Bugs in return.

[cfclay]

I have bought two pools and this house is my third, so I know just enough to be dangerous. I bought A used pump and sand filter for this pool when I moved in last august. I don't think I'll be here that long or I would just through the pool in the trash and go 30' round!



I see bugs in the return port if I'm saying that correctly. So evidently bugs are being sprayed out . I took the sand filter top off and looked and there was a mess of bugs floating at the top but no noticeable debris at the top of the sand. Shouldn't the bugs be sucked into the sand??

Not sure if my signature shows my equipment- but I have a doughboy 1701-019 filter and a 1.5 hp pump.

I vacuumed a holy mess of material off the floor last week but I did it straight to waste. Seems like what's left in pool recirculates.


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[JohnT]

The top of your sand is where most of the larger debris, like bugs, will be caught.

Though I can't find anything on your filter by searching, I'd about bet from the part number that it is a small diameter filter. Your pump may be too large and blowing debris through the sand. How big is the tank diameter, and what is the SF number from the plate on the pump motor?

Other possibilities are a bad multiport gasket or "channelized" sand. Does the sand crumble easily or does it kind of stay together in chunks?

This post is informative http://www.troublefreepool.com/threads/73192-Deep-Cleaning-a-Sand-Filter

 

[cfclay]

Diameter is probably 24 inches.

The sand is very fine. I bought it at pool store. All equipment appeared good when I bought it- I might good replace the gasket at the top, but that's the only opportunity I saw.



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[JohnT]

I think the biggest sand filter doughboy makes is 19", which is probably greatly undersized for a 1.5HP pump.

I can't read the numbers on the plate to see the SF or current.

 

[cfclay]

You mean the pump is too big?

 

[JohnT]

You mean the pump is too big?

Possibly.

 

[Indept]

If your seeing this in your pool that's not good:

Sorry couldn't resist, seriously though, do you show decent back pressure when in filter mode, if the valve is leaking or stuck in bypass mode you would thing the pressure would be low (less than 10 psi).

 

[cfclay]

About 20 psi

 

[cfclay]

I drained the filter down to the sand and found the top layer to be kind of gummy (maybe from the Molykote 111 I use on the gasket. The gasket has some bugs on it as well which makes me thnk it could stand to be replaced but it doesn't leak much.

You alls thoughts on that?

I did backwash and rinse and will see if that will help- but my return looked like a bug strainer.

 

[cfclay]

I looked in my top is a one horsepower pump. This worked last year… I'm not sure what the problem could be. When I do my research on this it looks like most of the issue could be related to perhaps backwashing the filter properly.

 

[cfclay]

This article indicates it could be that faulty o ring

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/pool-sand-filter-problems.html

 

[cfclay]

T

I took this thing apart and found ( because I couldn't remember) this thing doesn't have laterals , but i did find that the bottom deck had some clogged up areas. This is an old unit huh ?

What I did think was odd was that hair was sucked halfway down through the sand . I wouldn't have thought that there was that much suction created inside.


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[cfclay]

Im told from another forum that it is probably from sand channeling.

 

[zea3]

I would say sand channeling is the likely culprit. Since the sand is out you can choose to refill with fresh sand and rinse it well before running in filter mode. If you choose to reuse the existing sand deep clean the sand before connecting the filter. You can find information on deep cleaning the sand filter here.

 

[cfclay]

What is exactly is channeling- how can it be prevented?

 

[zea3]

Channeling is when debris in the filter causes the sand to harden and clump. The flow of water in the filter erodes little tunnels in the sand that allow some debris to escape. When you deep clean the sand it flushes out all the debris and re-seats the sand bed. You can carefully break up any clumps in the sand with your hands or a broomstick. Anytime you insert something into the sand bed you must be very careful to avoid damaging the laterals.

You can't prevent it 100%, but you can decrease the odds of developing channeling by backwashing the filter well and rinsing it well after a 25% rise in clean pressure. You should also deep clean the filter once a year.