The Great Tetraborate Experiment!

[cgc2]

$221.00 for the Boron Test Kit from Taylor KIT NUMBER: K-1541
Kinda pricey....looks like strips for me as I convert my pool

[ccr-n-ia]

An additional benefit to adding the borax is that it wiped out all of the water bugs in my pool.

[waterbear]

$221.00 for the Boron Test Kit from Taylor KIT NUMBER: K-1541
Kinda pricey....looks like strips for me as I convert my pool

NOT the test kit you want. It will only test up to 15 ppm boron.
Proteam has a similar titration test kit that is designed to test Supreme (their brand of borax for pools) that is about $70. Any pool store that is a Proteam dealer should be able to order it. I have not been able to find it online. I have ordered one from our Proteam ditributor at work (it's backordered until July 19) so when it comes in I will post how it works. I have also talked to tech support at LaMotte and they told me that their borate test strips have a better color differentiation than the AquaChek. I have not been able to find the LaMotte test strips anywhere yet since they are a relatively new product but I am trying to find them so I can check them out. Perhaps if enough people contact LaMotte about the unavailability of the strips they might get them more widely distributed.

The Proteam test strips are rebranded AquaCheks. I do not know what the Bioguard ones are but I suspect they are the same since both strips are used in the repective companies strip readers for their in store water testing and all the strip readers I am familiar with use AquaChek strips.

[leejp]

Here in the Northeast we always have to raise the ph because the rain is so acidic. Would I get the same benefits simply using Borax to raise the ph after each rainstorm over time?

[waterbear]

probbaly not since it will take about 97.5 lbs of borax (each box is 4.75 lbs so that is about 20.5 boxes) to raise your 26k gallon pool to 50 ppm borates if you are starting out with no borates in the water. You would also lose a little each time you backwash your DE filter. Using borax to raise pH will add a small amount of borates to the water but you will not get anywhere near the 30-50 ppm range that is required to see it's other benefits.
EDIT: you would also need just over 6 gallons of muriatic acid to neutralize the pH rise from the borax addition and create the boric acid/ borate buffer in the water.