Borates

[JasonJoel]

Before I added borate, I was adding a quart to a half gallon of muriatic acid a week to keep pH in check.

After getting borates up to 50 using boric acid, my pH hasn't moved at all in almost 2 weeks. It is consistently 7.8.

I expected it to buffer it a little bit, but does that sound right to anyone else? I'm using the pH test that came with my tf100 kit.

 

[mknauss]

The use of borates does not reduce the amount of acid needed. It reduces how often you must add it.

I assume you only ever lowered your pH to 7.8 prior to adding the borates? If you lowered it further, that probably increased your acid addition frequency. TA also factors in on the pH rise and acid additions.

 

[JasonJoel]

Gotcha. My TA is 70, down from 90 a few weeks ago.

What I did before was when pH got to 8 I would drop it to 7.2-7.4, rinse and repeat. It would go up about 0.1 pH a day.

Now 14 days after borates added and it has been 7.8 every single time I check it, and I've checked it at least 6 times.

I haven't added a drop of acid - yet. [emoji3] I guess I'll just likely have to add a bunch when it is time, though.

 

[mknauss]

For fun, use PoolMath to see what amount of acid it will take to lower your pH from 8 to 7.4 with the Borates ppm in the water.

 

[JasonJoel]

Yeah, it says I need roughly 3x as much muriatic acid to go from 7.8 to 7.5 at 50 borates versus with 0 borates.

I didn't realize the phone pool math app would show you that if you clicked on the pH. Cool!

In the past I just used the 'effects of adding chemicals' menu item.