Any ProTeam Supreme Plus users out there?

[pisymbol]

I just bought 65 pounds of this stuff (I may need a little more but we'll see). It was not cheap!

I read an older post that it can raise TA significantly which I was not expecting. Speculation was Pool Team had a bad mix but nothing conclusive.

Currently my numbers are:

CYA 30
PH = 7.2
FC = 5.5
CC = 0
CH = 225
TA = 50

Water is clear as it gets minus the pollen that is insane this year.

I was going to dump 30 pounds of this stuff into the pool first and then take a reading. Then du I'm a little worried my TA will shoot up to some ridiculous amount,. Do I need to be prepared to reduce my TA a lot? I assume since this stuff is ph neutral, my ph really shouldn't fluctuate that much.

I purposely got my pool ready for this (I hope those numbers above indicate that).

Any tips or recommendations? (I do have Borate test strips).

 

[AimeeH]

This product is for adding borates to your pool? I hope it wasn't more expensive than Borax.

Whichever it affects PH or TA, I would not all you want to at once. I would do it in steps and make necessary adjustments to TA or PH.

 

[AimeeH]

Id like to hear someone else chime in here. MSDS says Sodium tetraborate pentahydrate.

If it raises your TA how would that not effect PH as their promotional website claims?

 

[JoyfulNoise]

The ProTeam Supreme Plus is mostly boric acid (the ingredient on their MSDS that they label as "proprietary") with a little bit of sodium tetraborate pentahydrate (Borax) added to it to neutralize the acidity of the boric acid. However, boric acid is a weak acid and doesn't drop the pH all that much. If you look through the borate threads where people used boric acid, the pH drop is anywhere from 0.1 to 0.3 units. When I borated my water with boric acid, the pH drop was ~0.2 unit. So if one was worried about dropping their pH too much, one could add a small amount of borax at first to raise their pH up to 7.6 or 7.8 and then add the remainder as boric acid (which is precisely what ProTeam is doing).

Your TA at 50ppm is fine. [EDIT] The ProTeam Supreme Plus at 50ppm concentration should only increase the TA a marginal amount, less than 10ppm or so. The TA rise might actually be a bit higher than I first posted due to the borax in the ProTeam Supreme Plus. Unfortunately, without knowing the exact ratios of boric acid to borax, it's hard to say how much the alkalinity will change. I don't think it will be much but, just as a precaution, you should do as you propose and add it in batches to see how the TA changes. [END-EDIT]

 

[pisymbol]

JoyfulNloise, sounds good.

Did you run your pump 24 hours after adding it? I plan too unless someone says differently.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

JoyfulNloise, sounds good.

Did you run your pump 24 hours after adding it? I plan too unless someone says differently.

Yes I did. It should dissolve really fast but give it time to distribute and mix properly. Give the pool a really good once-over with your wall brush too after adding it.

The test strips are a bit goofey. I used them at first too but don't expect too much precision out of them; they give more of a "ball park" value. Check out the link in my signature for a DIY borate drop test using mannitol. It's not for the faint-of-heart but it's a heck of a lot better than the strips once you get the hang of it.

 

[pisymbol]

Hey, weird thing happened to me:

So I dumped 25 pounds into the pool. And this is what happened (ONCLT):

ph 7.2 -> 7.5
TA 50 -> 100
FC 5.5 CC 0

So it seems my ph moved slightly which is fine. That might be due to rain ( it was raining on and off yesterday). But my TA jumped A LOT.

Pump has been running continuously since last night so it has had at least 14 hours to mix (i.e. the water has turned over).

I assume I should bring down my TA now before adding the rest?

The test strips are INDEED a bit goofy. I can't get the right color and if I had to guess I'd say I'm at 20ppm.

EDIT I added a little dry acid (that's what I have) to lower the PH a little. Maybe I will add the rest this afternoon. One thing I realized is that even at 7.5, my PH has been pretty constant so if this stuff raises to 140 or something and my PH seems nominal, should I be concerned?

 

[pisymbol]

Alright, put in the rest and then:

pH 7.2
TA 80

Looks like it stabilized. Wow, very nice.

LaM test strips show I'm at about 30ppm. I can probably add another 5 pounds to be completely optimal. Stuff seems to work (at least in terms of adding it).

Now I want to see if my FC daily loss gets reduced.

 

[PKsPool]

@pisymbol, I'm considering adding ProTeam Supreme Plus. My numbers are similar to yours other than having a TA of 80 and i'm slightly concerned that will be too high.

Now ~6 weeks since you added can you comment on
- did your numbers stabilize well?
- what's your overall opinion on the product? [Does it perform as advertised?]

 

[pisymbol]

I can't believe I missed this - but yes, the ProTeam that year did perform as promised. I plan to add it again this year.

(yeah, I realize this response is really late, but hopefully there are other ProTeam Supreme Plus users out there).