Phos free help

[lesleyrado]

Set up my pool over the weekend, shocked it and added algeaecide, brought a sample to leslie's pool and this is what they told me...

FAC. 5
TAC. 5
CYA. 30
TA. 290
PH. 7.8
COPPER. 0
IRON. 0
PHOSPHATES. 2500

I HAVE A 21 X 52 ABOVE GROUND POOL. HOLDS LITTLE OVER 11, 000 GALLONS OF WATER. I HAVE A SAND FILTER with a 1.5 hp pentair dynamo pump.

So leslies pool guy tells me I need to lower my TA and add 19 ounces of Muriatic acid and wait four hours. Because my phosphate level was so high he said I needed 4 QUARTS phosfree into my pool . So I buy 70 $ worth of chemicals and head home to add this stuff to my pool. I do the acid with no problem, wait 4 hours and add in my first liter of phosfree. No problems. An hour later add in my second liter, and as im adding this to the pool my water is turning white. I panicked. Ran the pump all night and day today come home, water still looks horrible. Can't see the bottom, water is cloudy as can be. I call leslies pool back speak to the same guy that sold me this stuff, tell him about my funky water and he tells me he has never heard of that happening before. He tells me I need clarifier. Im almost scared to go back to leslies pool. I have a party in 3 days... I need the pool looking better. Anyone have any advice?

[chem geek]

Phosphate removers normally cloud the pool. PhosFree has some clarifier in it to minimize this, but since your pool has a lot of phosphate it's overwhelming the clarifier. It's true that a clarifier would clear it up faster since lanthanum phosphate precipitate doesn't easily get caught in the filter, especially with your sand filter.

There was no need for you to us a phosphate remover. So long as you kept a minimum FC of at least 7.5% of the CYA level, then chlorine alone would prevent algae growth regardless of algae nutrient (phosphate or nitrate) level. You've been pool-stored.

Your TA is very high and can be lowered with acid and aeration at low pH (around 7.0), but I suspect these test results may be wrong. You should take charge of your pool and get a proper test kit -- the Taylor K-2006 (not the K-2005).

You should read the Pool School to learn how to properly maintain your pool. Properly maintaining the FC/CYA level and other water chemistry parameters you'll never have to use clarifiers, flocculants, enzymes, phosphate removers, or do any regular shocking. There's a Pool School article on how to Add DE to a Sand Filter in which case you probably won't need a clarifier.

[lesleyrado]

Thank you so much for ur response. I ordered the Taylor-k 2006 kit already this morning. I already had a large bag of aquachem DE media and filter aid just had no idea what to do with it. After reading the article u told me about I had no problems adding it in this morning. This is my first pool and boy do I have alot to learn. Thanks again