Did They Lie to US About Phosphorous?

 This conversation delves into the complexities of phosphates in pool chemistry, emphasizing their role in biological processes and the misconceptions surrounding their impact on chlorine effectiveness and algae growth. It also touches on contractor accountability in the pool industry and analyzes market trends, providing insights into the current state of the industry. Takeaways Phosphates are essential for life and play a crucial role in biochemistry. The pool industry often misunderstands the role of phosphates, treating them as a primary villain in algae growth. Chlorine is the primary agent for controlling algae, not phosphates. Phosphate testing became popular due to marketing rather than scientific necessity. Algae can survive without measurable orthophosphate, relying on other forms of phosphorus. Phosphate removal can help but is not a substitute for proper sanitation practices. The relationship between phosphates and algae is complex and often misrepresented. Market reports can be misleading, showing stabilization rather than true growth. Consumer protection in the pool industry is a significant concern, highlighted by contractor misconduct cases. Understanding the mechanisms of pool chemistry is more important than memorizing numbers.

Sound bites "Phosphate does not cause algae." "Chlorine neglect causes algae." "Oxidation is still the boss." Chapters 00:00 Understanding Phosphates in Pool Chemistry 03:50 Contractor Accountability and Consumer Protection 08:25 Market Trends and Industry Growth Analysis 12:44 The Role of Phosphates in Algae Control 21:16 Sources of Phosphates and Their Impact 25:12 The Relationship Between Phosphates and Algae 

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Transcript

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truth of the matter is that phosphates do not reduce chlorine effectiveness. And on top of that, algae do not have to have orthophosphate to live.

Welcome back to Friday. I'm Rudy Stankovich This is the Talking Pools podcast. Let's get one thing straight before we go any further. Phosphates did not sneak into the pool industry through bad science. This was good science applied in the wrong context. And that distinction matters. Because if this was just ignorance, we could fix it with education. This wasn't ignorance.

This was context collapse. Phosphorus is not optional for life. It's one of the elemental pillars of biochemistry. Carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur, and phosphorus. Miss one, and biology just shuts down. Phosphorus sits at the center of energy transfer, the ATP-ADP cycle, the molecule that turns chemistry into motion. No phosphorus, no ATP.

No ATP means no metabolism. No metabolism means no algae, no bacteria, no humans. So when anyone starts talking about phosphorus like an invader, the conversation's already broken.

But here's the pivot. We don't measure phosphorus, we measure phosphate. And that distinction, element versus aqueous species, is where the industry starts losing the plot. In water, phosphorus exists in multiple chemical forms, including organic phosphorus compounds and inorganic orthophosphate. Orthophosphate is the fully oxidized inorganic form.

It exists as acid-base conjugates whose relative proportions are governed by pH. That's not trivia. That's the steering wheel. Orthophosphate matters biologically because it's the form organisms can directly assimilate. That sentence is accurate. The next sentence is the one that got deleted the moment this topic crossed over from environmental engineering into pool care.

Orthophosphate supports biological growth when other growth limiting conditions are satisfied. It does not override them and that matters because orthophosphate got popular in water treatment for a reason that has nothing to do with swimming pools. In wastewater and environmental work, orthophosphate is monitored because of eutrophication, excess nutrient loading into ecological systems,

triggers runaway biological growth, oxygen depletion, dead zones, ecological collapse. Those systems have continuous nutrient inflow and no controlled oxidant residual. Swimming pools are not ecosystems. They are not chemically coerced environments. They operate under forced oxidation, artificial circulation, filtration, and constant intervention. Comparing a pool to a lake because both have phosphates in it is kind of like comparing

blood chemistry to engine oil because both contain carbon. The mistake wasn't malicious, but the consequences were. Now here's where the pool industry really got itself in trouble.

