When to add Borate for a newly plastered pool

[tejobrut]

It's been a month since my pool was plastered with NPT ColorScape Caribbean Blue.
PB started up the pool over ten days to gradually balance the water.

After start-up, water measurements have been pretty consistent as follows:

CH=450
TA=120
CC=0 ~ 0.5
FC=7.5
CYA=40
PH=7.6
Temperature=85

To prep the water for borate, over the past few days, I tried to lower TA to 80.

Over five days with pool covered for preserving solar heat, I kept pH at 7.2 with IntelliChem. TA does not seem to change a bit (still 120).
Yesterday, I removed the pool cover, stopped IntelliChem at 7.2 and aerated over night.
This morning pH was 7.7 so I manually poured half gallon of muriatic acid to lower pH to 7.1 and continue to aerate.

So my questions are:
1. Is it too early to add Borate to newly plastered pool?
2. Should I lower pH to 6.8 to compensate high CH during this lowering TA process?
3. What would be the lowest safe pH level for newly plastered pool?

 

[jblizzle]

Why do you want borates?

1. Well the TA is higher than you would want. So I would say now is not a good time. What is the TA of your tap water?
2. No. Never drop below 7.2
3. 7.2ish (temporarily)

 

[tejobrut]

Why do you want borates?

1. Well the TA is higher than you would want. So I would say now is not a good time. What is the TA of your tap water?
2. No. Never drop below 7.2
3. 7.2ish (temporarily)

One third of my pool is shadowed by two redwood trees and the Polaris 360 collects two full bags of needle leaves every week.
So I plan to use borate as algae inhibitor along with chlorine. Silkier feeling water is the added benefit as I am not using SWG.

Before pool remodeling, my pool guy SLAM the pool on his weekly visit and used trichlor in a floating device to maintain FC. However, my pool still turned green-ish several times every season. Accumulated CYA was probably the culprit that rendered hypochlorous acid ineffective. With a remodeled pool, I opt for a new start, fire the pool guy and try to take care of the pool myself. BBB method sounds straightforward and simple (chemical-wise) to me.

So far I've gone two cycles of lowering pH to 7.2 and aerating back to 7.6ish in two days. TA has not changed a bit - still 120.
Hmm.. Has my effort to lower TA been undone by the pool auto-filler replenishing the pool with tap water, which has TA 220 and CH 300.
PB told me that pool loses about two inches of water through vaporization weekly. So in the past two days, the auto-filler added about quarter inch of water. With 544 sq inch surface, that is about 0.6 gallon of tap water. Hmm.. I turned off the auto-filler this morning. Let's see if TA changes this evening.

 

[jblizzle]

What your pool guy did is not a SLAM.
With a TA that high from the refill water, it is going to make it very difficult if not impossible to lower the TA, which does not make you a good candidate for adding borates.

If you maintain adequate FC, then you do not need borates / algaecides to help prevent issues.

You can always add some salt for a better feel.