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.
Baking soda, also known as sodium bicarbonate is naturally alkaline, with a pH of 8. When you add baking soda to your pool water, you will raise both the pH and the alkalinity, improving stability and clarity.
Borates provide both chemical and aesthetic benefits to pools as well as potentially increasing the longevity of pool plaster and other equipment. Unlike most other water additives, borates are permanent and do not degrade or evaporate from pool water with time.
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.
If your pool has good circulation, then 30 minutes would be more than adequate to be safe.
Borates in the 50ppm to 80ppm range are considered acceptable, but most of us aim for 50 and keep it there.
Adding 76 oz or 4.75 lbs of boric acid per 10,000 gallons of water will provide 10 ppm of borate. Boric acid is a weak acid and has a pH of 3.8-4.8. It will not lower pool water pH by much. Most of the time the pH drop is only about 0.2 for a 50 ppm dose.
There is a perfectly natural reason for this: evaporation and agitation of your water leads to a drop in the total alkalinity. If you consider the composition of the total alkalinity in detail, it constitutes the water's carbonate and bicarbonate content.
Soda Ash or Baking Soda? If you want to raise your pH and alkalinity together, use soda ash (sodium carbonate). If your goal is to raise alkalinity only, use baking soda (sodium bicarbonate).
Some brands of alkalinity increaser have just one active ingredient: sodium bicarbonate. Well, guess what? Sodium bicarbonate is baking soda. Baking soda raises alkalinity levels in your pool.
pH & Alkalinity Increaser is sodium bicarbonate (also called sodium hydrogen carbonate). It raises Total Alkalinity, and pH which is too low. Since it has a pH of only 8.3, it will generally have a lesser effect on pH. Diluted in water, Alkalinity Increaser will not raise pH above its normal range.
Total Alkalinity, like pH, is affected by environmental factors. Rain, acidic sanitizers, addition of fill water and other product applications can all change the alkalinity over time. Total Alkalinity should be tested once every three to four weeks.
Now it's important to note that high alkalinity levels will naturally decrease over time on their own. But high total alkalinity can precipitate other issues, like high pH and ineffective chlorine, which can lead to algae. So it's often worth addressing high alkalinity levels before they can cause more trouble.
For a 20,000 gal pool, about 60 lbs of Borax, and 4 gallons of acid.
When the borax is fully dissolved, add the other half of the acid and then the rest of the borax. Brush again and leave the pump to run for about 48 hours.
Clothing detergents such as liquid or powdered oxygen bleach, baking soda, and washing soda. Mold and mildew fighters such as salt or white vinegar. Cosmetics that contain natural ingredients other than borax or boric acid.
If total alkalinity is too low, your pH will bounce all over and will be very hard to control or maintain. Low total Alkalinity can result in the following problems: Corrosion of metal parts (hearters, steps, other equipment) Etching of the plaster, marcite, marbelite, or grouting.
Can You Safely Swim in a Pool With High Alkalinity? As long as you have enough chlorine in your pool (around 3ppm for total chlorine) and the pH level is balanced (between 7.4 to 7.8), then a pool with high total alkalinity is still safe to swim in.
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).
Raising PH Level
PH Plus will increase your Alkalinity level slightly too so keep an eye on this as remember Total Alkalinity is the buffer to allow your PH to be set.
Once the total alkalinity is stable, you'll have a much easier time with pH. After adding pH increaser or decreaser you'll want to wait about two to four hours, although some chemical manufacturers suggest a full turnover cycle, before retesting.
Depending on what PH you wish to achieve, adding a little baking soda will simply not affect the PH level of your pool, thereby causing it to remain almost the same way (acidic). However, adding too much baking soda might also raise the PH level of your pool to an undesired stage (alkaline).