Soda Ash versus borax?

[waterbear]

If you have a lot of pH increaser (soda ash, sal soda, washing soda, sodium carbonate) on hand and you don't want to use it in your pool anymore there are many household uses for it. One of my favorite is to pour 1/2 a cup down the kitchen sink then flush with hot water to keep the drain running clear.
Here are some links:
http://www.care2.com/channels/solutions/home/440
http://www.care2.com/channels/solutions/home/1498
http://www.thelaundrybasket.com/Our_...shing_sod.html
As Ben said, Borax will raise pH without raising your carbonate alkalinity.

[BorisMD]

Ben and Waterbear,

Thanks for your replies. I'll keep a close eye on things this year, and make sure I don't have too much total Alk if I use the Soda Ash.

I'm in recovery from copper overload from last season, having managed to keep my pH low enough (via the use of two floaters with tri-chlor pucks) to corrode my heater core. No wonder my pH wouldn't budge--it was the tri-chlor.

Anyway, I got the cover off yesterday, and the pool still looks green (not algae, mineral).

I've got the submersible pump running, and I'm going to dilute out again, then I think I will try an additional ascorbic acid treatment to get the liner to release the copper that is staining it.

If that looks ok, I'll do another dilution, and then just try to precipitate it out and keep rinsing off my filter cartridges. Then, hopefully, I can get my pH back in line, and then I'll stick with bleach for my chlorination.

The weather in Minnesota is beautiful today.

Boris

[waterbear]

I'm in recovery from copper overload from last season

I wonder if there are 12 step programs for copper overload? (Copper Anonymous?)
(Sorry about that--like I've said before, I'm a smarta--!)