Ideal time to add Borax

[MBPooldiy]

RO treatment of my pool was just completed this morning. Normally the treatment company would have added chemicals to bring TA to 120 but I asked them to not add any chemicals and leave the water in its purified state. The first thing I plan to do (after running to the store to buy it) is to add stabilizer to reach 50 ppm, then add LC, and then work on TA/pH to get my TA to 80 ppm. For now I've thrown in some trichlor tabs and turned on the waterfall for pH since I know it's low. What has occurred to me is, since TA and pH are so low, would this be an ideal time to add some 20 Mule Team Borax to the pool? If so would there be a benefit to a lower Borax ppm since I see on this site that 50 ppm is the recommended target. According to PoolMath, I could add 3 x 4 lb boxes of 20 Mule Borax before I would have to start alternating with acid. If I stopped there I'd end up with 8 ppm Borax--would that have any noticeable benefits? Could the Borax be added over time--maybe a box each time I need to add acid anyway which is once or twice a week?

The RO company provided the following test results but I will be measuring myself with my Taylor kit shortly to confirm:

FC 0
pH 6.6
TA 59
CH 106
CYA 7
Salinity 346
TDS 486
Temp 89

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Borates below 50ppm don’t do much. Adding Borax will raise the pH with little to no impact on TA. You need to get the pH and FC up quickly or else you’re risking an algae bloom.

 

[AUSpool]

I suspect those numbers are from a ColourQ which can be close if the kit is treated with care but being used as a field kit the cuvetts my not be as clean as they should be which will throw the results out.

As Matt said I would get you FC up asap with bleach and then test and adjust with your own kit.

 

[MBPooldiy]

Well... I added a gallon of LC and a 4 lb box of 20 mule borax before going out to buy the stabilizer. Thanks for the warning--it would have been a shame to get an algae bloom right after the purification.

Added 4 lb of stabilizer about an hour ago in a skimmer sock and it's almost entirely dissolved. (I used Chlorox brand.) I'll try measuring CYA tomorrow afternoon and then again in a couple of days. Between the stabilizer and the pucks should get CYA to around 30 ppm. Hoping that's high enough that my chlorine doesn't burn off too fast in the 100 degree weather. I need to leave the pool for a few days next week so, conveniently, I plan to leave a dispenser with some trichlor tabs and FC high. Now that my CYA is down, any thoughts on the maximum FC level that we should be swimming in? I would still like to keep FC on the high side while the weather is hot, to ensure the algae doesn't come back.

Below are latest test results with my Taylor kit:

FC 7.5
pH 7.2
TA 60