What do I adjust first? Do I have to wait to adjust something else?

[HoHum]

Maybe I missed the extremely KISS post about the correct order of things somewhere, but I failed to find a best practice standard of operations. I've done a bit of lurking and reading but am getting desperate to have crystal clear water so I am posting my 2 questions:

1. What do I adjust first FC or pH?
2. Is it safe to add Borax and bleach at the same time or should I do one, wait X minutes, then do the other?

*** context for my questions ***
I found a post that said:

For the FC and pH, I would do the FC first and then fix the pH

Then I found many other posts that recommend adjusting pH first and then adjust FC, which leads me to question 1 above.

I found posts that suggested waiting 30 minutes between adding chemicals, which is what I'm doing, but I just wanted to know what complications, if any, could result with Borax and bleach.

 

[V___25]

How are you testing your water? Can you post a full set of test results? If you need to do a SLAM, you need to adjust pH to 7.2, get your CYA to 30 if it's 0 or lower it if it's crazy high to a manageable number, then add FC to SLAM level.

 

[PoolStored]

Welcome to TFP!!!

Chlorine is generally KING. Algae can happen fast. FC first.
Anything issues with pH, generally happens over a period of time, so pH second. Unless your TA and pH are very low (they have crashed, Like TA below 50 and Ph below 6.8), in which case I'd likely address that first.

Its kinda a mute point, because you can address both in about 30 minutes.

In either case, 15-30 minutes between adding chlorine and muriatic.

If you are adding any calcium products, wait at least 12-24 hours before adding any product that changes ph... baking soda, washing soda, borax, CYA etc.

You should be fine with 30 minutes between borax and chlorine.