Sand in bottom of pool from sand filter

Last year I had sand in the bottom of the pool, so the end of last season, I dumped all the sand and inspected the laterals. They all looked good. The actual trunk (Astral-Pool calls it the "filter collector") that the laterals screw into did have a space in it and that could have been the problem. I replaced that piece but not the laterals because I did inspect them thoroughly twice and they were ok. So now once again I have sand in the bottom of the pool. Pretty sure it's filter sand and not dirt/sand blowing in from the yard. Could anything else in the filter allow sand into the pool? Could new sand have some dust, very small sand particles that have to work their way out?

When I put the sand back in the filter I made sure that none went into that trunk piece, I put a plastic bag over it with an elastic around it.

Hi, Nicole,

It sure sounds like you've been pretty thorough. Did you fix the problem last year?

Perhaps you could put something like a nylon hose over the return to capture some of it and make sure you're getting it from the returns.

I have heard of pumps being too powerful for the filter and actually forcing the sand thru the filter. I have never experienced that and it seems like your's was working at one time with that pump so that shouldn't be the issue.

To my knowledge, filter sand is pre-washed to get all the dust and really fine particles out before you put it in your filter.

As you can tell, I'm not much help...others will have more experience than me. Be sure to post back when it's cured......I'd really like to understand the cause.

I put the panty hose on the return last night and left it on for 2 cycles. There really wasn't much at all in the panty hose so at least I fixed my sand problem from last year. Either the filter is letting fine dust through or it's just from the lawn.

Hi, Nicole,

I wouldn't be surprised if it's not from the lawn. It sounds like your filter is doing a good job. Thanks for posting back to let us know what you found.:)