Intake Question

[Sumo1]

"I changed my sand like I normally do..." I have to ask, why do you normally change your sand? I don't have experience with a sand filter but the consensus I've seen is that sand gets better as it ages, like a good homebrew. Were there problems that led you to change it? I'm just trying to learn all I can.
Hal

[tenax]

over time, the sand can clump and harden..if it's hard, it can't filter. and when i took out my sand it had all kinds of guck in it..almost like cob webby vegetation material from filtering...now, there are a few people here anyway who remove their sand and actually clean it every once in awhile. my sand was at least 5 years old when i replaced and had a bit of clumping..and i had never taken it out..it may well have been in longer...there's a chemical cleaner you can put into your sand to supposedly "condition it' and clean it up. i ended up getting away from sand and going to zeobrite..better filtering than sand..supposedly will clean out better than sand when flushing the filter. i did find that my backwashing didn't seem to have as long term effect without needing a reflushing as it had 5 years before.that and an upgrade to most of my pool equipment prompted me to replace the sand.

[CarlD]

Since I am five years without changing my sand and it's fine I suspect the clumping and green strings are the result of poor maintenance in the past. Sorry, but that's my read. I also add bleach through the skimmer so it hits the sand first always and at high concentration.

If I did find such stuff in my filter, I'd probably pour in straight bleach to kill it and let it sit. But that's a W.A.G.

The only reasons I know to change sand are after a Bacquacil conversion or you need to do maintenance on the laterals. Otherwise it does just get better with age.

[matt4x4]

Most likely your problem of "fly-by debris" is related to where your eyeball is pointed. You've currently got it set to point away from the skimmer (most likely) this causes the pool to circulate faster which causes the "fly-by's", try pointing the eyeball down some, it'll slow the circular motion, stir up crud depositing on the bottom and mix it nicely with the bleach to help kill it off, it'll also push the debris back towards your skimmer by "bouncing" it off the oposing wall, directing it back to the skimmer.

[Atomic]

Thanks for all the replies guys.

As for why I change my sand every year. I have 2 dogs that swim all summer. Fur is always making an appearance in the filter/basket. So I change it every year.

As for the other question I am going to hold off on answering until I replace a part and see if it fixes the issue. I took my pump apart last night to make sure it was clear. After putting all of this back together with the same results, I noticed something. The cap on my pump is the clear plastic type. It has cracks in it! This is caused from the sun and I think most were replaced with an abs cap. So when I look at the water coming in through the cap, I see air in there which is not providing adequate suction. I noticed debris sits in the basket, swirls a bit and sometimes gets spit back out into the pool. So I will replace it tonight and see what happens.

Thanks for the replies and I will keep you posted.

[Poconos]

The fur and stuff should still be no reason to change sand. Sounds like a lot of annual, unnecessary work. My sand is on the 10th season and is the original. I do remove the valve assembly each Fall and look at the sand and have never seen anything unusual that would make me consider replacing it. Even removed the sand one time to do some work on the bottom end and just put it back. If you really feel you must then I'd consider just removing the top few inches and replacing just that much.
Al

[JShilling]

Try using skimmer socks to catch the dog fur - works great for me