Is anyone familiar with sodium tetraborate pentahydrate as an algae preventative?

[Leebo]

White or Pink Mold is VERY common in almost all Baquacil pools. While I can't say when you'll get it again, I can say it's highly likely that you'll see it again shortly. As I'm sure you've noticed in the past, water mold can become rather expensive to clear up too. This is almost always a Baqua problem too, as chlorine pools rarely develop this issue.

Start with the ABC's of Pool Water Chemistry and learn how to maintain a chlorine pool. I speak from almost 20years of Baquacil experience in our personal pool......TFPC is sooooooomuch cheaper and easier!

 

[three4rd]

Good point.....hmmmm......let me see how things go. Certainly another issue is the additional filter work involved with any biguanide system the way it seems. Let me think about all this. Thanks for the advice.

 

[ThinkPad]

Whoa, there's pink mold, too.

 

[three4rd]

Commonly referred to as pink slime...yes....only had that a few times...mostly just white mold.

 

[chem geek]

The high chlorine demand could come from either too little CYA so sunlight breaking down chlorine too quickly OR it could (more likely) come from too much CYA such as from using Trichlor tabs and ending up with too little FC for a too high CYA allowing algae to grow which may show up as increased chlorine demand even if the algae is not yet visible.

 

[three4rd]

Back then, I had little interest in learning about and taking these matters into my own hands. I simply followed my store's advice and kept dumping in increasing amounts of shock. The next dosage would have been some huge amount - I don't recall how much. I opted out to go with SoftSwim (Bio Guard).

 

[noquacks]

kinda late to post maybe, but for the record, above poster is correct about boric containing more effectiveness than borax- boric acid has moe boron as an element than sodium tetraborate pentahydrate (the pentahydrate are water molecules attached, of course). More boron, less sodium/water.

 

[chem geek]

Sodium tetraborate pentahydrate in water forms boric acid and sodium hydroxide as follows:

Na₂B₄O₇•5H₂O + 2H₂O ----> 2Na⁺ + 4B(OH)₃ + 2OH^-
Sodium Tetraborate Pentahydrate + Water ----> Sodium Ion + Boric Acid + Hydroxyl Ion

If you are adding borates via tetraborate, then you need to add acid so adding Muriatic Acid (hydrochloric acid) to the above results in water and sodium chloride salt.

Now I wouldn't characterize any of this as "effectiveness" since once in the water the boric acid is the same regardless of the source of product. The issue is more one of total cost, convenience of adding one vs. two chemicals, increasing salt level (a minor consideration), and having the pH swing when adding tetraborate and acid in alternation.