Borax is tremendously effective at stabilizing alkalinity and acting as a pH buffer in swimming pools. Traditionally, pool owners have relied on baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) and soda ash (sodium carbonate) to maintain their pools' pH levels; however, these chemicals have adverse effects.
What is this? It's advisable to add about 20 ounces of borax for every 5,000 gallons of water in your pool. This amount will help increase the pH by approximately 0.5.
Borax acts as both as a pH buffer and pH increaser when added to pool water, but because it is not a carbonate compound, it doesn't increase the pool's total alkalinity the same way that baking soda and soda ash do.
If you use boric acid to increase borate in the water, it will only lower pH by 0.2 and have no effect on total alkalinity.
Borax can:
Increase the pH of your pool water if things have gotten too acidic. Act as a buffer for your pH, protecting your sanitizer levels. Prevent algae and bacteria growth (because your sanitizer is happy)
For a 20,000 gal pool, about 60 lbs of Borax, and 4 gallons of acid.
The two most popular chemicals available to help you lower the total alkalinity in your swimming pool are muriatic acid and sodium bisulfate (also known as dry acid).
Use 20 Mule Team Borax which is quality borate to raise the pH without affecting the TA and see if pH will be stable. If you get too much borate, drain and refill 1/3 to 1/4 of your Pool Water and use pH increaser instead of borate. You can lower both pH and TA using Muriatic acid If they get off the balance.
A rule of thumb is 1.5 lbs. of baking soda per 10,000 gallons of water will raise alkalinity by about 10 ppm. If your pool's pH tested below 7.2, add 3-4 pounds of baking soda. If you're new to adding pool chemicals, start by adding only one-half or three-fourths of the recommended amount.
To raise or lower pH, a pool custodian simply adds acids or alkalis into the water. For example, adding sodium carbonate (soda ash) or sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) will generally raise the pH, and adding muriatic acid or sodium bisulfate will lower the pH.
Looking to raise pH without affecting Total Alkalinity? You can sometimes raise the pH through aerating the pool water. Yep, just add air! It's the same reason hot tubs and spas often suffer from high pH issues.
You can decrease pH without lowering the Total Alkalinity using Carbon Dioxide (CO₂) injection for pH control. Still, this does not lessen one without an effect on the other. When CO₂ is injected into water, it forms carbonic acid (H₂CO₃), which will reduce the pH.
Boric acid and sodium borates are commonly used as a pH buffer in swimming pools and spas, meaning they help increase the capacity of the water to resist changes in pH. However, they have other uses as well: Boric acid and sodium borates can inhibit algae growth and reduce corrosion.
Install a Distilled Water System
This is especially helpful if your area has naturally hard water, or more alkaline water. Distilled water has a neutral pH of 7, so a distilled water system will be able to pump in distilled water to naturally lower the pH in your pool without forcing you to use chemicals.
Another cause for high alkalinity can be when you shock the pool. While this is performed to quickly rid the pool of pollutants, chlorine-based pool shock is highly alkaline, and can raise the water's total alkalinity level in the process.
In addition to this, high alkalinity levels can also cause issues like red and irritated eyes, dry skin, itchy scalp, and even earaches. Besides just physical problems, high alkalinity levels can cause cloudiness in the water, circulation issues, excess wear and tear on your filters, and algae and calcium build up.
Alkalinity rises because of excess hydroxide in hypochlorite chlorines. And in the case of calcium hypochlorite (cal hypo), there is not just excess hydroxide, there is excess carbonate too.
If your pool has good circulation, then 30 minutes would be more than adequate to be safe.
Cloudy Pool Water: Causes, Treatment, and Preventive Measures. Cloudy or milky swimming pool water is caused by seven main issues: improper levels of chlorine, imbalanced pH and alkalinity, very high calcium hardness (CH) levels, faulty or clogged filter, early stages of algae, ammonia, and debris.
Vinegar contains acetic acid which makes it a great disinfectant. It is also acidic in nature hence removes dirt, grease and mineral deposits. If used in the right amount, its acidic nature also plays a role in lowering the pH of pool water.
Baking soda can work wonders in a pool. Baking soda can: Help to clear cloudy water and restore the sparkle. Spot-treat algae.
The high pH of Soda Ash itself can create a high-LSI violation in its immediate vicinity. It drastically raises the pH in the water around it, which leads to clouding. This explains why the cloudiness does not happen all at once, rather the process creates a cloudy plume that slowly expands across the pool.
Alkalinity is the total alkaline material in your pool water. You should test alkalinity first because it will buffer pH. Your reading should be in the range of 80 to 120 parts per million (ppm).