So you want to add borates to your pool--Why and How

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Aloha Steve,

I am no where near the value of Richard here...so when he chimes in, I would go by whatever he says...

but if you go to PoolCalculator.com, you will find a dropdown for boric acid...when I did it based upon 1,000 gallons of water, it shows that a weight of 38 oz (2-3/8 lbs.) of boric acid will take you from 0 ppm up to 50 ppm. For a 20,000 gallon pool, that would be about 47 pounds, leaving a bit left over for future additions (maintaining boric acid level of the pool).

As usual, test your pH a couple hours later to see if you need to adjust it...

Aloha!
 
w4arf said:
I have looked at most of the forum but can't find a formula for adding "Boric Acid" as I can get it ALOT cheaper and if I understand correctly there will be no or little need to add acid.

I can buy the boric acid for $75 for 55lbs......That seems like it would be alot cheaper than any other product.

One of the products that is ph nutural calls for 2lbs per 1000 gals.

If I were to use straight boric acid what is the rate per 1000 gals.

Regards

Steve Haynes
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The pool calculator (http://www.poolcalculator.com/) lets you switch to boric acid for the borate source, so just use that.

I was too slow everyone else jumped on it. and already gave you the same answer
 
Thanks to everyone that replied so fast! I have had the pool about 17 years and it seems like every summer when It gets really hot....water also. I will get algae growing on the walls unless I raise the FC quite high. I am told that the boric acid will solve that problem as well as making the water feel very soft....and actually save some stress on the SWC.

Great group here.....I wish I would have found it a long time ago.....saved me a lot of pain

Regards,

Steve


demarco said:
w4arf said:
I have looked at most of the forum but can't find a formula for adding "Boric Acid" as I can get it ALOT cheaper and if I understand correctly there will be no or little need to add acid.

I can buy the boric acid for $75 for 55lbs......That seems like it would be alot cheaper than any other product.

One of the products that is ph nutural calls for 2lbs per 1000 gals.

If I were to use straight boric acid what is the rate per 1000 gals.

Regards

Steve Haynes
Click to expand...

The pool calculator (http://www.poolcalculator.com/) lets you switch to boric acid for the borate source, so just use that.

I was too slow everyone else jumped on it. and already gave you the same answer
Click to expand...
 
Just a heads-up to L.A. & SoCal pool owners that Del Amo Chemical (http://www.delamochemical.com) has 50 lb bags of boric acid powder (not granual) for $78. You can pick it up from their warehouse in Gardena and save $40-50 shipping charges. Unfortunately they don't carry smaller bags.

Can anybody tell me what kind of shelf life boric acid has? I need about 75 lbs, so I'm trying to decide between buying a 50 lb bag and supplementing with borax/MA, vs buying 100 lbs and saving 25 lbs for topping up the levels next year.

Edit: Nevermind. After recalculating, I need closer to 90 lbs, so storage isn't much of an issue. Still curious about shelf life if anybody has the number on-hand.

Thanks
 
I have added boric acid a it looks like what everyone said is true....The water is beautiful....Everyone notices the difference and my PH seems locked on.

I have had some thing strange happen and I wonder if it is in regards to the boric acid. I have a autopilot and it will report that amount of salt in the water. I just had a liner replaced and salt was added. After everything settled down the autopilot indicated 3200ppm salt. I had checked it 3 different days.

I added the boric acid about a week ago. Yesterday when I was checking balance I went to the auto pilot and checked the salt level. To my surprise it is showing 3700ppm 500ppm higher than BEFORE the boric acid. Nothing but acid (to bring PH down prior to adding the boric acid) had been added since the last check of salt level

I am wondering if anyone else has seen this happen after adding boric acid. I brought the borite level to 40-50ppm and that is the ONLY thing I have changed.

Has anyone else seen there salt level go up as reported by the/A generator after adding Boric acid?

I am REALLY puzzled by this big jump if it is not tied to the boric acid.

Any and all input welcome.

Regards,

Steve
 
Boric acid remains mostly undissociated so does not increase conductivity very much. While it increases TDS by close to 300 ppm, it won't show up in conductivity meter tests and shouldn't show up as salt in the SWCG. So I don't know why your SWCG is reporting the higher salt level.
 

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w4arf said:
I am REALLY puzzled by this big jump if it is not tied to the boric acid.
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Have you checked the autopilot's measurement against a salt test strip/kit? They have a possible error of up too +/-400 ppm, but I am sure the autopilot has a bit of error and possibly drift too. IMO, when establishing salt levels and investigating changes, I would use a salt test as my reference not the autopilot. If I were to see a shift in the autopilot (like you did) it's back to strips I would go to check if it is real.
 
I called my pool store to compare prices on the amount of Endure I will need compared to the cost of Borax.
I have 45000 gallons and calculated 170 lbs of borax with 11 gal acid. Online I found 55lb blags at Dudadiesel.com, shipped will cost about $300.

My pool store claims I only need 90lbs of Endure. That total is about the same.

Other than the Endure being possibly easier to add, what would be the difference?

Thanks!
 
For 45,000 gallons you need about 107 lbs of boric acid, which would be roughly $150 at Dudadiesel.com and just as easy to add as Endure. Borax and muriatic acid purchased locally, if you can find that much, would be a little under $150.
 
I saw a question early in this thread about the effects of borates on eyes but never saw an answer. My daughters like to open their eyes in the pool. Will a borate level of 50 ppm hurt your eyes if you open them underwater?
 
Someone may have already addressed my question in the 17 previous pages, but here it is anyway...

How does adding Borates affect the Calcium Hardness of my pool. My CH is high...about 500 right now. As advised on another thread, i'm keeping my pH on the low end...around 7.2 to keep the cloudiness down...and its working. Will adding Borates upset that applecart?

It sounds like adding Borates will really help me keep my pool from freaking out down here in SoFla. My pool is exposed to sunlight from sun up till sun down...no shade, no screen...so I battle not only the sun, but leaves from the surrounding privacy hedges, my swimming dogs, and TONS of rain. It also sounds like Borates will make my water "feel" better. I think my high CH level isn't helping me much there.

Thoughts/suggestions?
 
Borates also act a like a ph buffer (like TA), keeping your ph stable longer which is good when you have high CH. Also, pertaining to scaling, you can experiment with this by using poolcalculator.com and watching the CSI value, you will observe that adding Borates lowers the CSI value, which is good when you have high CH.
 

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