Anyone regret adding borates?

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C

cruzmisl

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May 26, 2007
185
Hi,
I'm considering adding borates to my pool but have a hard time adding 55lbs of the stuff and 3 gallons of acid to my pool :shock: Seriously though I know there are tons of benefits but anyone regret doing it for any reason? Also when they say the water feels silky it doesn't feel slimy does it? Lastly, no trouble opening eyes under water or water ingestion (i'm thinking kids).
Thanks!!
Joe
 
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borates for three years now and no regrets! No slimey feel at all and the water sparkles and feels great!
pH much more stable too.
Remember that there are a lot of commercial borate products that have been on the market for several years now, Supreme, Optimizer, Endure, Maximizer, Salt Support, Salt Water Magic, Mineral Springs to name a few. If they didn't have benefits do you think these products would exist?
 
cruzmisl said:
Hi,
I'm considering adding borates to my pool but have a hard time adding 55lbs of the stuff and 3 gallons of acid to my pool :shock: Seriously though I know there are tons of benefits but anyone regret doing it for any reason? Also when they say the water feels silky it doesn't feel slimy does it? Lastly, no trouble opening eyes under water or water ingestion (i'm thinking kids).
Thanks!!
Joe
Click to expand...
I added borates to my pool a couple of months ago to help control pH rise secondary to aeration by water features. I have mixed emotions about it sometimes. Nothing BAD per se...I just ended up be a little less impressed than I thought that I would be.

As for water clarity, the water does sparkle like Waterford crystal with the borax being in there. But then again, my water looked nice beforehand. I think that it looks better though. As for the feel of the water, it definitely feels nice and "silky" since the borax lowered the surface tension quite a bit. So much so in fact, that the meniscus (water line) in the test kit test tube is no longer rounded or concave, but completely flat. As for the pH though, I have found that I am adding more acid after adding the borax than I was needing to add before I added the borax, and with greater frequency. If I don't address pH rise at least every two days with acid, then the pH will go above 8.0. Whether the waterfall is on or not, it seems to make no difference. This has never made sense to me really.

Eventually, splash out will lower my borate levels. I doubt that I will replace the lost borax when indicated.
 
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I added Borates in the hope it would help stabilize my PH rise, but it did not seem to affect that at all. The water does look and feel better, but no affect on PH.

My PH rise issue was only addressed by getting my TA down to 80 and holding it there.

dave
 
Well, I'm done adding the borates and salt.

Before readings:

FC 5
CC 0
TA 80
CH 80
CYA 40
PH 7.4
Salt 800

Pump output 40 GPM

After readings:

FC 2
CC 0
TA 100
CH 80
CYA 40
PH 7.8
Salt 1890
Borates 50
Temp. 79

Pump output 40 GPM

The water looks great, but no one is here to go swimming until Sat. Also, no one knows that I added salt and borates. I'll lower the PH alittle after the storms. Maybe the rain will lower the PH enought. I also increased the chlorine output on the RoloChem by 50% for awhile. Instead of 2 tenth of a gal a day I will put 3 tenths of a gal per day.

I won't know if we(wife) are happy with this new set-up until people go swimming.
 
lovingHDTV said:
I added Borates in the hope it would help stabilize my PH rise, but it did not seem to affect that at all. The water does look and feel better, but no affect on PH.

My PH rise issue was only addressed by getting my TA down to 80 and holding it there.

dave
Click to expand...
Borates in addition to lowering the TA help stabilize the pH. Lowering TA will work but the combination of the two work better. If you don't lower the TA first then the borates probably won't have that much effect.
 

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I added 50ppm of borates (via Borax) to my pool a year ago and the only regret I have is that I didn't do it a lot sooner!

Algae prevention was my sole purpose for adding Borates and it has worked for me. I have not had to deal with even the slightest amount of algae since adding borates. My chlorine demand is less and, yes, the water does feel "softer" and it "sparkles" more. I maintain my FC in the 3-4 ppm neighborhood (cya is about 40), I target a PH level of 7.5 and I do have to add acid weekly to maintain. My sanitizing method is 12.5% liquid bleach and I add 1/3 gallon nightly. I've been running my TA around 80-90ppm. So it's been pretty simple since adding borates: Add bleach nightly, some acid weekly and some baking soda (to raise ALK) occasionally. My pool water is (now) always crystal clear!

I live in the Phoenix, AZ area and our summers make swimming pools a breeding ground for algae; near constant sunshine and water temps that reach 94 degrees. Borax (and the experts on this forum) have made my life a lot easier and allowed me to enjoy my pool a lot more!

The stuff works!
 
Hello, everyone. I'm a newbie to the BBB method and began to adjust my pool chemistry using Bleach, Baking Soda, MA, and stabilizer. Currently PH 7.5, FC 4, TA 80, CYA 70. I read lots to threads pertaining to adding borate/MA to30-50 ppm to pool water. Its a 12000 ga Salt water pool. My wife is somewhat concerned with me adding borate to our pool water because my youngest 8 yr old doesn't drink the pool water when enjoying a swim but occasionally she may ingest some during the course of her swim. I wanted to add borate to help with my PH drift which causes me to use MA more often to keep PH at 7.5. Member, any advice would be greatly appreciated.
 
robdgonz said:
Hello, everyone. I'm a newbie to the BBB method and began to adjust my pool chemistry using Bleach, Baking Soda, MA, and stabilizer. Currently PH 7.5, FC 4, TA 80, CYA 70. I read lots to threads pertaining to adding borate/MA to30-50 ppm to pool water. Its a 12000 ga Salt water pool. My wife is somewhat concerned with me adding borate to our pool water because my youngest 8 yr old doesn't drink the pool water when enjoying a swim but occasionally she may ingest some during the course of her swim. I wanted to add borate to help with my PH drift which causes me to use MA more often to keep PH at 7.5. Member, any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...

Here you go. :)

Are Borates Safe to Use?
 
And don't forget, there are more than one way to add Borates to your pool. Boric Acid works just fine and you don't have to mess around with MA if you are worried about that. There a site called DudaEnergy that sells all kinds of chemicals, some of which we use to correct very specific problems.
 
Hello, I added borates this year and am very happy. Water does sparkle. I didn't notice a big difference in "feel" but, the family said it was better (who am I to argue :rolleyes:)

The biggest upside for me is PH stays locked in (unless I over aerate), but then it's a little acid to correct.

I did the borax and acid, which wasn't bad at all, just labor intensive. If I had to do it over I would probably get the boric acid from duda as it seems to be a much easier and safer way to do it.

I have grand kids in the pool and am not worried about ingestion of water (other than they may drain the pool), so we always get on them about "drinking" :)

hope that helps !
 
The EPA allows borate products for pools to dose up to 50 ppm. As noted in the the borates safety link, the EPA is very conservative in how they measure safety where a 50 pound child is assumed to swallow up to 2-1/2 tablespoons of pool water every day and that is with a factor of 100 margin of safety (i.e. you'd have to drink a gallon of pool water every day) to get to the No Observed Adverse Effect Level and another factor of 3 to where first symptoms were seen in male dogs. We aren't proposing anything different than is done using products such as BioGuard Optimizer Plus and ProTeam Supreme Plus.
 
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