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service scene the pool service ass kickers who listen to the talking podcast. That's you you a bad foe

Floc it Fridays with Rudy kicks off the weekend. It's Friday and you fucking crushed it times ten building better business through strong education mentorship Acumen Benobi wan pool guru Kenobi marketing and staff and the skills to help you thrive ancient pool pro secrets You're an automation Yoda the Avengers of the backyard Oasis Captain Kirk of the Starship pool service by the pool tech talking pools podcast ⁓

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Good evening. Tonight we are following a developing story out of Florida that raises serious questions about contractor accountability, consumer protection, and how long warning signs were allowed to stack up before law enforcement stepped in. As first reported by WFLA News Channel 8 and later syndicated by Yahoo News, Frank Bierwiler, identified as the owner of West Hernando Pools and Spas, has been arrested on felony charges tied to alleged financial misconduct.

According to those reports, Beerweiler is accused of misappropriating more than $100,000 in customer construction funds, money that investigators say was collected for pool projects that were never completed. The arrest follows months of mounting complaints from homeowners, some of whom say they paid tens of thousands of dollars up front, only to be left with unfinished pools, stalled permits, and unanswered phone calls. State records appear to support that pattern. As documented by the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation,

Beerwiler held a certified pool and spa contractor license, which now shows a status of voluntary relinquishment. That license surrender occurred after regulatory action was already underway. Further details appear in official meeting minutes from the Florida Construction Industry Licensing Board, obtained through MyFloridaLicense.com. Those records show disciplinary proceedings, financial penalties, and references to restitution tied to unresolved consumer losses. Local reporting adds more context.

According to an investigation published by the Hernando Sun, the company was associated with more than 60 unclosed permits, leaving homeowners in regulatory limbo, unable to move forward, unable to hire new contractors, and in some cases unable to sell their homes. There is also a civil trail. Court filings summarized by Trellis Law show at least one lawsuit filed by a major pool industry supplier, alleging breach of contract and unpaid balances connected to Beerwiler and his business.

Together, these records paint a picture that did not emerge overnight, but instead built quietly, through paperwork, complaints, and regulatory action, long before the arrest. At this point, no conviction has occurred and Bierweiler is entitled to the presumption of innocence, but the case raises a familiar and troubling question for consumers. How many warning signs does it take before intervention happens, and who is watching in the meantime?

We will continue to follow this story as more details emerge from the courts. For now, those are the facts, as reported by WFLA News Channel 8, Yahoo News, the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation, the Florida Construction Industry Licensing Board, the Hernando Sun, and Trellis Law. Another story developing out of Florida that highlights the growing gap between industry reporting and mainstream confirmation and why that gap matters for consumers. According to a report published in the January 31st,

2026 print edition of Service Industry News, a husband and wife team operating a pool construction business in central Florida, was arrested in what the trade publication described as a fraud-related case. The article, which appeared in the industry's widely circulated trade paper, referred to the couple as Bonnie and Clyde Pool Contractors, a phrase often used in the trades to describe coordinated contractor fraud involving advance payments and unfinished work. As reported by Service Industry News,

The couple allegedly collected significant sums from homeowners for swimming pool construction projects that were never completed. However, as of tonight, no major television station or daily newspaper has published a corroborating report, and no law enforcement press release has been publicly posted identifying the couple by name, listing formal charges, or confirming booking details. A separate post circulating on social media shared by a regional community news outlet.

describes a similar case involving a husband and wife pool company accused of taking nearly $200,000 from customers for pools that were never built. That post, however, does not reference official court records and remains unverified. At this point, what is confirmed is this. The trade publication Service Industry News reported an arrest. The story predates February 2026 by only days. And there is currently no publicly available court docket. Arrest affidavit.

or Sheriff's Office announcement to independently confirm the details. What remains unclear is who intervened, when charges were filed, and why the case has not yet surfaced through mainstream channels. We will continue to follow this story closely and update you if and when official records become available. Until then, these facts stand as reported by Service Industry News and no further claims should be assumed.

