The Great Tetraborate Experiment!

[Rangeball]

I have never used borax and have a constantly creeping PH. Will be very interesting to follow along.

[waterbear]

Just checked my water and borates hadn't moved...still reading 15 ppm. If the proteam dosing chart is the correct one then I only added about another 6 ppm which won't show up on the test strips.
pH was off the scale. Added another quart of acid....in line with Proteam recommendations (and my acid demand test in my Taylor kit) so I will wait a while and retest. Gotta buy some more borax also.
So far this looks like what Richard and I expected and might point to a dosing error in BleachCalc.

[waterbear]

ok, tested borates and pH.....borates still reading 15 ppm and pH is at 7.6.....so 1 box of borax takes about 1 1/2 qts (48 oz) acid to neutalize the high pH. This is exactly in line with the Proteam dosing which says 10 oz. acid per pound. I put in 4.75 lbs (contents of one box) and it took 48 oz acid to bring the pH back to 7.6.

After I took the readings above I added 2 more boxes and a half gallon of acid. This was about 45 minutes ago and I just retested
Borates are now reading about 40 ppm (test strip color is right between the 30 and 50 ppm reading) and this is in line with the Proteam dosing and taking the weight difference needed for borax vs. supreme (.75 by weight of pentahydrate needed to achive the same level as the decahydrate.) the three boxes I put in (14.24 lbs) is pretty much the same as 10 lbs. of pentahydrate which will give me a ppm increase of about 23-24 ppm for my pool. Since I started with a base reading of about 15 ppm and am now reading about 40 ppm this is all in line.

The pH is testing at 7.5.

It's getting dark now so I will let the pool circulate overnight and continue tomorrow. My goal is to reach about 50 ppm borates. I figure it should take me about 1 1/2 to 2 boxes more to do it and maybe another 2-3 qts. of acid.

[waterbear]

restested my water this morning
FC 5 ppm (no change)
CC 0 ppm (no change)
pH 7.5 (no change)
TA 120 ppm (before stabilizer correction) (no change)
TA 97 ppm (after stabilizer correction) (no change)
CH 220 ppm (no change)
CYA 70 ppm (no change)
Salt 3600 ppm (It is hotter today, the pool water is at 92 degrees so this might be the reason for the higher salt reading...once again using the display on the Aqualogic)
Borates about 40 ppm (measured with AquaCheck borate test strip) (no change)


I added 2 more boxes of borax and 1 quart acid.

Restested pH and borates
pH is off the scale so I added another quart of acid and will retest in a bit.
Borates reading a bit higher than 50 ppm but not as high as 80 ppm. I guess 1 and 1/2 boxes would have been perfect. Once I get the pH corrected I am going to turn on the spllover and dump the spa water into the pool. I will let the system circulate for several hours and then recheck the borates. It might be just enought dilution to get me right on the 50 ppm mark!

[Rangeball]

Evan, are the borates supposed to stabilize PH even if alk is high?

[waterbear]

borates will add about 10 ppm increase in TA for each 30 ppm. I did not see that in my pool so far....I will retest TA once I get the pH stabilized. I do not know what effect they will have at high levels of TA. Chem geek might be better able to answer that. My main goal with this is to see if my pH remains more stable and if my need for acid decreases. It will really take a few months of monitoring this to determine if it was worth it.

[waterbear]

Finally got the pH down to 7.4. It took 3 quarts of acid to neuralize 2 boxes of borax. This is pretty much in line with the Proteam recommendation. I have turned on the spillover and will do more water testing late afternoon.

One thing I have noticed is that the water is so clear it actually seems to sparkle. I know this is just subjective but I really can't explain it any other way. Also, the feel of the water is 'silkier'. I suspect that this is because it is closer to the isoelectric point of the human body. I am starting with a salt water pool so to notice a subjective difference in feel is interesting. It actually leaves a 'soft' feeling on the skin when it drys. I guess this is the same effect of bathsalts which often contain borax.