This is my first time opening a pool. I think I closed down too early last fall and therefore opened up my pool to a nice shade of dark green. Never fear! I am a true believer in the TFP SLAM method and have stocked up on liquid chlorine.
I went through my first day, lots of sweeping and testing and pressure monitoring. That is where I am running into trouble. Throughout the day, I have been putting thin cloth skimmer socks on my skimmer baskets to try to save my DE filter. With all the stirred up algae, those get clogged up quickly (within an hour or two) and make my pump struggle badly. In the evening, I took the socks off and let the water/algae run through my filter. When I checked it before bed though, my filter was already up past my typical backwash pressure.
I know I am supposed to keep the water circulating 24/7 during SLAM but I am afraid of burning out my pump or breaking something. I only have a push/pull valve (no recirc option) and don't want to be constantly backwashing my filter and ditching brand new DE. Any advice on how best to handle this situation would be much appreciated, I can monitor the pump all day tomorrow but after that it's back to work and leaving the pump to fend for itself...
One thing I considered was removing the DE grid fins from the filter while I am not watching it but that sounds like a lot of work taking the filter apart every 24 hours.
Thanks in advance!!
I went through my first day, lots of sweeping and testing and pressure monitoring. That is where I am running into trouble. Throughout the day, I have been putting thin cloth skimmer socks on my skimmer baskets to try to save my DE filter. With all the stirred up algae, those get clogged up quickly (within an hour or two) and make my pump struggle badly. In the evening, I took the socks off and let the water/algae run through my filter. When I checked it before bed though, my filter was already up past my typical backwash pressure.
I know I am supposed to keep the water circulating 24/7 during SLAM but I am afraid of burning out my pump or breaking something. I only have a push/pull valve (no recirc option) and don't want to be constantly backwashing my filter and ditching brand new DE. Any advice on how best to handle this situation would be much appreciated, I can monitor the pump all day tomorrow but after that it's back to work and leaving the pump to fend for itself...
One thing I considered was removing the DE grid fins from the filter while I am not watching it but that sounds like a lot of work taking the filter apart every 24 hours.
Thanks in advance!!