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you

Every industry has a report it hugs when things get uncomfortable. A nice glossy PDF that shows up right on time and whispers, relax, you're fine. The, the PHA market intelligence report for December of 2025 does exactly that. 5 % up year over year. Cue the exhale. Except 5 % doesn't mean what you think it means. And it definitely doesn't mean what you hope it means. This isn't growth. This is gravity letting up for a second.

One month compared to one month after a multi-year slide is not a comeback. It's a bounce. It's the sound your phone makes when you drop it, and it hits the floor but doesn't shatter. Yet. Stabilization dressed up like momentum is still stabilization. It just wears a nicer tie. Permits are doing all the heavy lifting here, and permits are paperwork. They are optimism with a filing fee. A permit doesn't mean a hole was dug. It doesn't mean steel was bent. It doesn't mean the homeowner didn't see the loan terms and suddenly decide

Their lawn looks fine the way it is. Canceled jobs had permits. Delayed jobs had permits. Stripped down jobs that lost every feature except the shell had permits. Activity is not health. It's motion. Even a body sliding downhill is technically moving. Then there's the map. The colorful one that makes it look like the whole country woke up and chose prosperity. Percentages lighting up counties like a Christmas tree. Percentages are adorable when the numbers are tiny.

Two permits becoming four looks heroic on a map. 400 becoming 360 looks like a rounding error. Real money disappears quietly. Tiny gains scream. Most of this growth is coming from the same handful of places that have been carrying this industry on their backs for years. Florida, a few metro zones, the usual suspects. If you're not standing in one of those zip codes, this report is not about you. It's talking.

past you while smiling politely. The macro data shows up next. Retail sales, consumer sentiment, inflation cooling, housing starts leveling, all accurate, all respectable, all late to the party. These numbers explain why things feel less chaotic, not why demand is about to explode. By the time inflation cools, homeowners have already decided what they're not buying. Pools don't compete with cars or kitchens. They compete with hesitation.

Hesitation doesn't show up in CPI. Interest rates get framed as stabilizing. Stabilizing high is still high. Nobody cares that rates aren't climbing if they're still staring at a payment that makes their eye twitch. Consumers don't compare today to history. They compare today to last year. Last year still lives rent-free in their head. A pool loan doesn't feel expensive because of math. It feels expensive because of memory. Remodeling holds.

Repairs hold. Service holds. That part is real. Money is moving, but it's moving defensively. Fix what you already own. Protect what you already paid for. Delay the big move. That's not confidence. That's caution wearing work boots. Great news for service companies. Solid news for repair specialists. Not the cavalry for new construction. What's missing is the stuff that actually hurts. Margins, backlogs, shrinking.

Jobs that closed only because someone cut their price until it bled. Projects that died quietly and never became data. Companies that stayed busy and still made less money. Burnout doesn't get a chart. Failure doesn't get a press release. So here's the truth. The PHA market intelligence report for December of 2025 doesn't say out loud. The fall stopped. The bottom didn't drop out. The industry caught its balance. That's it.

This isn't a boom. This isn't a surge. This is a holding pattern with better lighting. And in a holding pattern, the dangerous move isn't panic. It's celebration. The survivors aren't the ones popping champagne over 5%. They're the ones reading past the headline, tightening their systems, protecting margin, and acting like gravity might come back any second.

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I've been getting service industry news since I first stepped into this business and every time it landed I did the same thing. Flipped straight to the horror file. The weird installs, the absurd finds, the stuff only pool pros ever see. Then I'd go back and read the articles.

Service Industry News is a twice monthly trade publication for pool and spa service techs. 24 issues a year, emailed free to over 10,000 techs and available on their app. Every issue covers nationwide industry news and real technical content you actually will use. Get your free subscription at serviceindustrynewscd.net.

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Now back to our conversation on phosphates and here's where the pool industry really got itself in trouble. It heard the phrase limiting nutrient and treated it like controlling variable. In environmental science, phosphorus is described as a limiting nutrient. A limiting nutrient constrains growth only after other constraints are satisfied, including the absence of lethal oxidative stress.

