After getting my pool into pretty good balance and adding borates here's where I am:

FC 5.5
CC 0
pH 7.6
TA 90
CH 300
CYA 40
Salt 600
Borate 50
Temp 60
CSI -0.17

My TA seems to have gone up a bit with application of Boric Acid, which contradicts what Chem Geek said here.

That is at the high end of recommended. Should I worry about getting it down to 70 or 80?

Also, should I bring my CH up to 350? Being a noob I have been shooting for the middle of the recommended range.

The water looks great. Now I wish it would just warm up a bit so we can get in there!

Thanks!

Those numbers are great! You really don't need to do anything right now. Your TA will probably drift down very slowly, which is good, but no need to rush the process.

Looks like a great job on your part. Enjoy!

All pools always have some salt in them. Salt is in many of the chemicals you routinely add to the pool (like chlorine). This is why we say you should always measure the salt level before adding salt for a SWG, the starting salt level will never be zero.

I don't have an SWG. I am thinking about going to 2000 ppm salt just for the "feel" and I got the strips to determine my baseline value. Take this as an example of Jason's advice...600 ppm without ever specifically adding salt.

A word to the wise for anyone planning to do Borates...going the boric acid route is super easy (no muriatic acid or pH shifts to deal with) but definitely go with the granular vs powder. I did it in two batches; the first was granules and the second was powder. The granules sunk to the bottom, and after a few minutes of brushing were completely dissolved. I thought the powder would dissolve even easier. Boy was I wrong. The powder was a mess. Half of it floated around on the top and all of it clumped into impenetrable globs. Visualize making hot chocolate with cold water.

Hello Svenpup~ Love your avatar~

What kind of borates did you use that you had granular and powder?

We have only ever used the 20 Mule Team Borax, and I don't recall having any of the "hot chocolate in cold water clumping". Thinking back on it though, I believe we did it when the water was swimmable, meaning at least 72 degrees.

Basically just wondering what that granular stuff was that you used; it seems like a good thing and an interesting alternative for when my stores run out of the Borax, which they do often.

Thank you~

Lana

Thanks!



I used boric acid, which is roughly pH balanced (slightly acidic) so you don't have to use muriatic acid with it. The powdered stuff was the consistency of confectioners sugar.

Just to be clear, this was to bring my borate level up to 50 ppm as discussed here as opposed to adding Borax to bring up pH.

I just finished borating my pool after waiting a very long time for my Boric Acid to arrive. (it got stuck in the post for 1 month) It was powder and I mixed it in a bucket first and made a slurry before adding this to the pool. I still had some lumps when it went in the pool but it dissolved after about 30 minutes. I had to use 5 buckets or so to get the full 25kg bag that I needed to get up to 50ppm. (thanks to the pool calculator!) I tested with the La Motte strips and I was right on the money.

One thing that was a bit of a surprise was that the PH actually dropped after adding the Boric Acid. I started with the PH at 7.6 and went and had a look in my pool room and the PH had dropped to about 7.3. I thought that was a bit strange.

I have now scrubbed the walls and bottom and made the water a little cloudy. I have left the filter on and hopefully tomorrow it will have cleared up.

I'll be very interested to see how it appears in the next few days. After following everything up until now from this site I must say that my results have been already excellent. I hope that the Boric Acid adds just that little bit extra!

Thanks again for your help over the last months...

Boric acid is slightly acidic so what you found with the pH drop is normal. It is 20 Mule Team Borax that is high in pH and can be used to raise the pH. Those are different, but related, chemicals. Basically, borax plus acid makes boric acid.