Pool cloudy and not clearing. Filter problem?

[cooper]

Good morning. I have a 16x32 inground vinyl salt water pool with Hayward Pro grid DE filter and Hayward vari-flo valve. In previous years, when opening my pool, my pool guy would use liquid shock. It would go green to blue in a couple of hours and eventually the filter would gradually clear the water over a day or two (numerous backwashes and DE replacement). Once it was clear, I'd tackle the chemistry.

This year, i opened it myself, shocked it and it went from green to blue like always. However, it's just not getting clear. I even used water clarifier, which i don't normally use or need. Now the odd thing is, the filter is not clogging. I have a check valve that i use as a guide to tell me when it's time to backwash (My pressure gauge is broken and i never use it). The flow through the check valve is constant and never waivers. Yes, the valve is in the filter setting. The filter was thoroughly cleaned at the end of last season. I have backwashed and rinsed and both settings work as expected. It's almost like the valve is in recirc mode even when its definitely in filter mode.

Any thoughts or ideas? Could it be that spider gasket in the valve needs to be replaced? I haven't taken anything apart yet.

Thanks.

 

[mknauss]

How do you test your pool water chemistry? What filter type do you have?
I suspect you need to follow the SLAM Process. But a complete set of water chemistry test results are needed prior to starting that.

 

[Promee]

We had the same problem and apparently minerals calcify and the algae hangs on tight in the cartridge filters.
We had to increase pump running time from 10a-4p to 8am-6p (all daylight hours with full sun).
I did a filter Soak/clean using muriatic acid.
The other issue is our pump. The algae was a symptom to a much bigger problem we didn’t know we had. The pump developed a fissure which is now burst into a good sized crack.

let us know what you do and how things progress

 

[mknauss]

Algae does not 'hang on' to a filter. Algae is a chemistry problem, not a filtering or pump problem.

 

[Brianf60]

And the pump shpuld run 24/7 while clearing water.