Interesting, on all sorts of levels. I hadn't heard that TFP was trying to get away from "BBB Method", though I know it irritates some of them that I originated almost all of the ideas behind "BBB". (Chem_Geek did the analysis that explained EXACTLY how those methods worked.) It's kinda funny, really.

Anyhow:

1. Your TA is not a problem, unless you are using a heater or a SWCG. Not sure why they'd tell you otherwise.

2. The ONLY reason not to add borates while your chlorine level is high, is that you may not be able to test pH levels accurately. I'm not sure if Dave's version of my old PS-233 kit is still using Taylor's phenol red blend. If it is, you can test pH levels up to FC=10 ppm. Above that, you need to do a 50:50 dilution with DISTILLED water (available in gallons from Walmart -- distilled, not 'bottled', 'spring', 'artesian', etc.). IF you use distilled, it won't affect the pH much, but will reduce chlorine levels by 1/2.

3. I doubt borates will help much, but they surely won't hurt, so go ahead.

4. For reasons unknown to me (and Chem_Geek), a small percentage of pools are highly susceptible to mustard algae. (It might be proximity to fresh ground water, like rivers and ponds. The two commercial pools I've dealt with, that had this issue, were close to a river.)

5. The ONLY side-effect free method I know of, of helping with mustard algae is very low phosphate levels. I understand that TFP is fairly rabid against using phosphate removers. They ARE rather a pain to use, at first, and the test kits (even Taylors) aren't great. But if you learn to maintain consistently low phosphate, doing so WILL make it easier to kill resistant algae, and will generally make your pool less susceptible to algae. I'm personally using them with good effect on a large 200,000 commercial pool that has ALWAYS --for 25+ years -- been prone to mustard algae.

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