Air manual relief valve on DE Filter

I'm running a Hayward Pro Grid DE filter with a Hayward Northstar .5hp pump - absolutely love it and no problems until now:

Problem is that my filter has a manual air relief valve on top of it -when I start the system back up after backwashing I usually open it part way and leave it open until I have a steady stream of water coming out of it- no air, it usually just takes a little bit and then I close it and my pressure comes back up to normal. For some stupid reason I had a lot of debris clogging it - bugs, dirt, ... and I can't completely get the air out of the system. I even completely took the screw out and let the water come out full force but the air keeps sputtering out. I don't think there's any more debris, but can't get all the air out of the lines. My water flow is low - but it's still like an inch over the bottom of the skimmer so it's getting water. Debris baskets are clean. Any suggestions?? I need to keep my filter/pump running as I'm in the process of shocking. Last time I backwashed it kinda did the same thing for just a little while - but I've been messing around with this for almost 2 hours. Any suggestions??????????

Donya,
I don't have a filter with one of those external air bleeds on it. That said....I don't see how air in the filter should affect system flow. You'll get air out if the returns but that would eventually stop. What is your pressure? High pressure, low flow would indicate a pressure side blockage. Low pressure and low flow a suction side block or air getting sucked in. You said there is only 1" in the skimmer. Is it possible you're getting a vortex in the skimmer? Flowing water swirling around and letting the skimmer momentarily suck air. This can be a cyclic process. Flow increases, vortex forms, air gets sucked, flow drops, vortex disappears, flow goes up, and the cycle keeps repeating.
Best I can do for now.
Al

Thanks Al, you hit it right on the nose. I added water to the pool and it quit. I was trying to put off adding water since we have iron in our well water and I'm overshocking my pool at the moment. I'm fighting something as I can't get rid of my cc. For 3 days I've had my chlorine between 27 and 29 trying to break it; finally today I seen a 6 pound increase in my pressure guage on my filter, which finally means I'm starting to filter something out. I thought I had enough water in my pool to go ahead and backwash it to have a clean filter to finish filtering it out, but I guess it left it too low. I filled through the skimmer so hopefully my de filter took care of the iron in my fill water. Then, like a slap in the face... it started raining, go figure! I didn't have to fill too much so hopefully all will be fine. Thank you very much for the advice!!! The forum and some of you on it have been life savers for me and my pool! Thanks again!

I assume you mean the vortex thing. With lower water levels sometimes people put large objects in the skimmer like rocks or I guess tennis balls would work. Anything to break up the flow and prevent a vortex from forming.
Al