Am I ready for borax?

[Strobos]

Pool was drained and filled in the first week of this month. CYA was added. Test kit came in on the second week. My goal was to get the water to TFP specs and ready for borax treatment. I have been lowering my TA for the last 3/4 days. Here are today's readings.
FC---4.5
CC---0
pH---7.5
TA---80
CH---290
CYA--30
I made an excel table of last weeks tests. I will try to attach a pdf file of it. One thing I noticed was my CH went up from 220 to 290 when I got done lowering the TA. Is this normal? It is possible it is my testing mo. When adding R0012 the color first turns to shades of purple and slowly turns to blue. At what level of purple/blue do I say enough?

My CYA is at the lower limit. Should I add more CYA since I have no intention of using tabs anymore, except for vacations?

And finally, can I do borates now or should I wait awhile to see if everything stays put.?
Thanks

 

[faby3003]

What is your reason for wanting to add borates?

When I first started reading this site a couple of years ago, I too thought I wanted to add borates eventually. However, once I started doing my own testing with my TF-100 pool maintenance has been so easy and my water feels great, so I've never gotten around to adding borates and don't really see the need to.

So, you might want to wait a few weeks and see how you like your pool with the water balanced before adding borates.

But, if you know you definitely want to do it and are motivated now then go for it now.

 

[Strobos]

The pH in my pool has always been erratic. I would add acid and soon the pH would rise. I have learned here that my high TA may have been the cause of it, something the pool companies never once advised me to correct. I also learned here that borates help make pH more manageable. I like that. That is my primary reason. The aesthetics are a plus. I already bought the mules. So it's a matter of when.

 

[JasonLion]

When the CH test turns purple you need to stop adding drops and continue swirling/mixing until the purple goes away, then continue. Purple is called a fading endpoint and tends to cause higher than actual results.

I would raise CYA to 50 because it is the start of the swim season. That way it will still be at least 30 at the end of the season.

Your numbers are fine if you want to add borates now.

 

[257WbyMag]

Adding borates is a good way to help buffer pH swings. It works well for that. But it won't prevent pH rise and you will still need to add acid if your pH gets high. When I had borates in my pool (don't anymore), I still found that I needed to correct pH rises with acid. Not as often, but I did. The difference that I noticed was that I needed double the amount of acid that I used to need to use to effect a pH change. Borates made my pool water more resistant to pH rise for sure, but it also made things more resistant to my attempts to lower the pH when I wanted to. You should think about these things before adding borates.

I am not putting borates down. I'm just saying that they aren't necessary to add to every pool just because you can add it. If you tire of what borates do to your water, also realize the you will need to change out water to get rid of borates as they aren't consumable.

I notice that your TA is 80. You can still go down a bit, say, to 60 and see how that does for you. If you add borates too, you had better be happy with where your TA is before adding them because lowering TA with 50 ppm of borates in the water is like parting the sea. It's very hard to do.

 

[Strobos]

Thanks lion. I'l add the CYA now. The borax can wait a few more days.

Hey 257, if you don't mind, why did you stop using borates? Did you have trouble adjusting TA afterwards?

Thanks