What's in those Mineral Springs bags?

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kjcole

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Jul 3, 2008
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Solon, Iowa
I'm a new pool owner (15X30 ABG Lomart) with a Mineral Springs (Goldline AcquaTrol I believe) SWG. First, this forum and been a wealth of knowledge - so here's a big thanks to everyone involved!

The PB started it up with a chlorine shock, and then added the Mineral Springs salt (Beginnings). They gave me the Mineral Springs Renewal and told me to add 1 1/2 cups once a week. Thus far (running since mid-June) I've been tickled with how great the water quality has been (sparkling clear all summer), with minimal work on my part to keep the chemistry balanced. The solar cover (one of those bluetop/silverbottom diamond bubble jobs) stays on day and night except when someone swims (but I'm wondering if on sunny days the pool would warm faster with the cover off?).

My FC stays in the 1-5 ppm range with my filter running about 9 hours/day with the cell set at ~40%. My unit reads about 2800 ppm salt (but other tests suggest it is low by about 300 ppm - I just ordered AquaChek salt strips thanks to info gleaned from this site). Here's what I'm curious about. My pH is staying in the 7.7 range but I haven't added any muriatic acid since start-up in mid-June. Why is that? Are there dry acids in that Renewal stuff (there must be borates because my test strips show good levels)? My TA is high (150) and I've just fitted a 50 foot 'soaking' hose (the kind with the little holes so it acts like a sprinkler) to my air compressor so I can get it down to the 70-90 ppm range before I close it for the winter. Is the high TA the reason for the more stable pH?

I'm wondering if I should abandon the Mineral Springs stuff and maintain my chemistry by adding whatever substances I need separately. I don't like not knowing what is going in, the excellent results notwithstanding. The cost of the Renewal bags don't bother me, it's the lack of understanding of what's in there (OK, I'm a professor and scientist, so I like to know how these things work).

Thanks in advance,
Kelly
 
Welcome to TFP!

The Mineral Springs products contain a mixture of salt, borax, and CYA. In addition to being quite expensive, they don't allow you to adjust each of those levels separately.

The borates are helping to buffer your PH. Presumably that is why your PH has been relatively stable despite your slightly high TA level.
 
Thanks, Jason. Starting next season I'll abandon the combination products and monitor/regulate these chemicals separately.

Once again, thanks for a fantastic forum. These pools can be quite intimidating for people like me who have never owned a pool before.

Kelly
 
I am also new to this site. Great site! I have had a Salt Water pool for almost 3 years now. My pool company instructed me to use Renewal as well and I have done so. I was wondering if these bags are providing any true benefit? My water quality has been excellent since being a pool owner so I shouldn't complain, but these bags are $13 each and it adds up. Do you see value in continuing to add this product?
 
I don't see any point in buying Renewal. The individual chemicals are available far less expensively separately. The "magic" ingredient in Renewal is borates, and you can simply use 20 Mule Team Borax as a source of borates instead.
 
Thank you!

JasonLion said:
I don't see any point in buying Renewal. The individual chemicals are available far less expensively separately. The "magic" ingredient in Renewal is borates, and you can simply use 20 Mule Team Borax as a source of borates instead.
Click to expand...
 
As a Mineral Springs SWG owner as well, let me throw my $.02 in here! :lol: Thanks to the fabulous folks on this forum I have NEVER used Renewal in my pool. It was just installed this past Spring. I don't have a clue what the PB used on start-up as I wasn't there; but I can tell you that since then, nothing but a little borax, a little bleach and a little muriatic acid has been added. My pool has been sparkling all summer and still is! From the beginning, all I have done is taken my readings every week with the TF kit offered here and plugged those numbers into Jason's pool calculator. Whatever adjustments it told me I needed to do, I did. That has been so very little; it has absolutely surprised me to no end. I have spent around $40 this whole season with half of that still sitting in garage unsued as of yet! :-D

So, yes, there is something else you can use!
 
Kelly, these guys have given you the best advice!! Use your Mineral Springs unit as if it were an Aqua Rite and add the other chems as needed :goodjob:

ps - I'd like to say 'hi' to Karen :wave: - hope all is well, maybe there'll be a Jimmy show in Nashville next year :punkrock: :wink:
 

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:cop: Hijack in progress! :-D

Awwww....Hi Waste! :wave: If it hadn't been for you back in the Spring, I might have gone more crazy than I am! :lol: Boy, Nashville sure is due a Jimmy show! I think I'm having withdrawals! :shock: I had actually gotten a little routine going before the weather turned cool too soon of floating around the pool listening to the Sat. night concert wherever he was. It was pretty cool! Dang weather put a stop to that! :rant: :evil:

Okay..sorry Kelly! Anyway..listen to Waste and "the boys"...they know their stuff! :-D
 
And you can bet I'll be following this advice. I'll be closing the pool in a few weeks and next spring will see me using borax, solar salt, muriatic acid, and bleach as needed to supplement my SWCG. So long to the expensive Mineral Springs bags.

Kelly
 
I'm adding to this existing thread for posterity and sharing information.
I canned the Mineral Springs chemicals this year.
Last year was my first pool year and i simply continued what the previous owner was doing. She opened the pool before I moved in so I purchased the chemicals and paid for start up.
I looked at the bill and it was $1200 in chemicals and $450 for the opening (they actually charge $100 to take the cover off and put it in the bag). My Friend's company that is all part of the opening.

I thought this MSDS was interesting on the Mineral Springs Renewal.
http://www.hydropool.com/downloads/MSDS/bioguard/bioguard-mineral-springs-renewal-msds.pdf

2nd page has the ingredients.
Dry Acids
Boric Acid
CYA

So at the beginning, my Chlorinator had a hard time keeping up. PB just said to throw in a couple more bags of the Renewal and crank up the SWG.
I went back 2 weeks later with samples and it was the same story. This went on twice.
The regiment was to throw in 2 of these 4lb bags (mind you, these are $15 a bag) into the pool each week. Yes. $30 a week
I then went to a store by my work and the lady said I was low on salt and to put in 3 bags. After that, SWG was keeping better but not that great.
Eventually it was better and the SWG was keeping up.
in Hind sight, I think the extra bags was just to get the CYA up. I went in late Aug and the CYA on the print out was 80 (Who knows what it really was). At that point, My SWG was not having problems keeping up at I think 20% or 40%, I did not keep notes.

Long story short, I"m off the Mineral Springs cool aide. I never had a problem with water quality I would say, but I am feeling much more confident managing my own water this year.
 
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