Quote Originally Posted by waterbear View Post
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.