First time pool owner. Just bought a home with a 25k gallon in ground pool which previous owners neglected for the past 2 years and left closed since 2020.
When I took cover off it was basically a swamp. Piles of leaves covered the floor, algae everywhere, frogs, tad pools, etc.
I finally got it cleaned out to the best of my ability and fired up the pump once i got the water level up. To my surprise everything seems to work fine.
The only issue I have is that after the filter runs for a few hours, it seems the filter cant keep up and i lose pressure out of my returns. Usually after I backwash its good for a few hours but it will do it again. I have to backwash like 3 times a day to keep this filter running optimally (running it 24/7 right now as I’m trying to shock it).
My question is, is this normal? With a pool this dirty and running filter continuously, is it normal to have to backwash that much? Or does sand possibly need replaced? I took filter head off to check out sand and besides some gray matter on top, the sand seems fine(then again i dont know what its really supposed to look or feel like.) Doesnt look like theres any tunneling in the sand. I’ve attached some photos.
When I took cover off it was basically a swamp. Piles of leaves covered the floor, algae everywhere, frogs, tad pools, etc.
I finally got it cleaned out to the best of my ability and fired up the pump once i got the water level up. To my surprise everything seems to work fine.
The only issue I have is that after the filter runs for a few hours, it seems the filter cant keep up and i lose pressure out of my returns. Usually after I backwash its good for a few hours but it will do it again. I have to backwash like 3 times a day to keep this filter running optimally (running it 24/7 right now as I’m trying to shock it).
My question is, is this normal? With a pool this dirty and running filter continuously, is it normal to have to backwash that much? Or does sand possibly need replaced? I took filter head off to check out sand and besides some gray matter on top, the sand seems fine(then again i dont know what its really supposed to look or feel like.) Doesnt look like theres any tunneling in the sand. I’ve attached some photos.
