First time opening the pool after buying the place, DE filter clogs up after few hours.

[Pooler-Bear]

We opened the pool, the DE filter was in the shed, completely cleaned, dry and stored open, pictures below. Pool was mostly clean upon reveal

with a lot of gunk in the deep end. Shock, Brush, Polaris (2 complete runs) a lot of weird worms, a lot of skimming later, water is "clean" but cloudy. Dropped 2 chlorine tablets into the feeder attached to the filter. Initially charged with 4-5 scoops (4-5 lbs for 7lbs Hayward perflex EC75)

2-3 hours after the initial set up, returns had significantly less flow, backwashed, 3-4 times, recharged 2-3lbs more of, looks like a lot of flow from the returns/jets, came back 2 hours later, flow reduces drastically again. Backwash 2 more times, greenish at first, then white (DE) stared coming out. Ran it for 5 more minutes and turned it off for the night.

What is going on why is it getting clogged so quickly, is this normal? Pool is still cloudy but we can see the bottom on shallow end, no visible algae.

1667141400285.png

• Pooler-Bear
• Oct 30, 2022

 

[wireform]

The mere fact the pool is cloudy tells you there's algae present which is cause in effect for the diminished flow after some time.
I'm not sure how you're getting rid of the algae but 2 chlorine pucks surely isn't the method on this forum. Please read
Pool Care Basics
Test Kits Compared
SLAM Process
Overnight Chlorine Loss Test
PoolMath
FC/CYA Levels

 

[Bperry]

We opened the pool, the DE filter was in the shed, completely cleaned, dry and stored open, pictures below. Pool was mostly clean upon reveal

with a lot of gunk in the deep end. Shock, Brush, Polaris (2 complete runs) a lot of weird worms, a lot of skimming later, water is "clean" but cloudy. Dropped 2 chlorine tablets into the feeder attached to the filter. Initially charged with 4-5 scoops (4-5 lbs for 7lbs Hayward perflex EC75)

2-3 hours after the initial set up, returns had significantly less flow, backwashed, 3-4 times, recharged 2-3lbs more of, looks like a lot of flow from the returns/jets, came back 2 hours later, flow reduces drastically again. Backwash 2 more times, greenish at first, then white (DE) stared coming out. Ran it for 5 more minutes and turned it off for the night.

What is going on why is it getting clogged so quickly, is this normal? Pool is still cloudy but we can see the bottom on shallow end, no visible algae.

View attachment 492175

View attachment 492174

1667141400285.png

• Pooler-Bear
• Oct 30, 2022

DE filter clog VERY easily. So you don’t want to run water through them if there’s lots of junk in the water or you’ll be cleaning super often. The picture doesn’t look like lots of junk though so not totally unreasonable to try.

But look through the links above on maintaining the proper chlorine level, which means getting a reliable water test kit (don’t trust a pool store) and post up some water test results. You have algae growing which is clogging the filter and so you need what TFP calls the SLAM process to get rid of it.