Non Chlorine Pool

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MissFancypants said:
A few reasons, to help keep ph stable, help with Fc levels, keeping the water nice and if any gets absorbed its good for the bones!
Also I just grabbed some white king bleach but now I have it home I dont think its very strong, it says available chlorine is 4% active ingredient sodium hypochloride 42g/l
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That White King Bleach is 4.2%, as Jessa suggests, bleach from Bunnings or the pool shop is a better option for us, its most likely marked as 125g/L. My local pool shop sells it in refillable containers and price wise its similar to Bunnings which is much farther away.

Get some sort note book to keep notes and record all your results. I have managed to keep my borates at 50ppm by adding the correct amount of boric acid from ebay by weight and tracking its % change over time by comparing it to the % change of calcium hardness (CH) and CYA over time. It's not the most accurate as CYA will naturally drop a little and CH is added with town water top ups. Since I've had borates it's dropped about 20% from 50ppm to 40ppm and I've added the correct weight as calculated from poolmath and brought it back to 50ppm.

There is a mannitol test for borate but I haven't been able to get any mannitol. I managed to get the Lamotte borate test strips from the local Lamotte distributor. Test strips aren't very accurate but its the best I can do - my borates are in the 50ppm range.

Insta-TEST Borate (3017-G) - Test Strips Online

Clear Choice Labs are the best option for us Aussies... or Kiwis. Ive found then to have impeccable customer service. They use Taylor reagents with concentrations adjusted for their dropper bottles.

I still prefere the Aussie Gold or BlueDevil pH comparator but you need to check that you get a good one and ignore the chlorine side. Ive seen several that have a manufacture fault where the 8.2 and 7.8 windows are the same colour.
 
We have both types of solar panels. The solar PV panels that make electricity can run anything in the house (including the pool) when it's sunny (15 panels, 4 kW). We also have Oku solar pool heating panels of 18 sq m (190 sq ft) or 60% of pool which is 30 sq m (320 sq ft). Very happy with both so far. :)
 
Just an update: I have ordered the clear choice test kit, hopefully it wont take too long to get here, I'm still having probs with the iron in the water, its a pale colour but I thought it would filter out by now, when I had the SWG it was quite minimal and filtered out fast. My iron levels aren't that high, 0.04mg/L
 
I get 420 grams or mls to go to pH 7.5

You could double-check your pool volume set for 20,000 litres? Also, look for the borax dosage to the right of your pH "Now" and "Target" numbers.

- - - Updated - - -

Other numbers look good by the way :) Great to see!
 

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Fancy I would hold off on the borax for a bit. With you just now getting the test kit it is like you are learning you pool. It is up to you but I would work on learning your pool for about a month. Keep a good log of your test results including big weather events. After a while you will start to see a pattern. Once you can start predicting what your pool wants/needs then add the borax.

:hug: wait until you see how your water looks once it has been balanced with your test kit. It will SHINE like a jewel :sun:

Kim:kim:
 
CYA at 40 to 50 ppm is a very good level for our climate. I help out with two other pools that we keep at 40 and it works very well, so yep, I would add a bit more CYA. It would be helpful if you could add your city to your signature.
 
MissFancypants said:
...

Also just a question about adding Borax the calculator says I should add about 4.4L is that right?, it seems alot
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If you do add borates I would go with boric acid over borax and acid. There are a number of threads with all the useful info - see below. Using poolmath switch the drop down menu from borax to boric acid to get the quantity of boric acid to use. After reading through the boric acid/borax threads I chose boric acid and got it from eBay for under $100. I thought boric acid was a little more accurate with the absence of a test kit and maybe a little easier. The borax/acid ratio is a little out for our acid which from memory is 330mg/L or 33%.

Borates - Why and How

Boric Acid v borax
 
Just want to clarify, were you going to add borax to raise pH or because you were considering adding borates to suppress the rate of pH rise?

Personally, I think a small amount of borax to raise pH at that time made sense, although you could also just give it a bit of time, and pH would probably rise on its own.

I agree with others that it's a bit too soon to get into using borates for managing pH rise.

Come on back with some new test results and we'll help you along as you adapt to TFPC. Everyone here is super-helpful and understands the stage you're at very well... cause we've ALL been there! :)
 
I love Borax, its an amazing mineral! I was just going to add it for a Ph buffer and helping with the water/algae.
And thanks to everyone who has helped, I am so glad to have found this forum, since the SWG died and I went back to chlorine I would have gone the pool shop way and my pool wouldnt look like it does now, I have learnt so much spending hours pouring over posts and it feels good to be able to have some knowledge of looking after my own pool, I now cringe when I hear my firends talking about their cloudy pools and listening to pool shop advice, I shall try and turn them from the darkside :D
These are my latest test as of this morning
FC 4.5
CC 0
PH 7.2
TA 75
CYA 60
And the pool looks amazing!
Oh and usually my Ph would rise and I would have to lower it when on the SWG but now it hangs around 7.2
 
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MissFancypants said:
I love Borax, its an amazing mineral! I was just going to add it for a Ph buffer and helping with the water/algae.
And thanks to everyone who has helped, I am so glad to have found this forum, since the SWG died...
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The main reason I decided to add borates was for pH buffering within the SWG cell and the potential to decrease scaling within the cell.

And a link to the mannitol borate test, although Ive found it difficult to find any cost effective mannitol in Aussie, $60 for 200gms. - Mannitol borate test
 
Just an update and some questions, the pool has been going great, staying stable so I added the borax and up went the PH added the acid and back down again but my Ta is lower, should I raise it or just leave it where it is?

FC-5.5
CC-0
PH-7.4
TA-30
CYA-55
 

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