Too much DE in pool

[SL Dan]

Well, it's done. The pool is fine. I don't know what happened. I mean, I know what we did, but don't know why it didn't work before.

With my neighbor, who also has a pool, as witness, I opened the filter, and removed the grids. We looked over everything. He saw and verified that the manifold was properly seated. Then I cleaned the grids and had him inspect them, and he verified that they were fine. I reseated the manifold, reassembled the filter, and off we went.

The only difference was that he was meticulous about bleeding all of the air out of the system, which I wasn't, but have never been, yet the filter didn't stop filtering until 2 months ago. And even so, there's a big bubbling every time the filter starts up, as air gets into the water for a little bit.

He also insisted that I put the full amount of DE in, seven pounds worth. I usually go a bit less, and it's never been an issue. Whatever did it, it worked. I'll be damned if I know what happened. Guess he has good pool mojo, though he's often struggling with it, too.

His theory is the manifold rising up and sucking back down, but I don't think so.

I also think I see a tiny bit of DE in the pool at night, but can't be sure.

[PoolDoc]

Every single person I know who has done service work -- pools, computers, cars, small engines, etc -- has had the experience of taking something broken apart, finding nothing wrong, putting it back together, and having it work fine.

Every single one.

(And yes, it's happened to me, many times.)

[SL Dan]

Right, same in electronics. I use a lot of them, have no idea how to fix them, but know how to disassemble and reassemble them. It usually works.

It would have been nice to learn something, but oh well.

Many thanks to you both for participating in my thought process.

[PoolDoc]

. . . must be a matter of exorcising the glitch demons, with cold iron OR hand-warmed chrome-vanadium tool steel!

[SL Dan]

. . . must be a matter of exorcising the glitch demons, with cold iron OR hand-warmed chrome-vanadium tool steel!

!!!!!

Even with pools. Sheesh!

[BuzWms]

Let's try this again.

Reopening an old wound.

August 2018 I had a new FNS Plus filter installed by a professional. Evetything ran great for a few months. Then I back washed and I suddenly lost pressure. When I added DE, it immediately came out the returns. Cold weather was coming, so I let it slide.

Trying to clean up the pool for summer, I opened the filter and saw the manifold was cracked really bad. That explains the pressure loss. I replaced the manifold and put it back together. Pressure shot up to 35 psi (should be about 10). I added DE and out it comes from the returns. A few minutes later my Kreepy Krauly stopped working.

Any thoughts or suggestions? I assumed once I fixed the filter, I'd run the system for 48 hours with a couple backwashes and it'd be clear again. So much for assumptions.

Right now the water is vivid green with algae slush and DE all over the bottom and steps. The wife is not happy (believe it or not!!)

160,000 gallon concrete pool
FNS Plus DE filter

[BuzWms]

16,000 gallon pool, not 160,000. (couldn't figure out how to edit the original message)

[JimK]

Just a wild guess, but with a green pool I’d expect a DE filter to clog real fast. Maybe it clogged and a grid ruptured from the high pressure?

[Pappy]

You are very welcome! Good luck and enjoy the pool!