Well I sucked all the sand out today. A local pool guy suggested I wrap teflon tape around the stand pipe to make a seal, since we looked in the book and there really is no o-ring for this TA60D filter.

The lateral pipes in the bottom all look OK. I am considering replacing the sand with some new stuff called Zeobrite, which is supposed to have much better filtering properties than plain sand.

Regarding other options, a friend has a DE filter that he is very happy with. He cleans it every 2-3 weeks, which consists if backwashing and then recharging with new DE through the skimmer. The units cost twice as much as sand filters, but they trap 3-micron particles as opposed to 50-microns for sand.

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1985 380SE Blue/Blue - 230,000 miles
2012 Subaru Forester 5-speed
2005 Toyota Sienna
2004 Chrysler Sebring convertible
1999 Toyota Tacoma