Phosfree...

[mlobitz]

Went to Leslie's today for the free 9 point water test. Everything looks good out of the gate, the CYA is a little low at 35ppm, so a little stabilizer will fix that, but I was told that my phosphates, at 500 ppm, were too high. I was told to buy Phosfree to fix the problem, which I reluctantly did. Is this stuff necessary? I'm only going to add a cap full each week for about 8 weeks. Will this stuff mess up the pool or will it really help. My FC will always be around 3 ppm with the SWG.

Little help here...

[quantumchromodynamics]

Phosphates are typically measured in ppb (parts per billion), not ppm (parts per million). So, you probably have 500 ppb, which equals 0.500 ppm.

I recommend that you return the Phos-free. I don't think that it will help you at all.

What are all of your other chemical readings?

[PoolManPete]

Went to Leslie's today for the free 9 point water test. Everything looks good out of the gate, the CYA is a little low at 35ppm, so a little stabilizer will fix that, but I was told that my phosphates, at 500 ppm, were too high. I was told to buy Phosfree to fix the problem, which I reluctantly did. Is this stuff necessary? I'm only going to add a cap full each week for about 8 weeks. Will this stuff mess up the pool or will it really help. My FC will always be around 3 ppm with the SWG.

Little help here...

It will only mess up your pool if you over do it. I'm assuming that this is an outdoor pool? What Phosfree does is it kills the phosphates which is the food for algae. The basic thinking is, you kill the food then you minimize the risk of growing algae. If you keep your cl2 levels and PH levels where they are supposed to be then you don't need Phosfree. An outdoor pool will always have phosphates in it, from leaves, grass, rain and whatnot. I only like to use Phosfree when I winterize the pool.

[mlobitz]

Phosphates are typically measured in ppb (parts per billion), not ppm (parts per million). So, you probably have 500 ppb, which equals 0.500 ppm.

I recommend that you return the Phos-free. I don't think that it will help you at all.

What are all of your other chemical readings?

First, let me apologize...I posted this in the wrong area. My bad, thanks for replying non the less...

Anyway...my Cl readings for FC are really high since I have a trichlor floater in the pool to keep the algae down during the winter. Above 5 ppm, The SWG is off for winter and I saw a few small algae blooms, so I wanted to get some Cl in the pool to knock it out. I've been taking PH readings for weeks and it seems OK. I do add acid from time to time, but at Leslie's they told me they could not get an accurate PH since the Cl reading was so high. My pool is 15K gal. so it's not huge. The floater had 4lbs of trichlor and has taken about 4-5 weeks to disperse the Cl in the pool. It still has a bit left. When it goes, I'll go with the SWG. Calcium is 210 ppm, CYA is at 35 ppm(I'll add more after the latest rains go by), Salt is at 2810 gpl and the Alk is around 100.

Also, I had my neighbor take out his huge willow tree that did nothing but drop leaves in the pool.

I don't think I need it. I just cleaned the filter yesterday(cartridge) and I didn't see anything green in there, just lots of dirt.

Sounds like another trip back to Leslie's. Hopefully they will take it back as they wouldn't take back the CYA I wanted to return. In hindsight I needed it anyway. Something about California does not allow the return of pool chemicals even if unused and unopened.

[mlobitz]

Went to Leslie's today for the free 9 point water test. Everything looks good out of the gate, the CYA is a little low at 35ppm, so a little stabilizer will fix that, but I was told that my phosphates, at 500 ppm, were too high. I was told to buy Phosfree to fix the problem, which I reluctantly did. Is this stuff necessary? I'm only going to add a cap full each week for about 8 weeks. Will this stuff mess up the pool or will it really help. My FC will always be around 3 ppm with the SWG.

Little help here...

It will only mess up your pool if you over do it. I'm assuming that this is an outdoor pool? What Phosfree does is it kills the phosphates which is the food for algae. The basic thinking is, you kill the food then you minimize the risk of growing algae. If you keep your cl2 levels and PH levels where they are supposed to be then you don't need Phosfree. An outdoor pool will always have phosphates in it, from leaves, grass, rain and whatnot. I only like to use Phosfree when I winterize the pool.

Think I should keep the bottle until next winter? The lady at Leslie's told me only to use a maintenance amount of two cap fulls a week for 8 weeks.

