Water Balance: Adjust alkalinity first, then PH . . . Or Not

[Marter, Dave]

Alkalinity is over 200 PPM. In the past I have used muratic acid to lower it, but when I use the Arm and Hammer sodium carbonate, recommended by you, the PH as well as the akalinity goes up. How do I do this?? I have looked at this site bfore and found solutions before that has saved me $$$. I now registered to ask for advice. Maybe I expect too much too fast, or am adding to much too soon.?

[BigDave]

Reducing TA takes awhile so be patient.
The process is to reduce pH with Muriatic acid and then raise it with aeration. Aeration will raise pH without raising TA. Raising pH with washing soda, baking soda or borax will also raise TA.
Do you have a waterfall or another water feature to aerate? if not, point the return eyeballs toward the surface.
We recommend washing soda and baking soda for raising TA. Borax for raising pH.

[CarlD]

Big Dave has it right. It's an iterative process...
Lower pH, T/A comes down.
Raise pH by aeration.
Repeat.

[PoolDoc]

1. Membership updated.

2. The "Alkalinity first" slogan was created by Arm and Hammer, as far as I can tell, for the purpose of marketing excess amounts of sodium bicarb. It's occasionally right, but generally a bad idea.

3. Always use borax to raise your pH, if your alkalinity is already high. You could also use caustic soda (sodium hydroxide) but it's dangerous and usually expensive in the forms available to consumers.

4. The full explanation of managing alkalinity is here: http://pool9.net/alk-step

5. PoolSolutions (me) has been recommending sodium bicarb or baking soda for alkalinity for nearly 20 years, but the only reason I recommended Arm and Hammer brand was that that was what was available. *Any* consumer brand of sodium bicarbonate, or sodium carbonate (washing soda) is fine . . . provided you use them correctly. See #3 above.

6. Welcome!

[Tom.B]

We recommend washing soda and baking soda for raising TA. Borax for raising pH.

Can you expand on this a little? My TA is getting low (70) and my pH dropped from 7.4 to 7.2 (Is that a lot?) and I am confused about whether to us Sodium Bicarb or Borax. The FAQ of alkalinity isn't at all clear on what exactly does what and what range these chemical readings need to be. There are some conflicting descriptions and results when you start trying to put together a big picture. It's like, the closer I look, the less I see. :-)

[PoolDoc]

0.2 pH units isn't much -- a pool will vary that much from day to day, just because 'it want's to'!

TA is bit low; you can add a box of borax and raise both pH and TA a bit. Or, you can add a box of baking soda (5 - 10 lbs) which will mostly raise TA.

I've tried to avoid getting rigid with the numbers -- there are many, many combinations of values that will work. Being very specific about what your numbers MUST be is easier to understand, but harder to carry out.

We've opted to make your brain work more, so you can work less on your pool!

[Tom.B]

So you are thinking a whole 4# box of borax? Any ideas on how much it will raise each of them?

**EDIT** Actually, I just added 4# of baking soda. I think I will test later tonight and perhaps add another box of either baking soda or borax.

[Watermom]

This bleach calculator may be helpful to you. It has other calculators, also. Click on the drop-down in the upper left corner and you'll find the others.

http://pool9.net/bleach-calc/

[Tom.B]

AHHH HAAAAA!!! Mind blown... Thank you very much.

[Watermom]

I hope "AHHH HAAAAA!!! Mind blown" was a good "mind blown" and not, "oh, no, now I am more confused than ever!" ;)

[Tom.B]

All good! added 8# total baking soda. Will test tomorrow evening.

[BigDave]

Did you test TA after adding the first four pounds of baking soda? What was it? What was the pH?

[Tom.B]

TA was down to 70 and pH was 7.2. Will test again this morning. ;-)

Tested: TA up to 100 now and pH back to 7.4. Looks good to me now. Will do a full test todat after work.