Am I choosing a good combination? pump & filter size

[leena]

ok the pump has been running for a couple of hrs. BOy is it quiet compared to the old one! Going to leave it on low all night and see how the water looks in morn. I did vacuum to waste (it vacuumed on low!) but the water is hazy since I scrubbed all that green residue from walls. Oh I had another question. We put 300lbs of sand in the filter but my husband said it was between 1/2 and 3/4 full. Is that normal? our 2 old sand filters (200lb) were more than 3/4 of the way filled up......

[FormerBromineUser]

Outta my league to answer that one. My sand filter is about 3/4. However if it's working.....

Let's see if someone with equipment expertise chimes in.

[leena]

after 24 hrs with the new pump and filter, it drastically improved the clarity of my water. Before I always had to add floc and let the remaining dead algae particles settle then vacuum to waste. Id repeat the letting it settle and vacuum constantly to keep my water clear. I only added floc once a yr. It seemed to stay in the water bc even the small particles would sink to the bottom for several weeks after using the floc.
However, this time I just wanted to see if the new filter and pump would do anything. So I didn't add the floc. I killed the algae then vacuumed to waste twice. However the water was still very hazy from the tiny dead algae particles that were floating around and wouldn't settle to the bottom. So I hooked up the new filter and pump and after 24 hrs, big difference, after 3 days.. clear water. That was running it on low. Running on low, the heavy stuff still sank to the bottom so I stirred it up but it didn't seem to filter it out bc the water flow was so gentle. The big stuff just sank back to bottom. So I stirred it up again and ran filter on high for 24 hrs. This did get more of the big stuff out, you could def see the water moving around the pool, but some still settled to the bottom. My electric co shows electrical use every 24 hrs so I could see that runnin it on high did increase my energy use more.
SO I think I will run on low for 3 hrs ea day or every other day, vacuum to waste anything that settles to bottom. This is the first time I'd gotten clear water after an algae outbreak without having to add something to make the tiny particles settle to bottom, so I know that a properly sized pump and sand filter DOES actually filter stuff out. My old setup (1.5hp single speed with 200lb sand filter)didn't appear to filter out anything, not even bugs much less small dead algae particles.
Still not sure about the sand though...........................it is working................so will leave it for now until I find more info on how much sand to put in the filter...........

[leena]

WEll its been a few weeks now and I have the clearest water I've had in 2 yrs. I run it on low for a few hrs a day, sometimes I skip 2 or 3 days, then let it run all day. Ive only let it run overnight once or twice and Ive discovered a problem. After it runs on low for a long time ( i notice it after 8 to 10 hrs), it acts like it is "clogged". I discover this when I notice there appears to be no water movement in pool. Sure enough when I put my hand over the return hardly any water is coming out. I turn off the pump, turn it to rinse, run for a few seconds, then backwash for a few seconds and when I turn it back to filter, everything is back to normal. This only seems to happen when I leave it on for over 6 hrs or more. What is happening?
If my pool were filthy this would make sense but its relatively clean and with a 300lb filter it shouldnt need to be backwashed every day. Its not real dirty looking when I backwash so surely the sand isnt clogged with dirt. Something isnt right but I dont understand enough about sand filters to even begin to guess.
I did have all that dead algae in the beginning but shouldnt all that have flushed out after a couple of rinses and backwashes?
We put in 6-50lb bags of pool filter sand but the filter was only maybe a little over half full. COuld this have anything to do with it?
Or is it the fact that Im running it on low and its a 300lb filter? Maybe even a little bit of dirt clogs the sand enough that the pump cant push the water thru?

[CarlD]

No, it shouldn't be that the filter is too big for the pump. Something else is going on. Usually new sand doesn't filter quite as well as old sand so that's probably not the problem. And the dead algae SHOULD be gone.

When you back wash, is the back wash water cloudy in the site glass? Or clear?

Why not put the pump on a timer and run it for 2 hours 2 or 3 times a day and see if that does away with the problem? It would be a work-around.

I must admit I'm thinking something ELSE is going on, either in the multi-valve or in the filter's laterals.

[leena]

Bc of my leak that I can't find, I'm always struggling with losing/adding water. So it makes me cringe when I backwash and watch all the water pouring out. This makes me wonder if maybe I haven't rinsed all that dead algae out bc I only run it on rinse and backwash for seconds, not minutes. But the water in site glass is not dirty so didn't see any point in wasting my water. However, maybe I should rinse and backwash real good once to thoroughly clean filter? What is the "proper" way to do it? Turn hand to left until it says rinse, run 1full min, turn handle even farther left to backwash, run another full min, then turn handle back to the right until back in the filter position?

[CarlD]

Well, you are on the right track:
First, you turn it to waste (rinse?) for about 30 seconds. Then to backwash. After you turn it to backwash, the sight glass will be clear at first, then go cloudy, and finally go clear again.
At that point you turn it to waste again for another 30 seconds and you're done.

Always run waste and backwash on high speed. Turn OFF the pump's power between switching between settings.