Broken laterals, channelization, or time to change the sand?

[Thurge]

Hi TFPers,

I'm having some trouble with my filter or I think I am. It seems every couple of days I see a layer of "silt" accumulating on the floor of my pool. It's most prominent in the shallow end and the deep end near the drain. I know a pool gets dirty but this seems excessive. Yesterday, I put some little nylon socks (the kind you get from a shoe store when you try on shoes) over 3 of the 4 the returns (I think I lost one of those darn socks I know I had 4 when I left the shoe store.) After doing that I vacuumed the pool again. After a few hours I checked the socks and just about all of them had some debris inside. Not much but I noticed that this was fairly large stuff getting through considering it came through my filter (all things being subjective the things getting through were about half the size of a grain of rice or smaller.) I believe this means that I have either channelization in my sand or a broken lateral. I'm thinking if it's a broken lateral the sand would still filter out larger particles right? If so that should mean it's channelization... I think.

Bonus question: I just inherited this pool with my new home so I'm still learning. On this particular filter there are two bolts in the lid. I thought that I needed to remove them to remove the lid. I found out today after trying to figure out why I couldn't get the lid off that I actually need a special wrench to get the lid off. The problem is after loosening those nuts in the lid I can no longer tighten them (they turn get a little tight and then go loose again.) As a result I get a little trickle leak around the hole where one of these bolts goes in. I'm thinking that once I get the lid off with the proper tool I'll be able to see what's going on with these bolts. Does anybody know what those bolts in the lid of the Triton II filter are for???

At any rate would it be smart to go ahead and change the sand? I could contact the previous owners and ask them but I've tried not to be "that guy." Is there a way to determine when the sand was changed last? Other than the silt issue my water is sparklingly clear and tests well (I tend to only need one 96 oz bottle of 6% bleach per day to keep FC around 7.) As always I appreciate any and all responses.

Thanks

 

[FamilyGuy]

Re: Broken laterals, channelization, or time to change the s

Many people here say there is not a need to change the sand ever. That removeing the lid and flooding the sand with a garden hose till overflowing will remove debris and using a broom handle carefully to break up clumps of sand in the filter without damaging your laterals is the way to go

 

[Bama Rambler]

Re: Broken laterals, channelization, or time to change the s

If things the size of a grain of rice is getting past the filter it's either broken laterals or the multiport valve spider gasket. If it were the laterals you would also be getting filter sand back into the pool.

 

[Thurge]

Re: Broken laterals, channelization, or time to change the s

Monday night I got home and opened the filter. I flooded it with my garden hose and gently broke up the sand with my hand. I closed the filter after getting as much of the gunk out as I could. I then backwashed and rinsed the filter. I put it back into filter mode and when I walked over to the pool I saw plumes of sand come out of my returns. The sand plumes were brief and the water out of the returns cleared up quickly. The only thing I can think of that I did wrong was that I may have let it rinse a little too long or not backwashed long enough. (One other thing: I turned the pump off but didn't set the valve to closed before doing some of this.) Tuesday night I put another set of nylon socks on the returns, vacuumed and will see when I get home tonight if there is any new debris. If I do get more debris I believe it may be a bad lateral and if it is I may as well change the sand. Does that sound like a logical conclusion or am I possibly missing something? If I removed the sand from the filter and checked the laterals first I'd probably be wasting time, right? I found laterals online for my filter at $3.99 each, while the pool store was asking for $12 each but as of last night the filter seems fine. I'll see when I get home.

If I change the sand I'm thinking of doing the pea gravel + sand thing since my filter supports it. What type of pea gravel do I use or does that not matter???

 

[duraleigh]

Re: Broken laterals, channelization, or time to change the s

The only thing I can think of that I did wrong was that I may have let it rinse a little too long

Actually, maybe the opposite. rinsing resets the sand bed and will eliminate most blow back into the pool after backwash. I do not think you can rinse too long...only too short.

What did the sand bed look like when you cleaned it? Lots of gunk? Very little? Did you reach into it and loosen it up maybe 8" deep or so?