Borate test

Your right it does.. So small! Ok I have been using less btb for sure. Going to try again.
 
Not sure what you are asking. How many drops did you record in step 7?

I used 8 drops of r-0010 in step 7 to get back to baby blue. See attached, left beaker was the baby blue I needed to return to, right beaker is after the completed test l, which I guage is back to the correct colour.

Here is what I did for my 50ml sample, my TA is 80 btw.

R-0007 x 2 drops
Btb x . 5ml
R-0009 x 11 drops (at 9 it was already yellow, but did 2 more per per Juiceys reco)
R-0010 x 2 drops
1/4 measuring teaspoon mannitol
R-0010 x 8 drops

So now my borates are at 32ppm. Higher than 28 but still a far cry from the 56ppm where I would expect to be.

I am still really scratching my head. Am I mixing up the r-0009? Juicey's comment suggested I would need 20 drops for 50ml sample, But I am hitting yellow at 9.. So stopped at 11..

Have I misunderstood something? Ty all
 

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With a 50mL sample it will require twice what you measure in the standard TA test (25mL). So if your TA is 70ppm, add (7+2)x2 or 18 drops of R-0009 to your borate test. I suspect it won’t change the outcome but I just want to be 100% sure.
Try it again, if your TA is 80, then add (8+2)*2=20 drops of the 0009. He also asked you to add more mannitol. Add three 1/8tsps of Mannitol. Test again and do both of these modifications. Likely won't make a difference, but then we will know.
 
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Try it again, if your TA is 80, then add (8+2)*2=20 drops of the 0009. He also asked you to add more mannitol. Add three 1/8tsps of Mannitol. Test again and do both of these modifications. Likely won't make a difference, but then we will know.
OK ty.

So this time :
R-0007 x 2 drops
Btb x . 5ml
R-0009 x 20 drops
R-0010 x 4 drops (I needed 4 now instead of 2 to get to baby blue)
1/8 measuring teaspoon mannitol x 3
R-0010 x 10 drops

So measuring 40ppm now which is closer still to 56ppm.

I guess the question is if this is accurate now. Also, I'm not clear on why I added 20 x r-0009. The 50ml instructions state it should take between 8 and 12 drops. Unless that drop count is for the 25ml test?
 
Probably fairly accurate at this point. The point of the excess R-0009 is to get rid of all the carbonate alkalinity. By knowing your TA, and adding that amount, you ensured that you got all of it.

I ran my full battery today, and I use this test. I added enough earlier this year to bring me back up from 30 to 50. My test this morning is 48. I had two large backwash (1"-1.5") so it is spot on.

The test does work and is accurate. Has been for me for 3 years.
 
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Ty. And sorry didn't mean to suggest that it isn't accurate. More so questioning whether the way I've implemented the test has produced those accurate results. I guess this is the one of the full battery where I'm nervous that I might over apply borax due to lower readings that I' m getting.

Is it fair to say that in the future I can over drop r-0009 and not be at risk of tainting the test?

Because next time around I would probably go back to my 8 drops for TA of 80, which seems was not enough?

Also feel I like this one is a good candidate for a YouTube video to follow along :) maybe once I get good at it I will post one!
 

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From the instructions:

*If your pool water has very high levels of TA (>100 ppm), I would suggest experimenting with the the number of drops in Step 3. It is important to get the sample down below the transition point for the BTB indicator and a high TA water sample will make it necessary to use more drops of R-0009.

*The amount of bromotymol blue (BTB) used in Step 4 should be adjusted to give you the best color shade you can see. 6 drops of BTB is just a starting point, use more if needed.

*You can add extra mannitol powder as well. The point is to have excess mannitol powder in solution so that all of the boron reacts with it. Using too little will give you a false-low result.
 
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Oh wow. Now I feel dumb. Looks like I removed all that when I printed it into a small laminated card. Thanks for pointing this out
 
For ME, I have found that using more BTB (.5ml) make the color transitions easier to see. Using the method the @JoyfulNoise mentioned for the number of drops of 0009 works great. I also found that 3x1/8tsps of mannitol works better. It has been very accurate (additions and results are as expected), and the color transitions are obvious. YMMV
 
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