New pool loaded with Phosphates!!!!

[PoolDoc]

Ah, the old "you've got phosphates, and now you need all this expensive stuff" trick. As Carl would say, you've been "pool-stored"!

Do this:

# 1 - Go get 16 gallons of plain 6% household bleach and 4 boxes of borax. [ Walmart ]
# 2 - Get 1 gallon of muriatic acid [ Lowes, hardware ]
# 3 - Get a cheap OTO (yellow drops) / phenol red test kit [ Any ]
# 4 - Get 3 - 5 lbs of stabilizer (CYA, conditioner, sun shield = cyanuric acid = isocyanuric acid) [ Any ]
# 5 - Do NOT use any more pools store goop.
# 6 - Turn your pump on and your SWCG off
# 7 - Add 4 gallons of bleach to the skimmer tonight
# 8 - Add 1/4 gallon of muriatic acid this evening, either before or 30 minutes after the bleach. (Wear gloves, glasses, watch the fume: partially submerge the bottle into the pool, so you can pour from a few inches above the water. "Guesstimate" the 1/4 gallon: do NOT try to pour it into something else!)
# 9 - Test pH & chlorine levels tomorrow AM and report them here.
#10 - If chlorine levels are below 2 ppm in the AM, add 2 more gallons then.
#11 - Add 4 gallons again, Sunday PM.

You can swim within 30 minutes of adding either bleach or acid, so long as there is at least a 2 ppm chlorine level when you go in.

By the way, have you added salt? (not that it matters right now.)

And, you'll need a Taylor K2006 test kit, sooner or later. Amazon link in my sig, but only order when the seller shows as "Amato Industries". We have had problems with other sellers shipping K2005 kits.

Happy 4th!

[CarlD]

Yes, the latest "fad" is phosphate removers. Leslies even has a "maintenance" program they sell to keep you adding that goop to your pool. But even the BEST pool stores are doing it.
Phosphates DO feed some forms of algae. But the BEST way to handle it is make sure there's no algae to eat the phosphates...

Sometimes I wonder how they sleep at night.

Carl