Borates... am I ready? where to start?

[RonsPlc]

Well, after fighting for the past 2 weeks to get my TA down to a manageable level 90 ... (tap water is at 150). My Ph has been pretty much rock solid at 7.5 for the past couple of days.
I am wanting to add borates. I have the MA that poolmath says I am going to need, but am a couple of boxes short on the 20Mule Team.
Is it possible to add what I have now, and next week get the rest, and go from there? The Borates won't leave the pool between now, and then (or so I have been reading).
Can I do this a little at a time until I get to my 50ppm without any problems?

 

[ping]

Yes, you can do it in steps. You will most likely have to add borates every year to maintain them at 50ppm.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Yes you can do it that way. I honestly prefer using boric acid instead of the borax/MA process because it is far and away a lot easier to do. When you do begin, add acid first to get your pH down to 7.2 and then add the borax in small amounts. I would suggest you add only the amount of borax needed to get your pH back up to 7.8 or 8.0 at the most! People often find that their water gets cloudy using borax or they get white precipitate. This is from the high pH that borax can create as it dissolves. Using boric acid has none of these issues associated with it and the entire dose can be added in one batch with nothing more than a little bit of brushing.

Good luck.

 

[DHoover85]

yes.

I know someone has listed a dosing schedule for doing it, I recall it going something like:

Calculate the appropriate amount of MA for the amount of Borax you have, use POOL MATH. Divide it into 4 doses of Borax and 4 doses of MA. WITH THE PUMP RUNNING through the entire process, slowly pour one dose of MA in front of a return, then when that's done, pour one dose of Borax.
Brush your pool to get a good blending, I'd check your PH at this point. it should be close to where you started.
Then back to the MA, then the borax again. Brush and test again, confirming that they cancel each other out and your PH is still in range.
if it's going well, and your PH is staying balanced, carry on, if not, this is where you should start to correct to land on your target PH when you run out of either MA or Borax.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

yes.

I know someone has listed a dosing schedule for doing it, I recall it going something like:

Calculate the appropriate amount of MA for the amount of Borax you have, use POOL MATH. Divide it into 4 doses of Borax and 4 doses of MA. WITH THE PUMP RUNNING through the entire process, slowly pour one dose of MA in front of a return, then when that's done, pour one dose of Borax.
Brush your pool to get a good blending, I'd check your PH at this point. it should be close to where you started.
Then back to the MA, then the borax again. Brush and test again, confirming that they cancel each other out and your PH is still in range.
if it's going well, and your PH is staying balanced, carry on, if not, this is where you should start to correct to land on your target PH when you run out of either MA or Borax.

Yup, that sounds about right.

And it's precisely the reason why boric acid is so much better - one dose added all at once by broadcasting around the pool and brushing. Typically no pH adjustments necessary.

SO. MUCH. EASIER.

Good luck and enjoy the borates.

 

[RonsPlc]

ok... 1/3 of the way there...
Just added 1 gal MA, and 4 boxes (65oz/ea) ... according to poolmath, that should put me at 1/3 of what I need... I will test Ph in a couple of hours, and see where I sit after it has all had a chance to mix, and settle down.

The directions say not to test for the borates for 48hrs ... the wait will kill me, but I WILL WAIT! lol

 

[JoyfulNoise]

How do you plan on testing?

 

[RonsPlc]

I purchased the test strips from here... I know it isn't perfect, but they should be able to give me a pretty good indication of where I sit

 

[JoyfulNoise]

That'll do for a ballpark level. If your FC is high, the color pad tends to bleach out a little. So definitely follow the directions to read within 15secs.

 

[RonsPlc]

well, after an hour, I went out and checked the Ph... 8.0+ ... added some more MA, then went back and checked an hour later.... 7.5 ... going swimming!