Phosphate testing

[Big Splash]

Thanks much Ben for the reply and attention. I'm not certain the extra cost and testing is worth it to me as I know more now than before. $50 per qt. will buy lots of bleach and that mankinni I've always wanted...

On 2nd thought, I might as well stick with the extra bleach and skip the mankinni too

Splash

[PoolDoc]

and that mankinni I've always wanted...

.

.



Around my household, I try to keep the 'kinis strictly in my wife's drawer. She's within 12 pounds of what she weighed when we married, and I'm, uh-h-h, well, NOT within 12 pounds.

(My sons both still wear Speedos when swimming Masters . . . but at 6' 1" or more and 180 or less, I don't think anyone is complaining. I think there's something about swimming 4,000 yards at a time that makes those things fit better )

[Big Splash]

I just wanna scare the neighborhood kids when it's not Halloween lol. My wife is a saint to keep me around.

[CarlD]

Seriously, I'm wondering what the original poster thinks reducing phosphates will do to reduce chlorine usage. If you don't have algae in your pool, reducing phosphate levels should have little effect on the chlorine levels. Phosphates are algae food...but if there's no algae, there's nothing to feed.

I just don't see the mechanism.

[Big Splash]

Seriously, I'm wondering what the original poster thinks reducing phosphates will do to reduce chlorine usage. If you don't have algae in your pool, reducing phosphate levels should have little effect on the chlorine levels. Phosphates are algae food...but if there's no algae, there's nothing to feed.

I just don't see the mechanism.

I agree with you. It's not the amount of bleach used so much as the maintained level I was originally thinking of reducing. Right now and forever I'm going to have to keep my FC level at the higher end (relative to CYA) to keep the algae at bay. That's ok by me. I just wanted to explore other options. This thread is proof positive of the BBB method works best.

[CarlD]

I agree with you. It's not the amount of bleach used so much as the maintained level I was originally thinking of reducing. Right now and forever I'm going to have to keep my FC level at the higher end (relative to CYA) to keep the algae at bay. That's ok by me. I just wanted to explore other options. This thread is proof positive of the BBB method works best.

Actually, I wouldn't worry. When you maintain a higher FC level due to a higher cya, you'll probably find you add LESS chlorine to stay in the maintenance range. We actually recommend it for those who leave in steamy, sunny climates....Though these last few days in New Jersey, it's hard to imagine being in a steamier hotter place. Day before yesterday, it was 96 in the shade, and 112 in the sun. Yesterday nearly the same...and HUMID!

[Big Splash]

Yep, I'm in NJ too (Burlington County) and it's purty sticky out there.

Stay cool -@@-
Splash

[PoolDoc]

Actually, when you have pools like the country club pool I service locally, they tend to maintain low levels of algae most of the time. I don't know why that pool is so prone to mustard algae, but apart from that it has a damaged finish with many, many cracks and crannies where algae can survive regardless of chlorine level. I've been in the pool with SCUBA, when the chlorine level was VERY high, and still found live algae in areas where the tile grout had eroded. None of that algae was visible from the surface.

But, when you have a persistent algae population, it will create a persistent and higher than normal chlorine consumption. This is the pool in which I'm experimenting with PO4 removal, and the persistent higher than needed demand is one reason.