[chem geek]

PhosFree is mostly lanthanum chloride which precipitates lanthanum phosphate. It actually first precipitates lanthanum carbonate that gets caught in the filter and then phosphates get caught there replacing the carbonate with phosphate. Anyway, if you have a lot of phosphate, it can create quite a mess to vacuum up and if your TA or pH are high, it can cloud the water for a while until it filters out the lanthanum carbonate. Chlorine alone can be used to control algae, but you need to get your own good test kit such as the Taylor K-2006 here or the TF100 here with the latter having a lot more reagent so is comparably priced per test. Also, I suggest you read the Pool School.

I have had 2000-3000 ppb phosphates in my pool and it's very reactive if I let the FC/CYA ratio get too low, so I simply don't do that and by properly maintaining the chlorine level my pool looks like this and this using only 12.5% chlorinating liquid around twice a week and a small amount of acid every month or two. Cost for these chemicals for my 16,000 gallon pool is around $17 per month at a chlorine usage rate of around 1 ppm FC per day. The pool is used every day (during swim season) for 1-2 hours per day and longer on weekends. It has a mostly opaque pool cover which keeps the chlorine usage somewhat lower, cuts evaporation way down, and helps keep pH very stable. I do not use any phosphate removers, algicides, clarifiers or any other products on a regular basis though I did add 50 ppm Borates this year as an experiment (I like it -- pool seems less reactive if the chlorine gets low and it gives a sparkle to the water).

[Dietitian]

PhosFree is mostly lanthanum chloride which precipitates lanthanum phosphate. It actually first precipitates lanthanum carbonate that gets caught in the filter and then phosphates get caught there replacing the carbonate with phosphate. Anyway, if you have a lot of phosphate, it can create quite a mess to vacuum up and if your TA or pH are high, it can cloud the water for a while until it filters out the lanthanum carbonate. Chlorine alone can be used to control algae, but you need to get your own good test kit such as the Taylor K-2006 here or the TF100 here with the latter having a lot more reagent so is comparably priced per test. Also, I suggest you read the Pool School.

I have had 2000-3000 ppb phosphates in my pool and it's very reactive if I let the FC/CYA ratio get too low, so I simply don't do that and by properly maintaining the chlorine level my pool looks like this and this using only 12.5% chlorinating liquid around twice a week and a small amount of acid every month or two. Cost for these chemicals for my 16,000 gallon pool is around $17 per month at a chlorine usage rate of around 1 ppm FC per day. The pool is used every day (during swim season) for 1-2 hours per day and longer on weekends. It has a mostly opaque pool cover which keeps the chlorine usage somewhat lower, cuts evaporation way down, and helps keep pH very stable. I do not use any phosphate removers, algicides, clarifiers or any other products on a regular basis though I did add 50 ppm Borates this year as an experiment (I like it -- pool seems less reactive if the chlorine gets low and it gives a sparkle to the water).

Why did you choose 12.5% chlorinating liquid instead of household bleach? What brand/what is the cost/where does one buy it?

[chem geek]

I chose 12.5% chlorinating liquid from my local pool store because it was reasonably priced so was less to carry (roughly half the weight compared to bleach for the same FC level) and they reuse the bottles which is better for the environment than recycling. It's also half the weight for shipping from the manufacturing plant to the pool store. I thank my pool store every time I buy more (about once a month since I get a crate of 4 gallons at a time) telling them that I appreciate their reuse of the bottles and reasonable pricing.

[mlobitz]

I chose 12.5% chlorinating liquid from my local pool store because it was reasonably priced so was less to carry (roughly half the weight compared to bleach for the same FC level) and they reuse the bottles which is better for the environment than recycling. It's also half the weight for shipping from the manufacturing plant to the pool store. I thank my pool store every time I buy more (about once a month since I get a crate of 4 gallons at a time) telling them that I appreciate their reuse of the bottles and reasonable pricing.

So take the phosfree back and go chlorine only? 500 ppb seems like it stems from the dropping of old willow leaves and a couple of ducks my dog scares away. We have a SWG for chlorine, so I probably will not go to liquid chlorine until the cell dies. Probably soon, SWG is kinda a gimmick if you ask me.

Algae hasn't been a big problem in the past and I'm sure Phosfree being sold to pool owners all over the place at this time of year...