Phosphate Challenge

[jmcnyc]

I have my water tested at a reliable pool store. They have a great reputation and I trust their results. When I opened the pool a month ago I had them test the water. They found high nitrates, which I corrected by draining. They also found high phosphates. I have gone through three bottles of Phos Free and the phosphate level does not seem to decrease. The recent advice was to change the sand in the filter, which was somewhere between 7 and 10 years old. I did this yesterday.
The problem I am seeing is that when using Phos Free the filter should get filled with the phosphates and this will increase the pressure gauge. My pressure gauge typically holds steady at 12 and even with the Phos Free it does not increase after running for 48 hours. Any advice here? Is my filter just not cutting it? Any other approach to getting rid of phosphates?

 

[Richard320]

Maybe you don't have phosphates to combine and precipitate out? How does that pool store's other tests align with your testing?

And if you maintain adequate FC for your CYA, your phosphate level won't matter. I haven't had mine checked in ten years. No idea what it is.

 

[Donldson]

So the reliable pool store with a good reputation has made money off of selling you things that provided no results?

Sounds like every other pool store I ever hear about. If you are adding phosphate remover and getting no cloudiness, then you don't have phosphates. A fresh fill from a municipal source will have some phosphates (which are added to prevent corrosion of the pipes) but maybe a couple hundred. Absolutely not the more than 2100 ppb three bottles would have removed. Their testing is wrong. They should have recognized the circumstances and concluded that their testing was off. That is, if they were proficient enough in water chemistry and/or had your best interest in mind.

Of course, phosphate removal is entirely optional and not usually needed. Nitrates also not an issue. And then there's the fact phosfree is highly diluted and heavily marked up while much more concentrated and cost efficient blends are what the professionals use. It's one of their more blatant rip offs.

 

[tim5055]

If you feel you must use a remover, the one you are using is a pool store watered down cheap version.
You want SeaKlear or Orenda.

But, I agree with Richard. I have never tested for them. Phosphates are generally a made up problem that allows he pool store extra sales.

 

[JJ_Tex]

So the basic premise here is to test your own water and avoid pool stores like the plague.

I'm not sure the definition of a "reliable pool store", but what you are are talking about is what they do. Test, find a problem, try this... oh that didnt work, try that, etc. Each thing you try is money in their pockets.

By the way, your sand is hundreds of thousands of years old. Unless you used a floculant, the sand was not changed in the short amount of time it spent in your filter.

 

[Texas Splash]

jm, I knew right away from the title of this thread you would see quick replies. You've been with us since 2011, so I suspect you know how we feel about pool store testing, advice, and their over-priced products. It's tough for us to see pool owners spend money and get wacky advice from local pool stores. Just the protective TFP nature in us.

 

[Palpatine]

When I first took over my pool about a year ago, before I knew about TFP, I went to my local "Trusted Pool Store" as well to try and learn the basics of how to care for my own pool. It was either that or hire a pool man and figured I'd try it myself first.

First thing they did was test my water and... wait for it... they found Phosphates in my water. They're not dumb people there, it wasn't a Leslie's it was a mom and pop husband and wife team, so I'm pretty sure that the other numbers were accurate (before I had my own test kit anyways) and they did give me good advice about where to keep my numbers... but they did pull their Hocus Pocus on me.

I had to hire their guy to come and clean my DE Filter for $75, or $100 for him to "teach" me how to do it myself. Not terrible.. other than he didn't even pull the manifold or the grids out he just hosed everything down and put it back together. But now I could clean my own filter after I used the phosphate treatment they sold me.. killed all the phosphates... and could now flush them out of my filter myself. Oh, and now I need to buy some DE from them and whatever other magic they sold me at the time.

Bottom line... if I would have just found this forum first and followed the expert advice, I would have saved a couple/few hundred bucks and done it the correct way from the start.