Water seems balanced but Phosphates through the roof and can’t clear water.

[Joec1882]

As the title says I have phosphates pushing 4000 ppb in my 24’ above ground pool. I am fairly new as this is my third season. At first the folks told me to raise my chlorine to clear it which I did. 5 gallons almost 2 weeks ago. Then they had me add a non chlorine shock which didn’t work. I had it tested earlier this week and my water seems to be decent. Chlorine free & total at 16 ppm combined is 0. pH is 7.3. Alk 115, adjusted is 98. Calcium 231 ppm. Cyanuric 57 ppm. Iron 0 copper 1 ppm. Than phosphate at 4000. A day and a half ago they had me add a full bottle of Phos Free. That has done nothing. Can barely see the bottom at this point. No green. And no algae. The walls feel as they should and I’ve had the pump running 24/7 for a week now. I have a cartridge filter which I rinsed every other day leading up to the Phos Free. Before adding that bottle I took about 35 min cleaning it inside each pleat as best I could.

I know this forum has mixed thoughts on phosphates but I can’t understand what else is causing the issue. I’m relatively new so this is a leaning experience but I’ve always had very clear balanced water until now. It is also worth mentioning that my pool cover fell in this winter, early in the season and I did have a good bit of debris in the pool to clean up. But I did get the water clear at one point after the clean up. Then as my pool store had me add alkaline and calcium and ph up and metal remover etc that’s when I lost it.
I am in Upstate NY so leaves, twigs, everything else was in the pool which was all cleaned out.

 

[PoolStored]

Welcome to TFP!!! You certainly have a situation on your hands, we can help.

1. You need to get your own test kit. Pool store testing isn't reliable, and unfortunately their advice is the same. Ask me why I am PoolStored. Here are the recommended kits...Link-->Test Kits Compared
2. Adding alkalinity (likely Sodium Bicarbonate) and calcium (likely Calcium Chloride) should be done on different days, then can clump and cause damage.
3. pH up isn't recommended it is also typically Sodium Carbonate also. You double dosed your pool with Sodium Carbonate and is known to cause clouding.
4. Clouding is common with sodium carbonate, especially if added in conjunction with any calcium based product such as calcium hypochlorite or calcium chloride. You doubled down on clouding by adding together.

As for solutions, I would get the test kit now!!!! We need to know exact numbers from a good kit to help.

The clouding will dissipate over time, but if we can keep your pH down, it will help. DO NOT TRY TO GET YOUR pH down without a test kit, you can create more problems.

I suggest you also read through these articles. Link-->Pool Care Basics

Get your kit and post a full set of results. Why should you trust us? This...-->How Clear is TFP Clear?

 

[PoolStored]

Phos Free

While you are waiting for your kit, get rid of the phos free, but note on the bottle, filter should be cleaned 48 hours after addition. You should clean your filter. And throw out the phos free. We can address phosphates later.

At this point, I would add 3ppm of liquid chlorine per day, NOTHING ELSE to the pool as you wait on the kit. Clean the pump and run 24/7 to filter. Note the clean pressure on the pump. When the pressures rises 25% from clean pressure, clean the filters again.

 

[Joec1882]

While you are waiting for your kit, get rid of the phos free, but note on the bottle, filter should be cleaned 48 hours after addition. You should clean your filter. And throw out the phos free. We can address phosphates later.

At this point, I would add 3ppm of liquid chlorine per day, NOTHING ELSE to the pool as you wait on the kit. Clean the pump and run 24/7 to filter. Note the clean pressure on the pump. When the pressures rises 25% from clean pressure, clean the filters again.

My pressure never rises about 10 on the pump. Is that normal? And why the chlorine, isn’t that high enough as it is in the pool now?

 

[Saturn94]

Phosphate removers will cloud a pool as well. It takes a bit of time to clear up.

 

[PoolStored]

My pressure never rises about 10 on the pump. Is that normal? And why the chlorine, isn’t that high enough as it is in the pool now?

THESE ARE GREAT QUESTIONS!!!!

Pressure is dependent on the amount of stuff in the filter. More stuff, more pressure. Steady pressure just likely means that your water is clear of algae and contaminates the filter can pick up. It should rise over some number of days or weeks.

On the FC front...So here is one of the foundations to TFP. We maintain FC based on our CYA level. Great read, BTW...Link-->FC/CYA Levels

So I'm using the TFP collective pool chemistry knowledge and apply my judgement from helping 1000s of others. It is safe for people and equipment when your FC is between minimum FC and what we call SLAM level (FC level we use to kill algae) FOR YOUR CYA. While CYA test is inaccurate from pool stores (we had one this week that was 50% higher than the test kit we recommend), you have some CYA in your pool...and you likely have some FC in the pool from shocking/chlorinating. You current level is likely ok for your CYA, even if your CYA is 40, SLAM FC is 16 (safe). You will be using about 3ppm per day with sun and organics. So I made a recommendation that will likely keep your FC in a safe range that will protect people, pool and equipment, and if your CYA is 0 and your FC is 0, will keep algae at bay...

Another foundation of TFP is that we don't know what is in your pool until we have your test kit results. Adding FC is about the ONLY recommendation we make without a test kit. If we give advice based on inaccurate data, we can harm people and pools. We don't want to do that.