Is it Safe to Add Borates?

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J

Jannzas

Member
Jun 12, 2024
12
Rutherfordton, NC
Pool Size
27000
Surface
Vinyl
Chlorine
Salt Water Generator
SWG Type
Jandy Truclear / Ei
Below are my most current numbers. I keep fighting ph. I know cya is high, we are getting a lot of rain soon and I expect this to help lower cya for us. My question is would adding boric acid to the pool be a good idea, and, if so, could I do that now or do I need to wait until I get my cya back down? According to the article and math calculations I’ve done, I would need to add around 60lbs of boric acid. This will be our first real pool season. We put our pool in at the tail end of fall last year. We didn’t cover the pool this winter and I used, what I thought were, cya free pucks to keep chlorine out. I realize now that they are my culprit for exceptionally high cya. I also would love any suggestions for a better cya test. I loathe the cya test in my tfp testing kit. I just never feel like I’m truly accurate.
IMG_1781.png
 
Jannzas said:
Below are my most current numbers. I keep fighting ph. I know cya is high, we are getting a lot of rain soon and I expect this to help lower cya for us. My question is would adding boric acid to the pool be a good idea, and, if so, could I do that now or do I need to wait until I get my cya back down? According to the article and math calculations I’ve done, I would need to add around 60lbs of boric acid. This will be our first real pool season. We put our pool in at the tail end of fall last year. We didn’t cover the pool this winter and I used, what I thought were, cya free pucks to keep chlorine out. I realize now that they are my culprit for exceptionally high cya. I also would love any suggestions for a better cya test. I loathe the cya test in my tfp testing kit. I just never feel like I’m truly accurate.
View attachment 644500
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If you let your pH get to 7.9 or 8.0, the pH rise will slow down a lot. It’s kinda weird in that the lower the pH gets, the faster it rises back up to its natural balance point.

Do you have any water features like waterfalls or jets that aerate the water? That makes pH rise as well and borates won’t counteract that.
 
If you are a new pool owner, I'd give yourself a year of ownership before switching to Borates.
As @Bperry indicated, with a TA of 60, your pH should be stable between 7.8 and 8.0. Don't lower your pH until it is above 8 (purple hues on the test).
Stop trying to force pH any lower that 7.8 and you should be just fine.
 
And just to be sure run a dilution test for the CyA. 90ppm is up where test result starts to become inconclusive. Use a 50/50 pool water/tap water sample, run the test normal then multiply the result by 2. It will rule out the possibility of having a much higher CyA value.
 
Bperry said:
If you let your pH get to 7.9 or 8.0, the pH rise will slow down a lot. It’s kinda weird in that the lower the pH gets, the faster it rises back up to its natural balance point.

Do you have any water features like waterfalls or jets that aerate the water? That makes pH rise as well and borates won’t counteract that.
Click to expand...
No. We don’t have any water features. Our returns just barely break the surface and cause some slight rippling. Should the all be pointed directly down. I’ve never really know where to aim my returns.
 
Jannzas said:
Below are my most current numbers. I keep fighting ph. I know cya is high, we are getting a lot of rain soon and I expect this to help lower cya for us. My question is would adding boric acid to the pool be a good idea, and, if so, could I do that now or do I need to wait until I get my cya back down? According to the article and math calculations I’ve done, I would need to add around 60lbs of boric acid. This will be our first real pool season. We put our pool in at the tail end of fall last year. We didn’t cover the pool this winter and I used, what I thought were, cya free pucks to keep chlorine out. I realize now that they are my culprit for exceptionally high cya. I also would love any suggestions for a better cya test. I loathe the cya test in my tfp testing kit. I just never feel like I’m truly accurate.
View attachment 644500
Click to expand...

IMG_1784.jpeg
Updated test results from this morning after some rain.
 
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