Sand in the pool!!! Intex pump

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PaulieR

Member
Apr 4, 2021
22
Toronto, Ontario
Brand new 2500GPH intex sand filter. Bought 120Lbs of #20 pool sand as stated in manual, added a bit of water to bottom of tank, started filling sand, halfway I added more water and added the rest of the sand.

Backwashed for 5 minutes, rinsed for 2 minutes. Set to filter and it just keeps shooting sand into the pool. Backwashed and rinsed again and same result.

Thought maybe I broke a lateral or stand pipe, so emptied the tank, cleaned it all up, inspected the laterals and pipe, all clean and no cracks. Restarted the process of putting sand back and redo the whole process, same result.

I had an extra multiport valve, so tried that as well, and same result.

I been working above ground pools for a while and never had this issue with various sand filters.

I just emptied again and checked the laterals and pipe again and no issues there :(

Anyone have any ideas before I just switch to a glass media instead of sand ?
 
Hummm. :scratch: I'm not familiar with that brand, but if it's worked for you in the past, you would think it should still be good. With all the repetitive tear-downs and inspections you've done, I don't see how sand is making past the laterals into the pool.
 
Texas Splash said:
Hummm. :scratch: I'm not familiar with that brand, but if it's worked for you in the past, you would think it should still be good. With all the repetitive tear-downs and inspections you've done, I don't see how sand is making past the laterals into the pool.
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Yeah I am lost !!! Usually the culprit would be a broken lateral, but I have double checked that, the sand level is fine, I put exactly 121 lbs of sand as per manual, level is just above minimum on the upright. Tried a different multiport valve as I have 2 of them, and same result.

I originally had a 12” tank 1500gph pump with no issues, decided to upgrade cuz my tank had a crack and leaked and now have all this sand in the pool. :(

I feel like I have no choice but to switch to filter balls, even though they don’t do as good a job as sand, as my last resort.
 
PaulieR said:
I feel like I have no choice but to switch to filter balls, even though they don’t do as good a job as sand, as my last resort.
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Unless you feel like trying another brand of sand where perhaps the grains are slightly larger. But I suspect you aren't thrilled about all the heavy lifting - again. :(
 
Yeah, I just wanna get it up and running so think I’m gonna try some filter balls for now. And then give sand another try later in the season.

I read a suggestion to just let it run for a few hours and see if the pump would eventually just throw out what would be the smaller grains. I ran it for 6 hours overnight , now have a sand pit in the pool lol.

Just turned it on and sure enough still throwing out sand. Will be emptying it soon and will inspect laterals again just to make sure I didn’t miss anything.
 
Update: I ended up emptying it once again, but this time used a shop vac to do most of the work. Saved my back. Inspected the laterals again and pipe and no visible cracks. But I decided to grab my old 12” tank and look at the laterals and noticed they were a lot tighter in the fins, which would prevent the sand to go through. I looked at this new one 16” tank the laterals were a lot more open. Now I don’t know if the #20 sand I used changed over the years, but it was obvious it could make it through the slats/fins on the laterals versus my old 12”. The manual says use#20 sand, but obviously it makes through.

I ended up buying #16 sand and of course now it works fine. Not sure how well the filtration will be with a coarser sand, but at least now the system is up and running and no sand in the pool.

Will see as the season progresses if it does a decent job cleaning the pool.

I ended up vacuuming 15 lbs of sand from the pool floor :(
 
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