Where to buy boric acid?

[waterbear]

My feeling is that is is overkill to use both and the borate only needs to be dosed once per season (or year in most cases!) and is going to cost less in the long run.

[JimK]

Jim,
There's no harm in going both the Borates and Polyquat route together. You shouldn't need to add more than a shot glass of Polyquat every week now that the problem is cleared up. At that rate a quart should last you 21 weeks--all summer. Polyquat is the ONLY algaecide we recommend. I like the stuff a lot.

You've got it fixed. It ain't broke. Why fix it?

Carl

I've been dosing the polyquat per the label; for my 20k gal pool it turns out to be 8oz per week. Including the initial dose I put in at the beginning of the season (1qt) I go through about 7qts per season (about early May to early Oct here in SE VA).

So you think I can get by with much less each week?

I completely understand and usually agree with "if it ain't broke...". That explains why I'm hesitant to change my routine. But if I can save a bit of money, that's motivation to consider changing. In this case, if I can greatly reduce or eliminate the need for polyquat, that would save me about $125-$170 per season. And speaking of saving money, I just found out that my routine of shocking every two weeks is unnecessary, so there's money to be saved there as well (I spend about $100 per season on cal hypo).

My feeling is that is is overkill to use both and the borate only needs to be dosed once per season (or year in most cases!) and is going to cost less in the long run.

I'm wondering the same thing. Perhaps instead of going cold turkey on the polyquat, I might try gradually using less and less to see what happens.