Will Phosphates affect SWG? Aquacal tech said so!!

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W

wbrady

0
May 15, 2007
22
Maryland
Last summer I ran the autopilot on level 2 at 50% output and no problem maintaining 3.0 – 4.0 chlorine. I am now at level 3 at 80% out put and have trouble maintaining 1.0 – 2.0 of chlorine. I cleaned the cell a week ago, it did have some deposits on it, but the output has not changed.
Talked to a tech person from Aquacal today who said it must be a water chemistry issue or the autopilot would give me a error message. He stated that maybe my high levels of phosphates was using up the chlorine. The owners manual does not list phosphates in the water chemistry section. Is it possible that the phosphates are to blame for the lower output of my SWG.

Here are my number from yesterday

FC 1.5
CC 0.0
TA 90
pH 7.6
CH 240
CYA 65
Salt 3100
Phosphates >4000
 
The only way is if there is a nascent algae bloom consuming the FC. My own pool has orthophosphates in excess of 3000 ppb and I have no problem maintaining my FC with my Aqualogic. Before you invest in phosphate removers (which are a real pain to use) I would suggest adding borates to 50 ppm for the algaestaic properties. Also, try shocking the pool with liquid chlorine or bleach and see if that helps. SWGs are very good at maintaining FC but they have problems if there is a chlorine demand from such things as nascent algae.
 
I am not sure nascent algae is? I have no visible signs of alge, the pool is clear and the water looks great. Is all alge visible? I will shock tonight and see what happens. I have shocked a few times this summer and have not seen improvement in the SWG output.
Thanks for the response
 
Nascent algae is algae that is not yet visible, but is growing and consuming chlorine. Free-floating algae doesn't become visible until there is enough of it to clump into groups that diffract or reflect the light. If your SWG is just barely able to keep up with algae growth, then it can remain invisible but will use up chlorine. In your current situation, I would bet that your FC will continue to drop and eventually you'll start to see the water turn dull, then cloudy and eventually green.

Shocking the pool at a higher chlorine level gets ahead of this growth. Once you've killed most of the algae through a shock level of chlorine, then the SWG can keep the algae from growing at its more normal levels. You shock the pool using chlorinating liquid or unscented bleach; an SWG won't be able to shock a pool effectively. The FC level recommended for SWGs on this forum is close to the edge -- there's not a lot of safety factor built into it. So if there is extra chlorine demand for whatever reason and the FC level drops, then the algae growth can take hold.

Richard
 
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