My first post!

I have a large Doughboy above ground pool.

About a month ago we switched from a DE Filter (which was clogging-up all the time) to a Hayward X-Treme paper-cartridge filter. We figured we would save money from constantly recharging the DE. I have run this new filter for the past month and it has not cleaned the pool to an extent that the water is clear and clean. It has a hard time filtering the algae and I am having to take it apart more times than I want to manually clean this cartridge.

Also, there are two rubber plugs on the pump (back by the on/off switch) that were laying next to the pump one day last week. They had blown out. Anybody know why? Did the pump overheat? The manual that came with the pump offers no info on this. I replaced the plugs and it seems to be working normally (running great guns but not cleaning the pool water that is). Any suggestions/comments from the more-seasoned pool people out there would be appreciated. Thanks.