Chlorine doesn't wait for nutrients to line up. Chlorine kills first. So when the industry started talking about phosphate as if it were the controlling variable, it inverted the hierarchy of chemical control. It promoted a secondary constraint to a primary villain. That inversion is not supported anywhere in the literature. And if we're going to be honest, phosphate testing didn't become popular because it was the most important concept.

It became popular because it produced a number and numbers feel like an objective. Numbers feel actionable. Numbers feel like control. The pool industry places a unique and disproportionate emphasis on phosphate elimination as a primary algae control strategy. However, peer-reviewed research in phycology does not support phosphate removal as a reliable or sufficient means of controlling algal growth on its own.

That's how psychology walked into the chemistry lab and started breaking glassware. Now, I'm gonna give you the part most people still don't know and it changes the whole story. The phosphate craze didn't start with algae. It started with Flint, Michigan. In 2014, Flint switched its drinking water source and failed to use orthophosphate corrosion control. The result was lead leaching.

poisoned families and an EPA investigation pointing at a basic failure. No corrosion control in place. The correction was orthophosphate dosing. Flint's targets ran around 3.1 to 3.7 milligrams per liter as phosphate. That's 3100 to 3700 parts per billion. A single refill of 1000 gallons at three milligrams per liter adds about 11 grams of phosphate. Then...

became the ripple effect. Utilities across the country looked at Flint and said, we're not going to be next. Orthophosphate residuals around one to three milligrams per liter became common. Lead and copper rule revisions formalized the thinking, which means every pool today begins with phosphate and it's not the operator's fault. Backyard pools open with a baseline. 1,000 to 3,000 parts per billion

Before the first leaf even hits the water, before the first duck stops by, before the first kid cannonballs, that's not algae hype. That's municipal dosing. And that single fact explains why the industry is split. Public health codes don't care about phosphate because commercial aquatics already win the real fight. Turnover, disinfection residual, clarity requirements, secondary disinfection, aggressive filtration. In that setting, phosphate

isn't a driver, it's just background noise. Residential pools live in a different universe. Lower turnover, intermittent chlorine lapses, sunlight, organics, and equipment that is vulnerable to calcium phosphate fouling. That's why backyard pools obsess over phosphate, while commercial aquatics just kind of shrug. They're not reading different chemistry.

They're living in different operating realities. Much of the hype surrounding phosphate removers in the pool industry stems from marketing that reframed a complex ecological concept into a simplified sales narrative. By borrowing language from limnology and phycology, phosphate reduction was positioned as a primary algae control mechanism, when in reality it only modifies

growth potential and does not exert biocidal control. This messaging blurred the distinction between correlation and causation, leading many to believe that eliminating phosphates would reliably prevent algae. Peer-reviewed research does not support this conclusion, as algae can persist at extremely low phosphate levels.

and are far more effectively controlled through oxidation, biofilm disruption, hydraulic efficiency, and active sanitizer strength. The result was not intentional deception, but a market condition to equate a measurable number with biological control. Now, let's talk phosphate chemistry in pools the way it actually exists, not the way people talk about it.

Phosphoric acid is triproduct. Three dissociation steps. The pKa values put the second dissociation right in the middle of pool pH. That means small pH shifts cause disproportionately large changes in speciation, not in total phosphorus, but in the form that drives reactivity, precipitation, behavior, and remover performance. At pool pH, orthophosphate exists primarily HPO42-.

You do not meaningly have PO4-3 in typical pool water around pH 7.5 when you're in the mix. By 7.8, it leans harder toward HPO4. Now, bring calcium into the room. Calcium and phosphate love each other in the worst way. They form calcium phosphate scale that can be harder to dissolve than calcium carbonate. Once it forms, it sticks to heaters and salt cells like it's being paid per square inch.

efficiency drops, cleaning becomes miserable. The best defense is preventing that relationship from getting started. So phosphate in pools isn't just about algae, it's about scaling, fouling and performance.

