Thinking about adding borates and have a couple of questions

[aralph]

33K gallon SWG pool. Considering adding borates as an extra algae buffer. I test my water about weekly, but sometimes life happens and we forget, lose power, etc and the dreaded bloom occurs. Seems to happen once or twice annually (very early spring is always prime time, or inevitably we leave town, lose power and my variable speed pump shuts off and goes into error mode and doesn't turn itself back on). So with that in mind I'm thinking about adding borates to act as a buffer. I'll need to add around $200 worth of boric acid to get it up to 50ppm.

So...is the juice worth the squeeze? I have never had an issue with high ph and rarely have to add acid to reduce, so that benefit is off the table for me. But does it really reduce chlorine demand by 30+%? I keep my CYA at around 80 (super hot southern summers) so I have to maintain 6+ ppm FC. Based on what i've read I can go down to 5% of CYA or 4ppm FC which technically should extend the life of my SWG.

 

[newdude]

So...is the juice worth the squeeze

No. You'll need to add it yearly as you pretty much get a free water exchange annually from rainfall. Adding $200 a year to extend the life of the SWG is kinda silly if you do the math. If you add them for 3 years to hopefully get a fourth year from your cell, that's $800 to help the cell. You could have just bought a new cell.

And borates aren't much help for most people. They can be useful for wild PH swings and also for the feel of the water, but that's about it for the majority of users.

Based on what i've read I can go down to 5% of CYA or 4ppm FC which technically should extend the life of my SWG.

How do you run your SWG ? If you aren't running 24/7, or at least during peak sunshine hours, you need to follow the LC side of the chart. That's why you get algae twice a year. Low FC.

You need more, not a hack to allow you less.

 

[randytsuch]

I'd keep a higher FC of around 8ppm with CYA of 80, so you have a bit more buffer for when life happens.
Would use the cell a bit quicker, but I'd make that tradeoff to have a little more piece of mind against algae.

 

[aralph]

No. You'll need to add it yearly as you pretty much get a free water exchange annually from rainfall. Adding $200 a year to extend the life of the SWG is kinda silly if you do the math. If you add them for 3 years to hopefully get a fourth year from your cell, that's $800 to help the cell. You could have just bought a new cell.

And borates aren't much help for most people. They can be useful for wild PH swings and also for the feel of the water, but that's about it for the majority of users.





How do you run your SWG ? If you aren't running 24/7, or at least during peak sunshine hours, you need to follow the LC side of the chart. That's why you get algae twice a year. Low FC.

You need more, not a hack to allow you less.

I run my VSP 24x7. SWG kicks in at a certain flow rate, which equates to approx 18 hrs/day.

 

[duraleigh]

+1 what newdude said

 

[newdude]

SWG kicks in at a certain flow rate, which equates to approx 18 hrs/day.

Ok, GREAT. Many can now run their oversized SWG for only a couple of hours, and/or at night to save on electric. Their pools behave more like a LC pool and they should follow that side of the chart.

Anybody who doesn't easily maintain the SWG levels for the whole season should bump theirs up as well.