Too much Borax? (READ THE LABEL NEXT TIME!)

[kj5kb]

Hi...

Been lurking for almost 2 years now...time to start posting...

I gleaned most of what I THOUGHT I needed to know from the forums...including BBB. Pool has been very stable since. Got my CYA at 50-60 this year with minimal effort.

Way-yull...last week ph was around 7.0-7.2, pool calculator said I needed ~40 oz of borax to get back to 7.5-7.6

I grabbed a box, and added it all...thinking it was a 2.5 lb box...

Yesterday I was in pool, and it "just didnt feel right".

Tested with K-2006, FC was 3-4 and ph is off the upper end of 8.0. Checked borax box, it was 4.5 lb, not 2.5...arrgh...

Dont have any muriatic acid on hand, never needed any so far...ph always went down, never up!

But that's what I'm thinking, pick some up HCl tomorrow and add a quart at a time, wait a few hours, test and see. ???

--Don

18' 8000 gallon vinyl AGP
Pentair 1/.12 HP pump
Hayward swimpro tall cartridge filter.

 

[linen]

But that's what I'm thinking, pick some up HCl tomorrow and add a quart at a time, wait a few hours, test and see. ???

That sounds like a good plan, get it down soon. Add the MA then test in an hour.

 

[kj5kb]

Need to buy some HCl anyway, I use it for deliming aquariums and their glass tops.

Sounds like a good excuse to leave work early on a Friday...

 

[kj5kb]

<...I did leave work early...>

I knew Leslie's had HCL 2-packs at a good price, but they were several miles out of the way and I have a Home Depot right by my house. I'm on the West side of Cleveland OH.

Wrong answer...this particular HD store is small and doesnt carry HCl. The big HD across town does...but it's further than Leslie's. For some reason we have 4 pool stores all within a half mile of each other, but 3-4 miles from me!

So, I grab ye olde blackberry and search for pool stores near the Home Depot. The Leslie's 3 miles away is the closest one...arr.

Let's try Lowe's...Parked at the contactor end near the concrete. Noooo..the muratic acid is in the PAINT section which is all the way across the store.
So they have regular muratic acid and SAFER muriatic acid. How the heck do you make it "safer" unless you dilute it ??? anyway, both were about the same price, so I got the regular...

Would have been quicker, cheaper and way less walking to just drive 3 miles to one of the pool stores!

Back to our regularly scheduled topic...

1 hour after adding a guesstimated 1 qt (1/4 bottle) of HCl , ph is at 7.4 on my K2006 kit and ~7.5 on the cheapo HTH oto test kit. Works for me!