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Now, let's talk about sources because phosphate is not a single source contaminant. Every top-off adds it. Every refill adds it. Fertilizer runoff adds it. Leaves add it. Bird droppings add it. Swimmer waste adds it. Dust adds it. In some regions, Saharan dust events contribute measurable phosphate loading. And then, there are the hidden bombs, phosphate-based sequesterants like HEBP and ATMB.

that break down under chlorine and end up as orthophosphate. Field reality is simple. The more sequestering you dose, the more phosphate you eventually measure. So when someone says phosphate came back, sometimes nothing came back and the system finished converting what was already there. That's what happens when you treat a snapshot like a ledger. Now let's talk about algae, but correctly. Algae need orthophosphate.

They use it for ATP, nucleic acids, phospholipids, and phosphorylation-driven regulation. They have transport proteins that pull phosphate in, and they modulate uptake depending on availability. Once inside the cell, phosphate becomes metabolic fuel. ADP plus inorganic phosphate yields ATP. That one reaction is enough to explain why more available phosphate increases growth potential.

But now we say the sentence that fixes the industry's entire logic. Phosphate does not cause algae. Chlorine neglect causes algae. Phosphate simply makes neglect less forgiving. High phosphate shrinks your margin for error. A short disinfectant lapse that would have been survivable becomes a green pool by Monday because the nutrient buffet accelerates regrowth. That's the actual relationship.

Not villain and hero, amplifier and failure. Now we get to the part where nutrient panic gets embarrassed by oxidation chemistry. Free chlorine exists primarily as hypochlorous acid and hypochlorite ion. Hypochlorous acid is the active disinfectant. It's small, neutral, and diffuses effectively into cells. Once inside, it oxidizes enzymes, disrupts metabolic pathways, and collapses the very biochemistry phosphate supports.

Phosphate does not neutralize hypochlorous acid. There's no credible pathway where orthophosphate meaningfully reduces chlorine's oxidative capacity. reduces chlorine is demand. Reduced nitrogen compounds, ammonia, urea, amines, reduced organics, biofilm-protected microenvironments. Phosphates isn't on that list. And this is why the phosphate narrative becomes dangerous.

points everyone at a measurable number instead of the mechanisms that actually make disinfectants fail. Which brings us to the real battlefield. Yes, algae can grow without detectable orthophosphate, but there's a big asterisk on that sentence. Algae cannot grow without phosphorus, but they do not need measurable orthophosphate to survive or reproduce.

Orthophosphate is simply the most immediately bioavailable form, not the only usable source. Algae can liberate phosphorus from organic compounds, capture tiny transient releases faster than test kits can detect, and store phosphorus internally.

as polyphosphate reserves for later use. This is why pools can show zero orthophosphate and still develop algae. Phosphate removal may slow growth and reduce bloom intensity, but it does not replace proper sanitizer control, which remains the primary and decisive factor in preventing algae.

speaker-1 (26:26)
I'll out like it owe the money Said trust me bro the science is funny Held up a chart nobody asked to see Explained biology with retake philosophy Said that number there that's the beast Like I'll GRSVP to a phosphorus feast Sold starvation like it's genocide Didn't mention I'll just been dead inside before They said cut the food watch it die

She said cool story got reserved sky Did they lie to us about phosphorus? Or just dumb it down or move more crates? Drop that number, spike the bill Still got greens saying you missed the kill Did they lie to us about phosphorus? Or sell dye in control with no biosci

you

science stripped it bare left out chlorine like it wasn't there talk nutrient control real bold like algae doesn't hoard pee like crypto gold never said hey this won't kill jack just implied it in six point font on the back correlation doing cosplay as cause that ain't science that's applause they said food source sounded profound

Didn't say biofilm laughs underground

Did to us about phosphorus, a sell-home by the fluid ounce? You can starve them and you cancel the date, algae still shows up unannounced. Did they lie to us about phosphorus, or just rebrand not in the best way?

