DE and vacuum problem

[tbstewart]

I'm a new pool owner and have a two-part question. I recently took apart and cleaned my filter, then reassembled it. I put DE in the skimmers to re-line the filters, but, over the course of a week, I got a pretty good amount of DE through the return jets. When I took the filter apart again to check for tears, everything looked intact and DE was indeed lining the filters. Did I just put in too much?

Secondly, how do I now get rid of the DE in my pool? I tried manually vacuuming, but no matter what I do, I cannot get the hose to fill with water. Needless to say, I'm struggling a bit. Help!