Do borate products (Supreme, Optimzier, etc.)work as claimed?

[waterbear]

I do know that some of the montly and weekly treatments that are used with borates contain both tetraborates and boric acid or sodium bisulfate (dry acid) so the pH rise does not occur. Proteam's Weekly Treat is an example that contains tetraborates and dry acid but it is supposed to be used in a pool that already has the borates added just to help maintain levels lost by backwashing. Also, Salt Water Magic montly by Natural Chemisty also contains both tetraborate and boric acid for the same reason. I suspect the problem is that boric acid is not that soluable in the amount neededand by itself would probably have negative impact on the ph as well that is not as easy to adjust.
I just added the tetraborate (borax) and the acid since this is what you would do if you were adding Supreme or Optimizer (or one of the other commercial products) to the pool initially.
Adding the acid is pretty easy, for each 4lb 12 oz box of borax first put 5 cups of acid into the water and then add the borax....then add 5 cups more acid and another box of borax until you reach the target level. For more precise dosing read these two posts
http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showpos...8&postcount=21
http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showpos...7&postcount=22
Just remember to add enough acid first to neutralize the pH of approx 10 lbs of borax added at a time and then alternate adding the acid and borax until you reach your target.