Borates have disappeared !?!?

Jump to latest Follow Reply
acgibson

acgibson

0
LifeTime Supporter
Aug 26, 2014
90
Olney / IL
I have finally just finished converting my pool over from the pool store's Bioguard treatment to the TFP method, and just got all my numbers within the recommended ranges. Yesterday my readings were:
FC 6.63
TC 6.91
Alkalinity 71
pH 7.5
Hardness 174
Copper 0.3
Iron 0.1
Stabilizer 65
Borate 32

I just received my bucket of hardness increaser to finish bringing it up, so I added it to the pool and I also added 1 box of 20 Mule Team that I had left to add a little cushion to the Borates.

I checked the readings a few hours later and the numbers were a little screwy and the Borates were at 1, but I didn't think much of and waited until this morning to see if they balanced out.

This morning my readings were:

FC 3.48
TC 3.77
Alkalinity 60 (I had my jets running to help mix and it dropped this down when I added MA along with 20 Mule Team)
pH 7.5
Hardness 224
Copper 0.3
Iron 0.1
Stabilizer 65
Borate 3

What happened to Borates? Did the hardness increaser burn them out or mess with the readings for a few days? very odd...
 
Nothing consumed the borates.
I also would not think that adding the acid and borax should have that much effect on the TA.
I would vote for Spin Lab inaccuracies.
 
I have the TF-100 and the recommended products to confirm what my spin lab has been reading after reading a lot of questions in the forums about pool stores accuracy. In around a dozen independent tests with both from the same water sample, they were both almost dead on with each other every time. I did not confirm with both sets of tests this morning, so I will confirm with the manual kit again to make sure. Up until i added the chemicals yesterday, my stable readings like borates and cya have been very consistent. So I am not sure what has happened.
 
There isn't anything that should have changed the borate level. Your added box should have bumped it up by about 3.

It seems strange that the box of borax didn't raise the pH ?? It should have raised about .4 if you didn't add any acid ?? Maybe it was just a bad reaction after adding the hardness increaser and if you circulate it and brush some and retest you'll end up where you should be.
 
kiss4afrog said:
It seems strange that the box of borax didn't raise the pH ?? It should have raised about .4 if you didn't add any acid ?? Maybe it was just a bad reaction after adding the hardness increaser and if you circulate it and brush some and retest you'll end up where you should be.
Click to expand...
They said they added acid with the borax.
 
Yes, I added acid according to Pool Math dosage. I was in a hurry, and dumped in the 20 mule team and acid right after the CH increaser. Maybe they caused a delayed reaction of some kind and the levels will test properly in a day or two.
 
Just took another sample this afternoon:

FC 0.68
TC 0.70
Alkalinity 62
pH 7.4
Hardness 216
Copper 0.1
Iron 0.0
Stabilizer 65
Borate 2

I just ordered the borate test strips (i didnt have any, but TF kit confirms rest of readings from my spin lab).

The only thing I just thought of was I did add a CuLator Power Pack to the skimmer basket in pump because my iron and copper readings were floating 0.2 - 0.4. Could that have sucked out borates, and in a matter of a few hours?
 
7 hours ago you posted a set of numbers from yesterday and this morning and now you post another completely different set of numbers also supposedly from yesterday? :scratch:

It makes my head hurt looking at all those unneeded "significant" digits :???:
 

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
I'm sorry, I copied and pasted the reading list so I could just change numbers. I must have copied some of the previous text as well. I corrected the previous post.

The last set of readings were taken when made the post. Borates still near zero, in three consecutive tests. Maybe one glitch, but three?
 
The most important thing I see is that you FC was borderline low this morning and now WAY too low ... allowing this is a sure way to get a cloudy/green pool.

I assume you had previously added borates to the pool and thus thought the 32ppm from yesterday was believable?

Why did your signature get turned off?
 
Yeah I added bleach as soon as I saw that and turned up the swg. I had been keeping it covered so the swg was turned down. I left it uncovered when added the chemicals yesterday.

My borates were consistently stable at 24, for about a week then I brought them up to the low 30s and held there consistently for 4 days. I had one box of borax left so I just threw it in when added ch +.

I'm on cell phone I must have hit something to turn off signature.... Geez not my day in forum usage lol.
 
Borates were still at 2 this morning. All the other readings were within recommended ranges for a fiberglass pool. I'm baffled.....the only thing I can think of is the CuLator, but I don't think it could suck them all out in a matter of hours. Something has to be causing interference with the reading, there have been Borates in my pool all summer.
 
Just thought of something else, although it shouldn't matter. Previously I had been using Bioguard 300 balance pack to raise the CH up. My Pool store ran out of it so I ordered a 25# pail from Leslie's. The day all this happened I used the Leslie's Ch increaser and added that last box of 20 mule team along with the CuLator. So I did use a different product line, but again I wouldn't think it would cause any issue. Other than a different brand, adding one box of borax with the CH increaser, and add the CuLator to skimmer in pump.....nothing is any different than what I've been doing all summer.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Thread Status
Hello , This thread has been inactive for over 60 days. New postings here are unlikely to be seen or responded to by other members. For better visibility, consider Starting A New Thread.
Top Bottom
Back
Jump to latest Follow Reply