What did I do wrong???

[elmorage]

Thanks everyone for your help, it is really valuable as I learn my way around our new pool equipment. Today I clearly did something wrong but have no idea what...

We had 2 big storms this weekend and my water level rose above the skimmer so there were a bunch of floaters on the pool. I thought I knew how to lower the water as the pool builder instructed me:

Turn off the pump.
Rotate the multivalve to waste.
Start the pump and blow water into the drain in my yard.
This went well and accomplished the task then things went wrong.

At this point I shut the pump again and disconnected the waste hose, turned the multivalve back to filter, and turned the pump back on and filthy brown cloudy water came shooting out of all 3 returns. I assume it was dirty de from inside the filter, and a bunch of it went into my crystal clear pool before I noticed it and turned the pump off.

I ended up backwashing the filter completely, running a rinse cycle, and adding fresh DE but I didn't want to go through all that and now I have a huge mess to clean up tomorrow. What did I do wrong in the waste process?

 

[jblizzle]

What you described is exactly what you should have done, but there is no way that the dirty water should have been able to get into your pool. Waste should have completely bypassed the filter.

I am wondering if your multi-port valve is not put together correctly. Can you post up a couple pictures?
There is a little flat tab next to one of the screws, make sure those tabs on the upper and lower half of the valve are aligned with each other.

 

[elmorage]

Too dark for pics but I think I saw what you described. Most of the screws look like points of a star but the one in the right side has a flat edge the others don't have and the top and bottom are lined up.

Thinking about it now there was something else I did, maybe this was wrong. I noticed a bunch of bugs and stuff in the pump strainer basket and removed the lid so I could take it out and give it a rinse. The water level looked normal when I put it back so I just turned the pump back on, did I leave out a step?

 

[jblizzle]

I can't think of anything. There should be no way for a lot of DE to get past the grids and into the pool.