Algae Increasing Since Day 2 of SLAM - Newbie needs Advice

[kimkats]

What I mean is can you see where the water comes out of the hose or pipe when you back wash? I can as mine is right by my filter for now. Some people bury hard pipe and it lets the water out over there where it cannot be seen. The reason I ask is I want to know if it is leaking water when it is NOT set on backwash. That is something else that could point to the gasket.

 

[Chevydue057]

What I mean is can you see where the water comes out of the hose or pipe when you back wash? I can as mine is right by my filter for now. Some people bury hard pipe and it lets the water out over there where it cannot be seen. The reason I ask is I want to know if it is leaking water when it is NOT set on backwash. That is something else that could point to the gasket.

Yes I can. I connect one of the firemans hoses to the backwash fitting and flush it out. It doesn't leak when it's not set to backwash.

It's possible the sand is from my deep clean and maybe I didn't run it on rinse long enough, but I would think after 20 hours of filter run time all the sand would have worked itself out.

 

[Chevydue057]

Hey Everyone, I'm still getting this sand mixture in the pool. I don't know what it is, but the SLAM isn't helping it. I'm calling the SLAM. I've been running the pump 24/7 for over 2 weeks, and I've added probably $75 worth of Chlorine. I've been at minimum 20ppm FC for the entire time. It's not changing. I'm at the point, I could have drained, bleached the entire pool inside and our, and refilled the pool water and saved money.

The strangest part (And I've seen other thread here mention the same thing) is that it doesn't come back if I don't run the filter. And if I run on recirculate, it takes much longer for it to come back. It does come back, but probably 1/2 the amount in the same time.

I'm going to let the FC levels come down to normal levels. The only thing I can come up with is a gasket in the valve. Or a cracked lateral (maybe I missed it the first time). But there's 100% DE coming into the pool with some sand, Its hard now, it doesn't poof (since I added DE to the filter).

I'm going to clean the crud up, and not run the filter for 24 hours or 36 hours and confirm it doesn't come back. I have a call into Hayward pools for information. but this has got to be some soft of sand filter problem.

 

[Texas Splash]

Yeah, I would agree. There is something odd about the filter.

 

[Chevydue057]

Yeah, I would agree. There is something odd about the filter.

Any other suggestion about what I should do?

 

[Texas Splash]

Any other suggestion about what I should do?

You can go back into that filter. Remove the sand and save it for re-use as long as nothing odd has been added to it like floc or something. Then inspect the laterals and lower hub assembly closely for any cracks or bad connections. Now it is possible that the DE flowing back so easily was because the sand developed some "channeling" or gaps that wasn't allowing it to filter well and letting water pass through too easily. So you have the option of doing a sand deep clean first to see if that helps before actually removing the sand.

Deep Cleaning a Sand Filter

This post will walk you through the anatomy of a sand filter, and then provide a video at the end for how to deep clean your sand filter. The filter used in the photos and videos is a Hayward S180T top mount sand filter. The images are of a similar filter. Obviously not all filters are...

www.troublefreepool.com

 

[Chevydue057]

You can go back into that filter. Remove the sand and save it for re-use as long as nothing odd has been added to it like floc or something. Then inspect the laterals and lower hub assembly closely for any cracks or bad connections. Now it is possible that the DE flowing back so easily was because the sand developed some "channeling" or gaps that wasn't allowing it to filter well and letting water pass through too easily. So you have the option of doing a sand deep clean first to see if that helps before actually removing the sand.

Deep Cleaning a Sand Filter

This post will walk you through the anatomy of a sand filter, and then provide a video at the end for how to deep clean your sand filter. The filter used in the photos and videos is a Hayward S180T top mount sand filter. The images are of a similar filter. Obviously not all filters are...

www.troublefreepool.com

I did a deep clean last week, and there wasn't a lot of Crud that came out. A couple pieces of Crud in the very top, but the water that bubbled over the top was clear within 30 seconds.

I did notice, I left all the plumbing attached, but, even with the valve set to closed, it was leaking back from the return line side (thought the valve). I don't know if this is normal.

 

[Texas Splash]

I don't know if this is normal.

It's not. Sounds like yoru multiport valve spider gasket is leaking. Shouldn't be a cause for all your other water issues though. Since you did a deep clean, at some point you may decide to just empty it and inspect everything. You can just let things go for a bit and monitor, but it may be something you can't avoid.

 

[Chevydue057]

It's not. Sounds like yoru multiport valve spider gasket is leaking. Shouldn't be a cause for all your other water issues though. Since you did a deep clean, at some point you may decide to just empty it and inspect everything. You can just let things go for a bit and monitor, but it may be something you can't avoid.

I bought a new spider gasket at the end of last season, and this weekend I figure I'll replace it before we open the pool (hopefully) the weekend after.

The problem never got better after July of last year. I emptied the brand new last year sand a little bit at a time in october and didn't see any channeling, and no grime/real gunk throughout the entire filter.

Here's to hoping the spider valve gasket fixes it this year! I just wanted to bump the thread for visability.

 

[kimkats]

When you opened the filter you should have been able to see if it was channeled from the very beginning as it presents as solid and packed instead of loose. Here is hoping the gasket is easy to put on and fixes the problem!