- Sep 23, 2015
- 1,572
- Pool Size
- 20000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Astral Viron V25
Hi all,
I've decided to add the borates. I kind of accidentally bought 8kg of boric acid off eBay so I'm kind of committed now. To be completely honest I guess I was already committed, boric acid is a bit hard to get hear, borax at $10 for 1kg from the local hardware is the easiest to get source of borate. I've already added 1kg of borax with 500ml of HCl (33% muriatic acid) which in 30,000L should bring me up to 5ppm borate.
The plan was to raise my borates to 50ppm and not worry about testing for borates until the start of next swimming season. I'm more than fairly certain that our pool has never had borate in it. Our last published tap water quality test lists boron as <0.1mg/L.
From the pool math calculator 7720gm of boric acid should give me another 45ppm of borates and the total 50ppm target. I recall a real application of 40lbs in a 16,000 gal pool to get to 50ppm, which is roughly 9kgs in 30,000L to get to 50ppm, or 1kg per 3350L to get to 50ppm.
Sorry for the long post that as gone nowhere so far. I had asked Matt (JoyfulNoise) about adding borates from the mannitol borate test thread and don't want to use the mannitol test or hijack that thread. Thanks again Matt. :bowdown::bowdown: I've copied the link and relevant quotes below.
My plan is to get some test strips before I add any boric acid so I can test at 5ppm and then at each 2kg addition to at lest get some experience with the test strips. Good plan?
Which test to get? My options are;
LaMotte 3017-G at $55 for 12 tests or,
AquaCheck 2012LB at $40 for 25 tests.
Is the LaMotte that much better?
Do my numbers add up? My pool if ~29,000L and I've used 30,000L in the calculations to make them a bit simpler and ensure I under shoot a little.
Regards, Steve.
JoyfulNoise - Test for Borates
Thanks Matt. :bowdown::bowdown::bowdown:
I've decided to add the borates. I kind of accidentally bought 8kg of boric acid off eBay so I'm kind of committed now. To be completely honest I guess I was already committed, boric acid is a bit hard to get hear, borax at $10 for 1kg from the local hardware is the easiest to get source of borate. I've already added 1kg of borax with 500ml of HCl (33% muriatic acid) which in 30,000L should bring me up to 5ppm borate.
The plan was to raise my borates to 50ppm and not worry about testing for borates until the start of next swimming season. I'm more than fairly certain that our pool has never had borate in it. Our last published tap water quality test lists boron as <0.1mg/L.
From the pool math calculator 7720gm of boric acid should give me another 45ppm of borates and the total 50ppm target. I recall a real application of 40lbs in a 16,000 gal pool to get to 50ppm, which is roughly 9kgs in 30,000L to get to 50ppm, or 1kg per 3350L to get to 50ppm.
Sorry for the long post that as gone nowhere so far. I had asked Matt (JoyfulNoise) about adding borates from the mannitol borate test thread and don't want to use the mannitol test or hijack that thread. Thanks again Matt. :bowdown::bowdown: I've copied the link and relevant quotes below.
My plan is to get some test strips before I add any boric acid so I can test at 5ppm and then at each 2kg addition to at lest get some experience with the test strips. Good plan?
Which test to get? My options are;
LaMotte 3017-G at $55 for 12 tests or,
AquaCheck 2012LB at $40 for 25 tests.
Is the LaMotte that much better?
Do my numbers add up? My pool if ~29,000L and I've used 30,000L in the calculations to make them a bit simpler and ensure I under shoot a little.
Regards, Steve.
JoyfulNoise - Test for Borates
I was thinking that a borate buffer would be a good thing for me but I also think it is important to only add something that I can test for. I had intended to use the strips but reading the above they sound a bit inconclusive and the test as just described is not for me. So maybe borates is not for me but I've just ordered 9kg of boric acid that assuming I have 0ppm borates now, should bring my pool up to 50ppm.
The test strips are yet to be ordered. Which way do borates usually drift to, up, down or remain stable? With five years of records I have always had to add CH, AKl and CYA. Having added a solar heater my evaporation has increased by 15-25% so this may change.
If I go ahead and add the boric acid can I gain some pH stabilisation benefit for the short term and slowly let it deplete without any more additions?
Borates act like salt and CH, they only decrease when water is removed and fresh water is added back in. So if you can determine what percentage change in CH you typically observe over a season, then your borates should roughly track that same pattern of change.
Strips will work to get you in the ballpark as that is what I used before I learned how to do the mannitol test. Many people that use borates just use strips and they are perfectly happy with the results. There's no magic range for borates. For me, my pool needs them to be above 35ppm for best results and I try to keep them no higher than 50ppm or so. If I accidentally hit 60ppm, no big deal.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk,16k gal SWG pool (All Pentair), QuadDE100 Filter, Taylor K-2006
Actually, upon further reflection, borates may or may not track well with salt or CH. Municipal water supplies can add both salt and CH to your pool depending on how well treated the water is. Salinity is often fairly low but CH can be quite high depending on what area of the country (or world!) you live in. Be that as it may, borates will not be added to your pool by any input water source so the driving force for borate concentration will always be to lower it. The rate at which it goes down will be entirely dependent on how much of the pool water, aside from evaporation, is removed and replaced during the season.
Thanks Matt. :bowdown::bowdown::bowdown: