borax question

[gordyjamz]

will borax have a greater affect on ph than TA? I've been trying to get my TA down (its at 230 right now) with muriatic acid. As I expected its lowering my ph (at 7.0 now) as well. I thought I heard this somewhere in the forum that borax raises ph with little effect to alkalinity. My theory is to drop down the alk to where it should be with the acid, then get my ph back up with the borax, without getting the alk high again. Will my theory work?

[PoolDoc]

Yes, borax will affect pH more than TA.

But, your theory about alkalinity won't really work, though it's an improvement over the one published in pool books and guides, where you lower your pH, and the raise it again with soda ash (sodium carbonate) in a useless attempt to lower alkalinity.

If you have high alkalinity, you probably just need to aerate. Doing so will strip carbon dioxide which is a portion of the carbonates present, and will thus raise your pH, while leaving your alkalinity down.

There's a 'sticky' HOWTO in the alkalinity section that explains this more. Also, I'm moving this thread there, since that's really where it goes.

Ben