Very possibly dead algae.reebok said:since I added borates, I've noticed some "gunk" all in the bottom middle (lengthwise) of the pool. I call it gunk because that's what it looks like, but it brushes away easily and disappears. it's reappeared a couple times now. my pressure also went up about 5 psi. just wondering if anyone else has had this happen. never seen it in the pool before and cleaned it just before borate (mule team) addition.
waterbear said:Exactly!Hotrod30 said:I just did my pool yesterday. 26 boxes and 8 gal. I just went out and bought the stuff. There is no getting around it.
If you are doing BBB and using bleach chances are you will need to add little to no borax at all since pH is more likely to rise than drop. If you are using trichlor then you might need to add borax.rbdeli said:I guess the one benefit you might have is that if you had been doing the BBB method for a couple of years and needing to add borax regularly, it won't be quite as big and expensive of a job to get the level up to 50PPM, right?
Very possibly some commercial facilities might be using Optimizer, Supreme, or one of the other commerical borate products.rbdeli said:This is new, exciting information to me. I look forward to trying this after my stain problems are addressed.
Just curious, are there any commercial pools that do this as a way of making their water more inviting?
I have heard people talk about how some of the water park pools have very comfortable water.
Look at the color comparator on the bottle of strips. If it is shades of tan stay away (These are the Hach/Aquachek strips or a private label of them) . If it is shades of pink it's the good one (LaMotte or a private label).kdzgon said:I'm sorry, but I cannot find the posts discussing test kits. Could someone please explain the pros/cons of the different test kits for borates? I seem to recall a recommendation not to use the one from Leslie's (and another brand) but I do not recall why. I also seem to remember the other brand ("LaMotte"?) was mostly available via mail order.
Is there a significant difference in test kits that I should mail order one rather than pick it up locally?
waterbear said:Look at the color comparator on the bottle of strips. If it is shades of tan stay away (These are the Hach/Aquachek strips or a private label of them) . If it is shades of pink it's the good one (LaMotte or a private label).kdzgon said:I'm sorry, but I cannot find the posts discussing test kits. Could someone please explain the pros/cons of the different test kits for borates? I seem to recall a recommendation not to use the one from Leslie's (and another brand) but I do not recall why. I also seem to remember the other brand ("LaMotte"?) was mostly available via mail order.
Is there a significant difference in test kits that I should mail order one rather than pick it up locally?
The reason we recommend the LaMotte is because they are MUCH easier to read. the colors on the Hach/Aquachek strips are really impossible to tell apart and the strips go bad quickly and just read about 50 ppm no matter what.
The only actual kit (drop based) for borates is from Proteam. It's excellenct but pricey and a bit tricky to do right (It is a multistep procedure). If you don't understand why you are adding reagent to just turn the color at one point it's easy to overshoot!
To the best of my knowledge Leslies does not sell a borate test strip but since all the other strips they carry are Aquachek it would probably be that one and it's not the one we recommend.
Remember, our recommendations are not based on trying to sell you a certain product but are based on what we have found out works well for the money involved! I wish the aquachek strips were worthwhile since they are readily available in a lot of places but, unfortunately, they are a waste of money.