to-do list.
All in all I am happy with the DE experiment but I need to hunt down some leaks before I do again.
Last night I also added DE to improve the water clarity. I put in enough to raise the pressure from 7 to 8 psi, (1 3/4 cups). After about 4-5 hours, the pressure was up to 15 psi. I decided to backwash before I went to bed as I wasn't sure how how the pressure might go overnight. The water was uber clear, the next morning. I suspect that my sand is a little old(5 years).
I would add something to the Pool School, that says, it is normal to see PSI rise, as the filter scrubs more particles out of the water, but to be careful as the PSI may be become excessive in short order.
I would add something to the Pool School, that says, it is normal to see PSI rise, as the filter scrubs more particles out of the water, but to be careful as the PSI may be become excessive in short order.
Sorry to bring back a dead topic, but I am doing this now. Pressure has went up 8 psi, gonna do a backwash before bed as well to relieve some psi, it has to be sucking up all of the pine particles the sand wasn't.
