Am I choosing a good combination? pump & filter size

[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.

[Anonymous [GDPR] European in the UK]

Well Done Leena for getting your pump and filter sorted, sorry not been around but my IP address frequently gets blocked by the administrator so I can't view the forum.

Carl your post doesn't make sense to me. Why turn to waste or is it rinse? before backwashing?
Waste setting bypasses the filter inside the multiport so just flushes water away (ok when vacuuming gunk directly out to waste)
Rinse puts the water through the filter in the correct direction, but pushes the water to waste rather than back into the pool as it could carry dirt but is used to re settle the filter bed after backwashing and before setting the valve to filter once more.

Domestic filters backwash quite badly so often take several minutes to clear the dirt from the filter, best to use a white piece of card behind the sight glass on the valve to actually see how dirty the water is but it can take a minute or two to expand the filter bed to a point where it starts to release the dirt properly.

Leena just over halfway is all the sand you need as the space above is to allow the sand be to expand during backwash without washing filter sand away as well.

[CarlD]

That's embarrassing! I've been doing it wrong for years! I think it's because you cannot SEE the multi-port valve labels where it's under the deck.

Now here's the thing: From my experience, of virtually ALWAYS having gem-like sparkling clear water that is very stable as long as I follow my own rules of regular testing and minor adjusting, it seems it doesn't matter as much as you'd guess whether you use "Rinse" or "Waste". I ALWAYS backwash until my sight-glass runs clear for at least 30 seconds. The sight glass always runs clear for 30 seconds on backwash before it goes cloudy, and you certainly don't need a white card to see it. But there's no sun glare on the glass to confuse me.

[leena]

Thanks. I so did not know you are suppose to turn the power off when switching between rinse and backwash! Also I hif rinse resettles the sand bed then I should do it after backwash. I was doing it before. Ok going to do it now. I'm hoping this is the problem, maybe I just haven't properly cleaned that dead algae out.

[FormerBromineUser]

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Thank you Teapot, for phrasing your response so well. I couldn't figure out how to do it. I was a bit confused and was attributing Carl's post to exhaustion or... maybe the Guinness! Hahaha

Carl, I am still wondering what the answer is to this question:

Why turn to (anything) before backwashing?

You probably have some good reasoning and I'm curious!

[leena]

ok, Im crazy because I WAS turning the power off when switching between rinse, backwash & filter. I was just doing it without thinkin I guess so didnt even realize it. THis time I went to backwash first, ran for about 80sec on high. You were right the water got dirty after 30sec, then sand come out for 30 sec, then it went back to clear. Then I did rinse for 30 or 40 sec, then back to filter. I left the filter on low, gonna check it after 6 hrs and see if thats the end of the "clogging" problem. Its showing around 5lbs of pressure, but I never remembered to look at the pressure when it would act clogged, so no idea if it was rising or not.
I was not rinsing after backwashing, nor backwashing long enough, so hopefully that was the problem: I had never cleaned all that dead algae out and wasnt resettling the sand properly. We wil see..... hopefully thats all it was......So ready to be done with filtering/pump problems after 2 yrs of misery!
Next I need to find that leak, we keep wastin so much water because now that the rains have stopped, we have to keep adding water every few days to keep it above the skimmer and return. SO many times I forget the water hose is on or it flips out of pool and runs on ground for a while before I remember I left it on! Yikes, I hate waste! When I start concentrating on the leak, should I start another thread?