Ideal Water Balance Before Adding Boric Acid?

[lcd98]

I just purchased 55 pounds of boric acid granules from Duda Diesel to help with the rising pH levels I typically experience because I do not like handling muriatic acid. My green pool (mesh cover) was opened last week and the pool company added algaecide and chlorine. I bleached and backwashed 6 or 7 times until the pool was crystal clear. Otherwise, I only added salt so far to get my SWG working. I need to do a a bit more balancing but I want to make sure I don’t do something counterproductive since I will be adding boric acid for the first time (hopefully by Wednesday night). Below are my current readings. What should I adjust, in what order and to what level, before adding the boric acid granules? I read other posts but most seem to focus on adding borax and muriatic acid which is a different process as I understand it.

FC 2
CC 0
pH 7.2
TA 50
CYA 0
CH 100
Salt 2800 (ideally should be 3400 per SWG)

Thank you in advance for any guidance you can provide.

 

[YippeeSkippy]

You're going to want to take your CYA up to SWG levels, then also take your FC up with liquid chlorine to the level that you then want the SWG to maintain.
FC/CYA Levels

I would not add boric acid as soon as you want.... Id prefer to see what the pool is doing pH wise. Right now your pH and TA are okay. Once you add borates, it becomes harder to tweak your pH/TA if necessary.

Maddie

 

[lcd98]

You're going to want to take your CYA up to SWG levels, then also take your FC up with liquid chlorine to the level that you then want the SWG to maintain.
FC/CYA Levels

I would not add boric acid as soon as you want.... Id prefer to see what the pool is doing pH wise. Right now your pH and TA are okay. Once you add borates, it becomes harder to tweak your pH/TA if necessary.

Maddie

Please accept my belated thank you for your response. I followed your advice and raised my CYA and chlorine levels among other things. Below are my current test results. I struggle with raising the CYA to the 70-80 range because my fiberglass pool manufacturer (Leisure Pools) recommends CYA levels between 30 and 50 and chlorine levels between 1 and 2 (not to exceed 5).

FC 5
CC 0
pH 7.5
TA 50
CYA 60
CH 225
Salt 3000
Borates 0-15 (probably 0 since I never intentionally added any but it is hard to read the test strip)​

Am I ready to add the Duda Diesel boric acid granules or should I bring my TA up to 80 first or make other adjustments? Also, will adding the boric acid granules affect the other chemical levels such that I will need to counterbalance them? I know that is the case when you use borax and muriatic acid but I have been unable to determine if the same applies to using the boric acid granules.

Thanks again for your assistance.

 

[jimbowrench]

No reason to raise your TA at all from 50. Most struggle to get the TA below 70 for borate addition. With borates, your TA will find a happy medium, and with a fiberglass pool, TA will no longer be a concern. If you raise your TA to 80, you may negate the benefit of borates, and still require frequent muriatic acid additions.

 

[jblizzle]

I am surprised you are finding the pH rise unacceptable with that TA level. Are you trying to keep your pH too low? Nothing wrong with keeping it up at 7.8 or even 8.
The lower you try to keep it the faster it will rise.

 

[lcd98]

No reason to raise your TA at all from 50. Most struggle to get the TA below 70 for borate addition. With borates, your TA will find a happy medium, and with a fiberglass pool, TA will no longer be a concern. If you raise your TA to 80, you may negate the benefit of borates, and still require frequent muriatic acid additions.

Okay. Thank you.

 

[lcd98]

I am surprised you are finding the pH rise unacceptable with that TA level. Are you trying to keep your pH too low? Nothing wrong with keeping it up at 7.8 or even 8.
The lower you try to keep it the faster it will rise.

I haven’t had a pH issue so far this season but I have in the past. My pool manufacturer says to keep pH between 7.2 to 7.6 so when it gets to 7.8 I usually add acid. Last year, I kept my chlorine higher than I have so far this year. This year I have been keeping it at about 5-6 which may be why I haven’t had as much pH rise.

 

[duraleigh]

Borates will not eliminate the use of muriatic acid. I, too, suggest you hold on borates until you get a better history of your pools needs......maybe 30 more days or so.

You will not get the same chemistry advice from your pool manufacturer than you get from us on the forum. You will have to decide which advice to follow. I hope you keep reading and learning here. We've been doing this for about 15 years and the pool water management advice you get on this forum is better than ANY other resource.

 

[lcd98]

Borates will not eliminate the use of muriatic acid. I, too, suggest you hold on borates until you get a better history of your pools needs......maybe 30 more days or so.

You will not get the same chemistry advice from your pool manufacturer than you get from us on the forum. You will have to decide which advice to follow. I hope you keep reading and learning here. We've been doing this for about 15 years and the pool water management advice you get on this forum is better than ANY other resource.

I generally do follow the advice on this forum and it has served me very well but there is a little voice in the back of my head that that tells me I should worry about voiding my warranty if I don’t follow the manufacturer’s instructions. Unfortunately, I added the borates this morning before I saw your post. Hopefully, it will all work out. Fingers crossed.

 

[lcd98]

I generally do follow the advice on this forum and it has served me very well but there is a little voice in the back of my head that that tells me I should worry about voiding my warranty if I don’t follow the manufacturer’s instructions. Unfortunately, I added the borates this morning before I saw your post. Hopefully, it will all work out. Fingers crossed.

And thanks for your advice!

 

[Tena]

I generally do follow the advice on this forum and it has served me very well but there is a little voice in the back of my head that that tells me I should worry about voiding my warranty if I don’t follow the manufacturer’s instructions. Unfortunately, I added the borates this morning before I saw your post. Hopefully, it will all work out. Fingers crossed.

Please update about your experience and thoughts. I'm about to pull the trigger on Duda, because my ph likes to float up and I need it to stay down.

Thanks!