Hi
@jparoski! Welcome to TFP! I am so glad you found us and have learned to not use the filter balls
I wanted to tell you a couple of tricks for putting the sand in the filter body:
-Fill your filter body half way with water before you add any sand. This helps cushion the fall of the sand on the laterals.
-Make sure there is a cup or something over the straight pipe to make sure no sand goes down it.
-Do a rinse of the sand before you turn the filter on to filter. That will help settle the sand and get any dust or such out of it before it goes into the pool.
Just in case you don't know you always rinse the sand after you do a backwash. for the above reasons.
Now for the cloudiness of your water. My guess is you might have an algae bloom trying to happen. Cloudiness is one of the first signs. To help you get this under control I need to ask a couple of questions.
-How do you add chlorine (Free Chlorine=FC) to your pool?
-How do you test your pool water?
I look forward to your answers so we can get your pool TFP clear!
I will tell you that the kids letting the dog in the pool did not cause the filter clogs or the cloudiness.