Is this borax ok for the pool?

[Cm_ls1]

After exhausting my search for boric acid / borax here in Australia.

I finally found a guy that was selling a bunch of 55lb bags of borax for $22 ea

So I bought one ! I only need 1/2 bag for my pool , but keep for next season , I asked him what he had them for and apparently make some fire retardant ceiling insulation mix with it.

Is this ok for my pool ?

 

[jblizzle]

That is indeed the same ingredient as the Borax we find here in little boxes ... good find!

 

[Cm_ls1]

Oh good , don't know how long it's been sitting there , does it have a shelf life?

 

[JasonLion]

No, as long as it stays dry it should last nearly forever.

 

[SwimAustin]

That is indeed the same ingredient as the Borax we find here in little boxes ... good find!

Same ingredient and even the same manufacturer.

 

[Cm_ls1]

My TA is at 90 now , is it ok to add the borates at this level ? Ph is at 7.4 and slowly rising

Fc is at 7-8 with no cc

Chlorinating with cal-hypo for the next few weeks to add some calcium , I'm at 275 now slowly increasing to 300 before switching to liquid.

It's just that with winter coming , I'm thinking of not adding the salt or turning on my swg until spring, according to pool math this will keep my csi index closer to 0.

My questions-

Is it detrimental to leave my swg on "off" - standby mode with the cell sitting in there for so many months.

Adding the borates now in combination with the cooler water should reduce my chlorine usage?

My cya is at 60 due to me thinking I was going to add the salt soon but now that I might hold off on that , can the cya stay at 60?

 

[JasonLion]

You can leave the SWG "off" with no problems.

Borates don't change chlorine consumption all that much, while cold water will dramatically reduce the amount of chlorine you need to use.

CYA at 60 when chlorinating manually is not a big deal. The odds of having problems are just slightly higher, not enough to be at all likely to cause trouble.

 

[duraleigh]

I want to compliment CM_ls1 but have to do so by hi-jacking his thread just the tiniest bit.

He kept his last post within his thread rather than start a new thread. That is a very good thing.

Even though the subject was changed almost completely, it is nice to have the "borax" info tied together with his SWG question. We get to see his "whole story" in one thread.

Prime rules for newbies....

1. Don't hijack another's thread (question) by inserting your own question....even if it seems related. Start your own thread.

2. Keep your post concise. If you ask 20 questions in one post, few will respond. Ask one or two, get the answer, then ask one or two more....keeping them in the same thread. It is very confusing for us frequent responders to have a member with 4 (or even more) threads going on at once.

 

[Cm_ls1]

Ahhhw shucks thanks mate !

It only makes sense anyway not to start a bazillion threads

 

[Cm_ls1]

Ok I decided to add the borax in this afternoon/night

Double checked pool math for amounts

Checked water

Ph 7.5
Ta 90

Poured 1/2 the amount of acid slowly in front of return jet ,

then turned on the swim jet to mix things up for 10 sec

I then poured 1/2 the amount of borax into a bucket and broke up some lumpy bits as best I could.

I then broadcast the powder around the pool , it mostly turned into a white cloud as it entered the water.

A few pieces fell to the bottom which I then brushed , I brushed the whole pool ,the pieces dissolved fairly quickly.

I then repeated the process with the remaining amounts of acid and borax.

As the borax spread / dissolved around the pool I noticed a haze in the water, I didn't think this should happen from other threads I had read

Any I ideas?

I rechecked the water now ( 2 hrs later)

And the ph is 7.6 with Ta 100 (originally 90) so that seems ok

But here is a pic from the deep end , not sure if you can see the haze but def no crystal clear like before I began this process , I'm still calm , not panicking yet , but what's going on?!?

ive left the filter on to run all night , hopefully it will be crystal clear by the morning , with some added sparkle ?

 

[Cm_ls1]

Well it's the next day now , and it's cleared up considerably , but the water is still looking a bit dull !

There is still a light haze , I will run a complete set of test to see what's going on.

Seems like my pool lost its sparkle by adding borates

 

[Divin Dave]

Im watching this thread because I am considering Borax too. I hope everything turns out ok and it just needs a bit more filtering.

 

[Cm_ls1]

Well it's continuing to clear, still not impressed, I'll reserve judgement till after 48hrs of filtering

I did a complete test

Cl- 7
Cc-0
Ph-7.6
Ta-100
Cya - 40 (this is a surprise last time I checked a month ago it was 60 , I've done a 2-3 back washes over that period but didn't think there would be such a discrepancy- look like I'll recalculate my chlorine level)
Ch - 300 bang on!

Oh and I know it says to wait 48 hr before doing the test but....

Looks right on 50ppm

 

[Cm_ls1]

Just for comparisons sake ( even though these shot may vary slightly in time of day)

Now -

A few days ago-

 

[chem geek]

I just added some borates, but did so using boric acid and did not notice any cloudiness. The Borax will raise the pH locally, but since you added acid first that effect should have been lessened. Your calcite saturation index is around +0.1 to +0.2 (depending on temperature) so it might be that some calcium carbonate formed when you added the borax. If this persists, you can see if it clears when lowering the pH. If so, then that's what happened. Once it clears, it should stay pretty clear. It should have also been caught in the filter and it does sound like that is why it is slowly clearing. Adding acid would just make it dissolve/clear faster.

Since you have an SWG, you could lower your TA to 70 ppm since you don't want calcium carbonate in your SWG cell as that will shorten its life.

 

[Cm_ls1]

Thanks chem , I hope so, it's continuing to clear up slowly

According to pool math with a water temp of 15c(59f) when I added the borax, I should of had a csi of -0.09

So you think I should add some more acid to get the ph to 7.2-7.4?

The swg is not operating and there is no salt in pool

 

[Cm_ls1]

I added 300ml of acid as chem suggested the ph dropped to 7.4 , kept pump running , it's been nearly 24hrs

I can say that the water is crystal clear again !

Happy days !

We'll see tomorrow morning how the pool looks.

 

[chem geek]

I thought your water was warmer which was why I thought the CSI was higher. Anyway, I'm glad the small drop in pH worked for you. Now that it is clear, it should pretty much stay that way even if the CSI creeps up a bit, say from rising pH.

 

[Cm_ls1]

I switched the pump off last night after 30hrs since adding borax

Next day now and it's overcast , but the water is crystal clear , which is the best way I can describe it, it's glass like on the surface!

My suggestion is if you can get the boric acid , do it that way.

 

[Cm_ls1]

Cat used to use the pool as its water bowl.

Before borates

Since adding borates it hasn't touched the water , goes right up to it sniffs it and refuses to drink , maybe it can detect the borates?