Fighting Algae with Borax

[waterbear]

I guess we're getting some empirical proof that borates do kill algae!

[Kimrst]

I added borax to my intex pool the begining of the season and I've not had the mustard bloom this year either. Its been too long since I did it to remember how much I put in my 6500 frame pool, but I know that is the thing that I'm doing diffrent this year and its working. I'd advise all kiddy poolers to try this in the begining of the season and see if it doesn't work for them. Kimrst

[leejp]

I'm in the Northeast and I generally have to adjust the PH up after heavy rains (which are acidic). Can the Borax be added over several years of time and still be effective?

And... is there a place where one can purchase Borax in bulk?

[waterbear]

To be effective it needs to be in the 30-50 ppm range. Adding borax for pH control generally will not get it into that range. You can probably purchase either the decahydrate or the pentahydrate form in bulk from a chemical supply. Here is a link for the decahydrate form (same as 20 mule team)
http://www.chemistrystore.com/borax.htm

Their prices are actually higher than the grocery store or walmart where you can buy a 4.75 lb box of 20 mule team borax for under $3!

Edit: To achieve 50 ppm borates in your 26k pool (assuming that no borates in the water) you would need 97.5 lbs (about 20.5 boxes of 20 mule team) and would need about 6 gallons of muriatic acid to bring the pH back in line and create the boric acid/borate buffer system in the water.

[leejp]

To be effective it needs to be in the 30-50 ppm range. Adding borax for pH control generally will not get it into that range. You can probably purchase either the decahydrate or the pentahydrate form in bulk from a chemical supply. Here is a link for the decahydrate form (same as 20 mule team)
http://www.chemistrystore.com/borax.htm

Their prices are actually higher than the grocery store or walmart where you can buy a 4.75 lb box of 20 mule team borax for under $3!

Edit: To achieve 50 ppm borates in your 26k pool (assuming that no borates in the water) you would need 97.5 lbs (about 20.5 boxes of 20 mule team) and would need about 6 gallons of muriatic acid to bring the pH back in line and create the boric acid/borate buffer system in the water.

Are Borates effective in controlling bacteria as well? Since going BBB and running appropruate FC for my CYA I have not had an algae problem but did have pink bacteria once. Those buggers are prety persistent. The original owners of the house used Baquacil (Bioguard Softswim) but converted and I think the bacteria may be left over from way back then.

So about ~$100 for the"experiment". If Borates can help with Bacteria it may be worth a try.

[topless]

I paid $2.67 per box at Walmart.
Prior to adding the borax, I was having to add 5-6 lbs of cal-hypo or more per day and keeping the fc above 20 ppm. 2 days now, I added 1 bottle of bleach to keep fc above 6 ppm, my cya is still close to 50.
I'm having trouble letting go of continuously adding chlorine, it's become a habit.

[chem geek]

topless,

I'm glad the Borax is working for you and it's good to know that it seems to inhibit yellow/mustard algae. Prior to your experience, we only saw that it seemed to inhibit the much more common green algae.

By the way, to shock yellow/mustard algae we figured out (through a few users experiences on this forum) that it takes lowering the pH to 7.2 and then raising the FC to 60% of the CYA level (instead the usual 40% for green algae) and holding it there for at least 2-3 days. In your case that would have been 30 ppm FC. Then to keep away the yellow/mustard algae if it gets reintroduced it would take a minimum FC level of 15% of the CYA level or 7.5 ppm FC in your case. In this post you said you had to shock at 25 ppm FC or else the yellow/mustard algae would return in a few days. So that's close to the 30 required for shocking this algae, but was the subsequent maintenance level required to keep it away 7.5 ppm or something else -- the post sounded like dropping anywhere below 25 ppm FC would have the algae return? I just want to confirm that you weren't seeing anything inconsistent with "first 7.2 pH then 30 ppm FC shock then 7.5 ppm FC maintain" at 50 ppm CYA, since this is the advice we are currently giving (and now we can say that Borates will help as well).

Richard