Borates too high?

[frankgh]

My PB told me my pool was 26400 gal. After adding 640lb of salt and getting around 3500ppm I'm thinking my pool is more like about 22000 gal. The error could stem from the swimout, large bench and curve to the bottom. Based on that I added 17 boxes of 20 Mule team. Now I have my test strips with my new TF100 kit and I am having a hard time reading them. It looks like somewhere between 30-50ppm. If I add another 6-7 boxes of 20 Mule team, is there an issue with having borates between 50-80? My TA is at 60 and pH still rises about 1-2 tenths a day and will climb above 8 at that rate if I let it. I know, I know, post a full set of numbers. Here they are at 1900 tonight. BTW I added 2 quarts of 31.45% MA at 1100, Ph was 7.8 and TA was 70:

Water Temp 90
pH 7.5
FC 2.5
CC 0
TA 60
CH 380
Borates ??? 30-50
CYA 55

 

[reebok]

are you saying the salt level is too high or too low? did you test salt levels before you added salt? my pool was filled in 12/07 and my salt is 1800ppm. I have never specifically added salt, but it comes from chlorine and apparently the breakdown of muriatic acid. so you may have had salt to begin with which would explain the unexpected high level.

 

[Butterfly]

Looks like the borates of 80 would not cause any problems.

Here's a link: borates-too-high-t5699.html

 

[frankgh]

Looks like the borates 50 to 80 would not cause any problems.

Here's a link: borates-too-high-t5699.html

hehehe, before I made this post I did a search for 'borates too high' 'too' and 'high' were ignored and I missed that post.

Thanks!

 

[reebok]

I know isn't that annoying? I found that most times if you use the google search in the bottom left of every page it works better.

 

[frankgh]

are you saying the salt level is too high or too low? did you test salt levels before you added salt? my pool was filled in 12/07 and my salt is 1800ppm. I have never specifically added salt, but it comes from chlorine and apparently the breakdown of muriatic acid. so you may have had salt to begin with which would explain the unexpected high level.

I did test salt before I added. The PB over estimated the size of my pool.

Thanks!

 

[frankgh]

I know isn't that annoying? I found that most times if you use the google search in the bottom left of every page it works better.

I never noticed that feature before! Thanks!

 

[Guest]

My TA is at 60 and pH still rises about 1-2 tenths a day and will climb above 8 at that rate if I let it. I know, I know, post a full set of numbers. Here they are at 1900 tonight.
Borates ??? 30-50
CYA 55

A few observations:
first, get your CYA up to 80 ppm, it will help with the pH rise
water-balance-tips-for-a-swg-t3663.html

Second, if you borates are between 30-50 ppm then they are ging to be buffering pH. Higher is not going to make that much of a difference but will be a stronger algaestat, which is why higher borate levels are recommended for biguanide (Baquacil) pools.

If you are using LaMotte test strips for borates be sure to wait 15 seconds after dipping and read them in direct sunlight. If you aren't get the LaMotte ones, they are much easier to read!

MOST IMPORTANT--How new is your plaster?
All the borates in the world and very low TA is NOT going to do a thing for the acid demand created by new plaster! For the first year (or two!) plaster is leaching alkaline materinal into the water that will create an acid demand and raise the pH. Borates and low TA will affect the pH rise from outgassing of CH2 but will have no effect if you are dumping lye into the pool, which is essentially what new plaster is doing. (Before someone says that it's not lye, I am aware of that but the calcium hydroxide that is produces is every bit as caustic.)

 

[frankgh]

Got it, I will get the CYA up next. I am using the Borate test strips that I got with my TF100 test kit. I am not home right now so I can not confirm that they are LaMotte but the instrutions do say to wait 15 sec after dipping for 5 sec. My problem is seeing the differance between the 30-50-90 on the bottle. When I get home, I will bump it up a few boxes just to be sure but I hear what you are saying about the buffering.

My plaster is about 18 month old so I figured it should be about cured... maybe not...

I'll be home the end of the week and will have the CYA raised before I get home... I have a GREAT wife!

 

[reebok]

the tf100 only uses products that are recommended here, so yes the strips are lamotte. all I can say is, if these are the best ones, I'd hate to see the worst ones :\

 

[Guest]

the tf100 only uses products that are recommended here, so yes the strips are lamotte. all I can say is, if these are the best ones, I'd hate to see the worst ones :\

The other borate strip is the AquaChek which uses shades of tan that are almost identical! They also have a very short shelf life for some reason. The color change from 0 through 80 ppm darkens and then lightens again so it becomes very difficult to determine if the borates are high or low.