Intake Question

[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

[matt4x4]

I'd be tempted to say that the fur would backwash just like any other crap the filter catches, sure, a few may stay stuck in there, but a bit of the dirt always stays in too, no real reason to change the filter since the fur really doesn't break down into food for algae to use in it's breeding process.