Borates - Help

[kevinm]

Hi everyone,

Found this forum last year, bought the test kit. Everything has been great.

Today, I took a sample in to the pool store for a comparison (actually, I had to pick up some parts so thought I would have the water tested.)

They tell me that my borates are low (8) and that I need to add about $150 worth of Optimizer Plus. This is the second time they've told me this. Last time I was in it tested at 18. I then came and checked the forum and added three boxes (per bleachcalc) of borax (that was about 3 weeks ago).

Now, I'm confused why the number went down?

I have a 25k gallon plaster pool with a SWG. The water looks great, here are the other numbers:

Sat idx 0.1
TDS 4000
CYA 60
tot chl 3.0
free chl 3.0
ph 7.6
tot alk 110
adj alk 92
tot hardness 240
minerals 2800
borates 8

Any ideas on what I should do?

Thanks in adance,
Kevin