Centrifugal Pump Suction Starving

Recently we commissioned a injection pump (centrifugal pump of 1167 USGPM capacity with 686m TDH).This pump is in series with the booster pump of 100 psig discharge pressure. Both the pumps are having strainers in the suction side. The injection pump strainer is having approx.500% area of inlet pipe size i.e 8".The injection pump is facing high suction pressure drop and suction starving with the strainer filter element installed condition. then we removed the strainer filter element, as a temporary solution, and now the pump is running smooth.

Kindly advise the following,

We want to re-size the filter element and put it back in the system.

Is it advisable to run this pump without filter element (the booster pump is provided with a strainer)

Regards,

Kolappan