Algae lives dirty, stores what it needs Hides in slime like it pays rent, indeed Slow phosphorus don't mean it's gone Just means the pitch went on too long

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Biofilms! Algae and bacteria don't live as isolated cells waiting for nutrients like pigeons waiting for bread. They live in biofilms embedded in EPS matresses EPS is chemically active. It slows oxidant diffusion, scavenges oxidants, and creates protected microenvironments where bulk water chemistry is basically irrelevant. Phosphate removal does not disrupt EPS.

oxidative stress and physical disruption do. So, phosphate reduction cannot solve a biofilm problem. It can only make people feel like they did something. And once an industry accepts a false primary villain, it stops looking for the real mechanism. It stops auditing circulation, contact time, surfaces and demand. It removes phosphate instead. Then it removes more. That's the original sin. Not misunderstanding phosphate chemistry, elevating above

oxidation chemistry. Now, we bring in the removers. If you want to remove orthophosphate chemically, lanthanum-based products dominate because lanthanum reacts with phosphate to form lanthanum phosphate. It's an extremely insoluble solid. That insolubility is the selling point, and it's real. But here's the operational truth. Precipitation is not removal, it's conversion. Once lanthanum phosphate forms,

You don't have gone phosphate, you have particulate phosphate and now your outcome is controlled by particle formation and filtration capture. This is where most phosphate programs fail. Lanthanum does not only react with phosphate, carbonate, hydroxide, organics and other ligands compete for lanthanum. Inhibiting conditions change effective dose requirements and change how precipitation behaves.

Pools loaded with competitors, carbonate alkalinity is not a spectator. So when the same remover works great in one pool and struggles in another, that's not randomness. That's chemical environment controlling complexation, precipitation rate, and particle size distribution. And particle size is where the industry face plants. Fast precipitation tends to yield finer particles.

Fine particles challenge filtration. Sand filters are poor at capturing fine precipitates unless you assist with coagulation or floccing vac to waste. Cartridges do better, but still have their limits. DE does the best job, but even DE can be overwhelmed when you generate clouds of colloidal solids. So if your filter doesn't capture the precipitate, you didn't create a solution, you create a suspension. Then,

People act shocked when the water clouds up or the number bounces. Stop being shocked. You ran precipitation chemistry in a system that requires mechanical capture. Now, talk about rebound without drama. When people say phosphate came back, one of three things happened. The precipitate was never removed, so the system redistributed it or measurement conditions changed. Internal conversion occurred as condensed or organic phosphorus

hydrolyzed into orthophosphate over time. Or, ongoing inputs restored the level after dilution temporarily reduced it. None of that is chemistry failing. That's process being misunderstood. And here's where pH returns. Not as magic, but as governance. pH controls phosphate speciation. pH controls carbonate speciation. That changes what lanthanum sees, what it finds, and how the precipitate forms.

It changes kinetics and particle formation. yeah, pH affects phosphate removal performance because speciation is chemistry. Treating removers like detergents is why people keep getting inconsistent outcomes. This is stoichiometry, equilibrium, precipitation, and filtration. It's a process, not a pour and pray. Phosphate removal belongs in the toolbox, not the rule book. In residential service,

It can be worth it for nutrient stress reduction, saltwater generation performance protection, heater scale control, and faster recoveries after disturbances. In large commercial aquatics, the cost benefit usually doesn't pencil out because the fundamentals already do the heavy lifting. And that brings us back to the real theme. Phosphate control is real chemistry with real benefits when applied to the right pools for

the right reasons. much of its popularity comes from marketing because marketing loves numbers that feel like truth. A test result becomes authority, a threshold becomes doctrine, and doctrine becomes ritual. Test, panic, dose, cloud, backwash, retest, repeat. That's not management. That's superstition with receipts. If you want to be dangerous in this industry, don't memorize the number.

You understand the mechanism because oxidation is still the boss. Phosphate is a multiplier and the pool doesn't care what your group chat agreed on. That's all I got for you for this week. I'm Rudy Stankovich. This is the Talking Pools Podcast. Until next time, be good, be safe.

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