Baking soda and Borax

[newbie0]

I am about to decontaminate my spa using Nitro’s instructions. I am also going to fill my (bromine) tub with reverse osmosis water, and the water I’m going to use has a TA of 20 and a pH of 6. I’m aiming for a TA of 80 and for a pH of 7.4.

1. Using TA increaser, which I have done in the past, is easy because of the instructions on the bottle telling one how much to add according to one’s alkalinity level. But there are no such guidelines on a box of baking soda, which I want to use this time around. As Waterbear said that baking soda is “the same chemical sold as TA increaser,” should I simply follow the guidelines on my old TA-increaser bottle to determine how much baking soda to add at first? And how much time should I wait for the baking soda to circulate before I can be confident that all that I added will be reflected in a measurement? An hour? More than that?

2. I’m also going with Borax to increase the pH, but unlike how TA increaser is (I’m assuming) the same as baking soda, Waterbear’s comments about Borax imply that it is nothing like pH increaser, thus I cannot follow the guidelines on my old bottle of pH increaser. So how many tablespoons of Borax should I add at first? And how long should I wait before I take a measurement?

[dashmer]

Suggest you use the pool calculator effects calculator to figure out how much you need.  It has both baking soda and borax options.

https://www.poolcalculator.com/calculator/effects-calculator