Filter sand clumping fast anyone experienced this?

[filterflunkyforever761]

I handle pool maintenance for a big apartment complex down in Florida, and we're dealing with a strange issue with our sand filters.

Two of our community pools, both equipped with Triton hi-rate sand filters and Pentair salt chlorine generators, are experiencing some major clumping of the filter sand. It's packed together so tightly that we've had to manually break it apart less than a month after opening.

We've taken care of plenty of pools in the past without this kind of problem, so it's definitely out of the ordinary. Could the salt system or some aspect of the water chemistry be the reason for this quick sand clumping?

Has anyone else encountered this problem or have any ideas about what might be causing it?

 

[ScritchScrch]

Two of our community pools, both equipped with Triton hi-rate sand filters and Pentair salt chlorine generators, are experiencing some major clumping of the filter sand. It's packed together so tightly that we've had to manually break it apart less than a month after opening.

Even in chlorinated pools, if there's a heavy bather load or insufficient backwashing, organics can bind the sand. The salt system might not be getting enough circulation or runtime to fully sanitize the filter bed.
check if your backwashing cycles are long enough and frequent enough. Is the water flow through the filter strong?