Poly 60, borax and algea

[chem geek]

I'm no expert -- people have to remember that I'm not a chemist. With that in mind and with what I do know about physics and chemistry, here's what I think. In standard pool water (pH 7.5, TA 100, CYA 30, CH 300) with 50 ppm Borates, the relative concentrations of the substances that are mostly in the water are as follows (on initial fill with no "extra" salt added):

Chloride ......... 8.1
Boric Acid ...... 4.5
Sodium .......... 4.1
Calcium ion .... 2.9
Bicarbonate .... 1.6
Cyanuric acid .. 0.2

So indeed the Boric Acid is a large component (the fact that it sounds smaller due to "50 ppm" is artificial due to the way this is measured as Boron, not Boric Acid).

I don't know if the index of refraction of water is changed much -- what I meant was more of a literal interaction with light with the molecule itself that then re-emitted it in multiple directions (this is known as "scattering"), but that could just be plain wrong.

As for being a flocculant or clarifier, I don't think so because those are usually molecules with strong polar positive charges (PolyQuat uses an iminio group which is nitrogen with an extra positive charge) since those attract the negatively charged cell surfaces of most algae and bacteria to help them clump together (as well as attracting and clumping other polar molecules in the water). Boric Acid doesn't look like it has that sort of capability, but again I could just be plain wrong about that. It also doesn't look like a chelating agent either since it doesn't have a cyclic structure that could hold metals.

Why not just enjoy the sparkle? This is one area where even I really don't care that much as to why it looks nice since that knowledge won't be particularly useful. Now you know why I didn't become a physical chemist or researcher -- I didn't have enough patience and wanted more applied science.

Richard