Boric Acid: Roach Killer as alternative for swimming pools?

[Pool Guy 75]

I was reading in another forum website about an experiment with borates being added to a swimming pool and its positive effects afterwards. Chem Geek stated that if you mix 1 box of 4lb of borax with 38.56 ounces of muriatic acid in water, the result is boric acid. But, Boric Acid in powder form for killing roaches sold in Home Depot,etc. contains Boric Acid as its main ingredient and is the only 100% active ingredient.

Is this a good alternative?
Is it safe for swimming pools?
How soluable is it in its powder form?

[chem geek]

If you find a source of pure Boric Acid, then that could be added in place of the combination of 20 Mule Team Borax and Muriatic Acid. In fact, ProTeam Supreme Plus is mostly Boric Acid for this reason and is essentially pH neutral.

It takes around 382 ounces weight or around 27-1/2 cups of Boric Acid per 10,000 gallons to raise the Borates level by 50 ppm (measured as ppm Boron). This would somewhat lower the pH from 7.5 to around 7.3 if the TA were 100 ppm.

Concentration is everything. Boric Acid is toxic at high concentrations. If a dog were to drink regularly from the pool, then it would be exposed to the amount where first symptoms could appear (mostly smaller testicle size in males). You can read about Boron toxicity here. It's very soluble.

Richard

[Pool Guy 75]

What about if I buy 10 boxes of 20 mule team borax (1 4lb box per 1,290 gallons of water) for my 12,600 gallon pool.

Well, it's said that you must pour acid and borax in the pool to adjust the rising PH, then why can't I do this in a much smaller container of 50 gallons of water. In the container I would add all the 10 boxes of borax and add acid until the PH in the container becomes neutral to 7.0 or below 7.0--since I'm trying to lower the pool's PH as well--If not I can add ascorbic acid at huge concentrations to lower the PH without affecting the borax. After, when things are optimal I can dump the solution into my pool and decrease the PH at the same time and only slightly increase the TA with no adverse effects.

[clean90]

Boric acid is one of the most common ingredients used in natural roach killer as it is one of the few natural forms of poison for cockroaches. You can use boric acid in two ways, as a cockroach bait or simple, depending on which method you prefer.

[chem geek]

Please do not mix up boric acid in concentrated form used as an insect killer with the far diluted concentration used in pools. See this post for more information on toxicity levels and why humans are able to excrete excess boric acid while insects are not.