Reverse Osmosis (RO) can treat swimming pool water with phosphates and the simple answer to this question is yes, RO can remove phosphates from pool water! Phosphates are extremely challenging and can be a nightmare in your swimming pool if left untreated. Since they are something that you can’t see, as their levels increase in the swimming pool, algae can bloom even though you have adequate to high amounts of chlorine/sanitizer in your swimming pool. Phosphates (also denoted as PO4) are known nutrients to help increase plant growth rates such as in algae. However, there are several debates (and confusion) regarding phosphates in pool water. Simply put, phosphates are a food for algae and when their levels get high, you are going to have challenges with algae in your pool. Now that we are well into the summer swim season, vegetation is in bloom, numerous bathers have been in the pool, and various chemicals containing phosphorus have probably been used in your pool, you might be having this issue. With that said, phosphate levels will increase in your swimming pool. One way you can help prevent the levels from increasing is to make sure you skim out debris instead of letting them sit in the pool for days.
Reminder, phosphates can enter your swimming pool in the following ways:
- When water is added to the pool by either you or the automatic leveler
- The wind blows dirt and vegetation into the pool
- Sprinkler fun off from your lawn or landscaping/dirt gets into your pool. This can also occur after heavy rains
- Certain chemicals that contain phosphorous to help clean your pool
Recently, we were invited out to a pool that did not have terrible hardness numbers (TDS was about 800 parts per million (ppm) and calcium was around 300 ppm) but the customer had phosphates of over 3,000 ppm! We told him that we knew we could lower phosphates but were not sure how far as we had never tested before and after for phosphates on any other pool. He had tried everything to remove the phosphates with no luck and asked if we wanted to give it a try? About ten hours later the trailer shut itself off and we went back the following morning to a crystal clear pool and 300 ppm phosphates! From starting out to remove calcium from pool water to learning that we could remove Cyanuric Acid (CYA) and now seeing a dramatic drop in phosphates, these Reverse Osmosis (RO) mobile filtration trailers never fail to amaze us, even after eight years! The Puripool Process refuses to let us down no matter what we throw at it!
If you have any other questions about phosphates or how we can help you, contact us today!