If I looked at the sand in the filter, what should I see?

[aquarium]

To break up the clumps and flush out the sand open the filter to expose the sand and stick a garden hose in it. The sand will loosen up and the water will overflow and carry any dirt and debris.

This is a good idea. Even after having opened the filter three times already, stirred the sand by hand and done several backwashings, when I used a garden hose it stirred up a lot more 'stuff'.

It would have taken too long to let it run clear, so I put the top back on and then immediately backflushed. The water ran cloudy for much longer than it ever has before, so I guess I got most of it. The sand looked 'right' this time, so I think this beast is finally tamed.

Other than fixing this sort of problem, it seems to me that sand could not ever really 'wear out', correct?

[waste]

Aquarium,congrats on getting it taken care of sucessfully!
The sand can wear out, however it takes a long time. Actually slightly dirty, or aged sand, filters better than new, the pathways between the individual grains gets smaller either due to the dirt it's already collected or because the edges get erroded so the sand can 'snuggle up' a little closer to is fellow grains - this allows smaller particles to be trapped. Well cared for sand should last 10 + yrs.

[waterbear]

Actually, I once again have to disagree (and I know what I am about to say is not a popular position here on the forum) When the grains get eroded they round off and lose the sharp edges that collect the dirt. There is less turbulance and breakup of the water paths between the grains and faster water flow, hence less filtering ability. I know Ben does not agree with this since he has said that some new filter sand has rounded grains.
A slighly dirty filter WILL filter better than a clean one....this is the same idea as adding DE powder. It makes the water paths between the grains smaller.
My 2 cents!

[aquarium]

It did cloud the pool a little after this wash. I might not have noticed it earlier, except I'd run the filter 24/7 for three days doing the alkalinity adjustment thing, and the water -was- super clear before I opened the sand filter and used the garden hose on it. No matter, it's already starting to clear again.

Down to 100-110ppm from 230ppm after (now) nearly four days of this. I've just been playing with some PVC fittings to convert one of the eyeball returns to a fountain, ten feet in the air and hit the other side of the pool with the water. LOL, the kids like it.

[waterbear]

Seems like someone didn't like my posts in this thread since I got some negative reputation for it....but my advice seems to have solved Aquariums problem with his sand. No one else seemed to have any advice for him on what to do to fix it. I will gladly take some negative reputation if my advice is useful and solves a problem, even if it is not popular. After all, the purpose of this forum is to help people solve the problems they have with their pools! No one else seemed to be able to step up to the plate and take a swing.

Aquarium, you might want to consider adding a bit of DE to the filter now. It will improve the filtering ability by lodging between the sand grains and allow you to filter much smaller particles. When you back wash the DE will backwash out along with the dirt.