Please help me pick a new DE Filter

[CarlD]

I'm stunned that a 325# sand filter is too small for a 1hp pump and 18k pool!

I suspect you are going at it all wrong because that filter should EASILY be more than adequate, even oversized. I run a 1hp (full-rated) pump with a 200# sand filter and 19,000-20,000 gallons with no problems at all. I have a two speed and full speed isn't a problem.

So...it could be a damaged or defective filter, multivalve, or pump. Or the whole thing isn't plumbed correctly. But there's no way a 325# filter should be too small for any 1hp pump. So I'm thinking you are looking in the wrong place for your solution.

[TheGoose]

OK, here's what I have done since yesterday. I was gone until late last night. I stopped by Wal-Mart (at 4 am!) and bought 13 174 oz jugs of Great Value bleach.

When I got home I added 10. I wanted to super-chlorinate the pool, and I did. According to my calculations, this would put me at ~50 ppm FC from my level of 5.

Today, the water looks much, much better. Apparently, even though I *thought* I had shocked it enough, maybe I didn't. I'm not gonna yet say that it's clear, but it's better. More importantly, there was a lot of "junk" on the bottom that I vac'd to waste. I assume that the shock levels precipitated something out.

Also, I checked the spider gasket. Everything appears to be normal there.

On a side note, I went by the pool store to pick up filter sand (what a rip!- $15/bag). I picked up 3 bags of sand to top off the filter. Pentair spec's say that the level should be 10" from the top so that's what I'm gonna do. For giggles, I let them test my pool water. I looked at their tester, but I forgot the name. Basically it takes a single cell of pool water for each chemical. Most of their results were somewhat close to mine, with the exception of CYA. They showed 10, I measured 40 yesterday. I told her about my persistent cloudy water and her answer was basically that I may have to live with it because there were a lot of people with cloudy water this year! She did try to sell me this and that but I always have my Std. answer: I already have it. And I let them think I bought it from them.

[TheGoose]

Oh, and BTW, I tried to test for FC and CC but stopped at 30+ ppm. I really wanted to know what my CC was, but I'm almost out of reagent, as you can imagine after 60 drops.

Is there a way to test the FC using 1 drop = 1 ppm? Maybe have 5 ml of water instead of 10?