Nitrates

What can anyone tell me about nitrates? I just had my pool cleaned because of nitrates and I do not want to go through that again.

Nitrates AND phosphates together are algae food. Individually they are not that much of a problem. You cant do much about high nitrates but phosphates can be removed if needed. Normally neither presents a problem if you are maintaining the proper FC level for your CYA level. Nitrates are usually introduced into the pool from fertilizer runoff or from the fill water itself. It is very rare where either one presents a problem but sometimes when both are present at high enough levels AND proper pool maintenance (as taught here) is not followed.

Who told you you had nitrates and why did they test for it? It is not a normal test done on pools (except for those dealers using LaMotte Waterlink software and colorimieters) and really does not have a purpose in 99% of cases. The very vast majority of problem attributed to high nitrates can normally be solved by checking CYA and FC levels and making necessary adjustments.

Yes, as Evan put it, Phosphate problems are 1: 1000 (tho it's the latest pool store scam0 and Nitrate problem make phosphate problems look common. I think we've seen one person with a REAL phosphate problem and HE handles it by keeping his borates (as in Borax) level at 50ppm, and otherwise simply follows the B-B-B method religiously.

Carl