Well last month there was just so much "dust" in the pool from all the dry weather. I live a block off the Atlantic ocean too and when the wind blows, there is dirt and sand....or so I thought. Every day I would brush the brownish dirt and urge my lethargic Kreepy pool boy to suck it all up. The next day it was back...I'm sure you all figured out what I didn't know. I had the infamous yellow algae and wasn't doing anything about it except brushing it around and wishing for some rain..sigh.

Well, I belatedly sprang into action, shocked the heck of the pool and cleaned and cleaned my cartridge filter. Now I'm very wary, hence my "preventative" measures with the algaecide and phosphate remover. I hardly got any sleep that week. LOL

I too had used Jack's Purple stuff and got into a discussion about it with one of the company's tech support. He admitted that there were phosphates, but not the real bad kind. As long as I didn't mix in any nitrates, I shouldn't have a bumper crop of algae. Huh? Why put them in your product in the first place?

I've seen some metal sequestrants which are labeled phosphate free. I will relax on the phosphate remover and only add some sequestrant when I have to add water. (I got some yellow staining last time we did a partial pool refill. Whether it was from the algae, the new water or new salt, I don't know. Most of it seemed to go away after I added the sequestrant and phosphate remover.

Yes, I'm a pool shop's dream customer---GULLIBLE. But I'm learning.....pretty soon someone else will have to walk in my flip-flops.