Return of the Phosphates

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J

Jim H

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May 12, 2015
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Monroe/NJ
Yes, yes, I know. There's plenty on here already about phosphates and I'm pretty sure I know the answer to this but I needed to ask anyway:

This was my first year with a pool and a very well-meaning friend of mine who has had a pool for much longer told me to learn from his mistake and be sure to check phosphate levels.
He states that a few years ago 'pock marks' (small holes) starting appearing in his concrete and after months of pool stores not knowing the answer, they finally realized his phosphate levels were too high and once he lowered them he stopped getting new pock marks but the damage is already done with the old ones.

There are several things that don't make sense to me about this - least of all how high phosphates can eat away concrete but I thought I'd throw it out there just in case I missed something in my research.
I of course immediately told him to start testing his water himself, not to rely on pool stores 'knowledge', and referred him to this website!
 
Can't really speculate on heresay. Folks around here have high phosphates all the time with little or no real effect to their pool water. Unless there's a definitive description of what those pock marks are, they could be anything from algae spots to calcium nodules. I sincerely doubt phosphates had anything to do with it except as a way for the pool store to sell your friend a very expensive bottle of chemicals.

Phosphates are algae food and that's about it. If you lower your phosphate levels to close to 0, then you make your water a little less hospitable to algae growth. The only thing that truly stops algae is chlorine so lowering phosphates is, at best, secondary insurance.

Hopefully your friend took your advice and came here. That way he'll never be sold another bottle of expensive chemicals he does not need.

I wonder how many expensive bottles of "this'll fix'it this time!" chemicals he was sold before they "magically" realized his phosphates were too high???


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Just so we don't get side-tracked, your friend is misinformed. Phosphates causing a "pock mark" in your pool surface simply is not a problem that has never been talked about on this forum in almost a million posts.

As JYN states, focus on the chlorine content of your pool which is maybe 90+ percent of pool water problems.
 
Phosphates are not related to any pock marks in concrete. High sulfate levels can damage concrete, a low CSI especially at lower pH can damage concrete, a high CSI can cause scale. Phosphates are not used to protect concrete. They are used in some water distribution systems to help prevent corrosion in metal pipes in alkaline water (see this link).
 
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