Borate level question

[glesniak]

I decided to add borates to my pool this year after reading all of the various posts on the positive effects of borates. In an attempt to make things a bit easier I opted for the boric acid method. I order my boric acid from The Chemistry Store. Great customer service and very fast shipping by the way. I choose to add my boric acid in stages instead of 1/2 & 1/2 or all at once. Based on the values from The Pool Calculator I increased my borate levels by 10 ppm every 3-4 days until my LaMotte Insta Test test-strips indicated 50 ppm.

After a few weeks even my wife noticed the water is silkier feeling and has a better sparkle.

We have had some heavy rains here the past few weeks and we have had to lower the water level in the pool more than once. Today I re-tested borates and they are off the chart high, 80+ ppm. No boric acid has been added since I hit 50 ppm more than a month ago.

What could have caused this and do I need to take any immediate action?

By the way, the water is amazingly clear. At night with the pool light on the pool almost looks empty, there is not even a bit of haze in front of the light. I just want to be sure I'm not causing a problem with the elevated borate levels.

Additional info, pool chemistry is measured daily with a TF100 test kit. We now use about a quart of bleach a day, a quart of baking soda a month and a cup of pH down every 6 weeks as directed by the pool calculator. Our baking soda and pH down consumption seemed to have decreased dramatically since the addition of borates.

Thanks for your input,

FC 3
pH 7.5
TA 65
CH 60
CYA 15
Borates 80+
CSI -0.58

 

[JasonLion]

This must relate to the difficulty of using the borate test strips. They aren't the most reliable things. Unfortunately, there isn't any better alternative that is at all reasonably priced.

Borate levels up to 80 are alright. High than 80 you should lower borates by replacing water. However, I am concerned that the test result might be in error. One of your two test results is wrong, as borates would not have gone up like that on it's own.