Borax

[Kathe]

Can I add only borax without adding the acid? What would happen?

I tried pool math and got that 60 oz borax would raise pH by 385.6. Is that ppm?

 

[Saturn94]

Your decimal is in the wrong place.

 

[PoolStored]

Can I add only borax without adding the acid? What would happen?

I tried pool math and got that 60 oz borax would raise pH by 385.6. Is that ppm?

Kathe,

What are you trying to accomplish?

 

[JamesW]

Granular Boric Acid, 55 lb [boric55] | DudaDiesel Biodiesel Supplies

 

[JamesW]

Is this for pool or spa?

 

[Kathe]

Is this for pool or spa?

pool, 17,000 gal. vinyl

 

[Kathe]

Your decimal is in the wrong place.

View attachment 550276

Your decimal is in the wrong place.

View attachment 550276

Your decimal is in the wrong place.

View attachment 550276

Your decimal is in the wrong place.

View attachment 550276

How would I have known that I needed to change the decimal? Thanks for letting me know, though!

 

[Kathe]

Kathe,

What are you trying to accomplish?

To raise pH

 

[mgtfp]

I'd say you have set the pool volume to 17 gal instead of 17000 gallons.

 

[JamesW]

What are all of your readings?

 

[JamesW]

PoolMath

 

[mgtfp]

Did you enter a "," to separate thousands? Looks like PoolMath reads that as a decimal point.

 

[PoolStored]

To raise pH

In general, there are very few times you need to raise pH.

If your pH is in the 7s, leave it alone, it will rise on its own over time.

What is your current pH and TA?

 

[Kathe]

I'd say you have set the pool volume to 17 gal instead of 17000 gallons.

I had 17,000. Rechecked and got same answer.

 

[Kathe]

Did you enter a "," to separate thousands? Looks like PoolMath reads that as a decimal point.

I added a comma.

 

[Kathe]

In general, there are very few times you need to raise pH.

If your pH is in the 7s, leave it alone, it will rise on its own over time.

What is your current pH and TA?

It's at 7. I'll leave it be then. But I still wondered what would happen if you only added borax and no acid.

 

[Kathe]

In general, there are very few times you need to raise pH.

If your pH is in the 7s, leave it alone, it will rise on its own over time.

What is your current pH and TA?

I'd say you have set the pool volume to 17 gal instead of 17000 gallons.

Is it possible that my pool math is broken? If I set it at 17 it says the same thing. If I refresh the page the gallons go to 17 and I have to type in the comma and 3 0's. And it still says the same.

 

[mgtfp]

Is it possible that my pool math is broken? If I set it at 17 it says the same thing. If I refresh the page the gallons go to 17 and I have to type in the comma and 3 0's. And it still says the same.

As I said, PoolMath obviously interprets the comma as a decimal point. It's a bug. Just type it in without comma.

 

[Kathe]

If the purpose is raising pH, then it would be counterproductive to first add something to raise pH and then add acid to lower it. It should


As I said, PoolMath obviously interprets the comma as a decimal point. It's a bug. Just type it in without comma.

I took out the comma and it is fixed! Thank you!

 

[mgtfp]

It's at 7. I'll leave it be then. But I still wondered what would happen if you only added borax and no acid.

If the purpose is to raise pH, then it wouldn't make sense to first add borax to raise pH and then undo the effect by adding acid.

You are probably confusing this with the other use case for borax, to add Borates to the pool. In this case you have to add large quantities of borax to get the desired effect on the Borate level, but then the pH rise (collateral damage in this use case) needs to be compensated by acid.

In this case it is better to raise the Borates level by adding boric acid, which is more pH neutral than borax.