What exactly do phosphates do to pool water? What level is acceptable? What level is too high?
phosphate levels
- Thread starter gjconn
- Start date
Phosphates do nothing. A level of tens of thousands is just fine.
Just ignore phosphates. As long as you maintain an appropriate FC level the phosphate level makes no difference at all.
Phosphates are algae food. But if you don't have any algae then it doesn't make any difference if there is food out or not. Chlorine kills algae with or without the presence of phosphates. You need to maintain the chlorine level for other reasons anyway, so there is little to no point in worrying about phosphates.
Just ignore phosphates. As long as you maintain an appropriate FC level the phosphate level makes no difference at all.
Phosphates are algae food. But if you don't have any algae then it doesn't make any difference if there is food out or not. Chlorine kills algae with or without the presence of phosphates. You need to maintain the chlorine level for other reasons anyway, so there is little to no point in worrying about phosphates.
The for the info. Leslie's tried to sell me a product to keep our phosphate number down after taking in a water sample. We were at 1000 ppm. Our water looks great and chlorine level fine but they wanted us to purchase a phosphate reducer. The for the info. We do not have any algae issues
Be careful with their definition of "fine" for chlorine level. It's probably fair to summarize industry pool maintenance practices as "discount the effect of CYA, maintain a chlorine level that is too low for typical CYA levels, then shock weekly, use algaecide and use phosphate reducers to make up for the too-low chlorine levels".
Maintaining an appropriate chlorine level for your CYA level to control both bacteria and algae (and avoiding products that drive your CYA too high) seems a lot easier.
Maintaining an appropriate chlorine level for your CYA level to control both bacteria and algae (and avoiding products that drive your CYA too high) seems a lot easier.
Leslie's really pushes the Phos-Free product. I had high phosphate numbers as well and the sales guy couldn't believe my water was crystal clear.
I recently went into Leslie's for the first time to get a part for my Polaris, and again a week later to pick up some thing else. Just for grins and giggles I took water too for the free testing. First time I was told my phosphates were over 1000, the second time I was told they were 250. A week between tests and no changes in my water with known results from home testing. Each time they tried to get me to buy a $50 bottle of phosphate killer expressing how scary bad phosphates were and I was encouraging algae.
Hmmmmm..... never once have I had an algae outbreak. I guess I'll just live dangerously and laugh at their testing and sales tactics. :joker:
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