DE all over the floor

[havokczl]

I have a Triton Purex FNS Plus, 36sq ft filter. I just replaced all the grids, because my previous ones were all broken. They're no more than 2 weeks old. I had DE on my pool floor, and tried to vacuum it up, and get my floor clean thinking it would remedy the DE on the floor causing it to stick to my new filter grids. Not the case, it appeared to have done "somewhat" of a job of cleaning it up , but not entirely. I did one backwash, and didn't vacuum after that. Some days have passed since then. My pressure right now has been approx 22psi for the past few days. Now here's the frustrating part where I have DE all over my floor. I made the mistake of making a slurry, thinking I didn't have enough in my filter since the BW, and to my agony it blew it right out into the pool. I've done one vacuum job, yesterday(Monday) but it was futile. Now mind you, I did NOT add a fresh batch of DE to the new grids...I just vacuumed what was on my pool floor. Was my pressure too high, that it just blew it out? Should I do another BW? I'm hope to high heaven my new grids are hanging tough. Any help out there, please??

[Denali]

I have a Triton Purex FNS Plus, 36sq ft filter. I just replaced all the grids, because my previous ones were all broken. They're no more than 2 weeks old. I had DE on my pool floor, and tried to vacuum it up, and get my floor clean thinking it would remedy the DE on the floor causing it to stick to my new filter grids. Not the case, it appeared to have done "somewhat" of a job of cleaning it up , but not entirely. I did one backwash, and didn't vacuum after that. Some days have passed since then. My pressure right now has been approx 22psi for the past few days. Now here's the frustrating part where I have DE all over my floor. I made the mistake of making a slurry, thinking I didn't have enough in my filter since the BW, and to my agony it blew it right out into the pool. I've done one vacuum job, yesterday(Monday) but it was futile. Now mind you, I did NOT add a fresh batch of DE to the new grids...I just vacuumed what was on my pool floor. Was my pressure too high, that it just blew it out? Should I do another BW? I'm hope to high heaven my new grids are hanging tough. Any help out there, please??

Hi,

With new grids in there I'd check out the manifold for cracks and also check to make sure the grids are all the way into the manifold. Another place to check is the internal air relief on the manifold if there is one. You just want to look for any place the DE can get through back into the pool.

The pressure isn't going to blow it one through.

One other place to check is the multiport valve, if you have one. If the spider gasket is damaged sometimes DE will bypass the filter and go right back into the pool.

Hope this helps.

[havokczl]

Thanks for suggestions. I read last night about the backwash valve/plunger could also be a culprit. I took it out, and sure enough there was a nice chip out of it on the pool return portion, and O-rings worse for wear. So, after $94US later & a new BW plunger installed. I began to vacuum yet AGAIN!....
too no avail it seems I'm looking out at the bottom after close to 2 hours of work on it, and I see DE.
My last resort (at present) would be to silicone seal what I thought was a very minute crack in my upper manifold of the filter. Didn't reckon it would have a significance, but then again it seems that DE can find the path & it'll fit through. Talk about frustrating.

[Denali]

Thanks for suggestions. I read last night about the backwash valve/plunger could also be a culprit. I took it out, and sure enough there was a nice chip out of it on the pool return portion, and O-rings worse for wear. So, after $94US later & a new BW plunger installed. I began to vacuum yet AGAIN!....
too no avail it seems I'm looking out at the bottom after close to 2 hours of work on it, and I see DE.
My last resort (at present) would be to silicone seal what I thought was a very minute crack in my upper manifold of the filter. Didn't reckon it would have a significance, but then again it seems that DE can find the path & it'll fit through. Talk about frustrating.

Are you seeing DE come back into the pool as you vacuum? I would lube the BW valve so it slides smoothly. If it's tough to move up and down it might not be sitting all the way down.

A crack in the manifold can do it but normally you'll be able to tell if anything is going through it.

When you vacuum up DE, go very slowly otherwise some of it will go into suspension and then settle back to the bottom.

Good luck with it.

[havokczl]

SUCCESS!!!!!!!! Sure enough, I crack open the canister, to pull out the filter. Grids were fine, but the manifold crack increased, and stuff was just shooting through it. It was too big to just to try to seal it, my pool store fortunately had 1 left in stock. I put it all back together, Vacuumed once....looked like it was going good. 6 hours later, I backwashed, Added DE slurry, Vacuumed a bit more. My water quality was looking much better by this time, it was so looking promising. I let my pump run for 9 hours by this time. Let it run thru the night, and by morning.....my water was the absolutely sparkling. I was beyond ecstatic. I was giddy all day yesterday when I would look at it. I did one more backwash, added another DE slurry since, in between there were minor deposits, but I vacuumed those up, and now no more DE on my floor. I'm writing this in the event that someone else is in the same predicament. Seems that the 3 main sources of DE on the floor would be:
1)Defective filter grids
2)Defective backwash valve/plunger
3)Defective filter manifold

[Denali]

Glad to hear you got it solved. Now get in there and enjoy the pool!

[Guest]

Thanks for the comments. I'm having the same problem so I checked out my manifo,ld and sure enough it is cracked...and so is the breather tube.

Should be an easy fix if I can find the parts.