The Great Tetraborate Experiment!

[waterbear]

Week 6....numbers haven't changed much at all! Last Saturday I adjusted the actuator on the return so when in pool mode water flows into the spa at a very slow rate yet the pool returns still have basically full force. The spillover just trickles. This makes the pool and spa one slightly larger body of water (about 6850 gal). I wanted to see what impact this would have...aeration from the spillover in pool mode is minimal. I lowered the spa only run time to 30 minuets/day and kept the cell output at 4%
Pool cell output has been at 5% since last Friday. I did this so I would not have to treat the pool and spa as separate bodies of water but I also did not want the spillover running all the time since it turns off the pool returns.

Tested the water after the pump had shut off in spa mode so I could see if there was a difference in FC readings. There was. Spa was 1.5 ppm higher which is just what I want! (However pool is still a bit high, lowered cell output in pool mode to 4% and will see what happens in a week.) I did a quick check of chlorine levels in spa and pool on Tuesday while in pool mode and both were 8.5 ppm.

Here are the numbers:
Pool FC 7 ppm (Lowered output on cell to 4%today after test, pump run time still 8 hours total)
CC 0 ppm
Spa FC tested after spa only mode 8.5 ppm Spa only mode runs 1/2 hour a day with cell output on 4%
CC 0 ppm
(If I can get the pool FC down and still maintain about a 1.5 ppm higher level in the spa I will be very happy)

pH 7.6-7.7 ( both Ben's kit and Taylor 2005, If pressed I would have to say it's closer to 7.7...it's still holding....decided to put in some acid to drop it down to about 7.5, calculated that I would need about 6 oz.! That's 6 oz. of acid total in 6 weeks! Before the borates I was putting in 24 oz. every 3 weeks!)
TA 100 ppm (Still holding)
After adding the acid the pH was right on the money at 7.5 by Ben's kit and looked to be between the 7.4 and 7.6 on the Taylor kit. I retested the TA twice and still got 100 ppm. I guess 3/4 cup of acid is not enough to affect the TA to any great degree in my pool.
Adjusted alk 76 ppm (CYA back up to 70 ppm since water in pool is at normal level)
Calcium 190 ppm (still holding)
CYA 70 ppm (water level in pool back to normal)
Salt 3100 ppm (readout on AquaLogic) (temp of water is 83 degrees...cooler than last weeks test)
Salt 3300 ppm (Taylor K-1766, got a slight persistant red color at 16 drops, 3200 ppm, but it was not as dark as normal, full color reached at 17 drops, 3400 ppm, so I figure it's about 3300 ppm...normal range anyway)
Pool is still clear and sparkling.

I am not going to post any more in this thread unless there seems to be some major upset in the numbers or my acid use. I am satisfied that the addition of borates to the water DOES do the things claimed for it! I would recommend this to anyone that might want to try it! The most surprising one is the reduction in chlorine demand in my pool. Would love to find out why that is occurring but am not complaining! I was thinking that the lower water temp might be the cause but I have checked the temp during the day and it's still been 88 degrees. It is cooling off more at night though. Perhaps this is the reason. Pool heater has been off through all these test results. Only the spa is heated when in use or when the pump runs in spa only mode.

Perhaps this is tied in with the lower chlorine demand because of the algaestatic properties. I am thinking that if algae doesn't start to grow then less chlorine is used. Perhaps algae is always trying to grow in a pool and the chlorine is killing it and the stuff I was vacumning and collecting in the skimmer sock was dead algae. I have to vacumn less now and my skimmer socks don't need to be changed weekly. They are good for about 2 weeks now. Would appreciate any feedback on this theory.