So, how to raise the pH level in your pool?
Well, in this post, I would be walking you through some of the best ways to raise the pH level in your pool without any hassle.
Moreover, I would also be throwing light on various aspects of raising pH levels in order to help you make an informed decision.
Frankly speaking, this comprehensive guide comprises answers to queries related to raising pH levels so that the scope of committing errors reduces drastically.
So, without any further ado, let’s begin…
How To Raise The pH Level In Your Pool | Beginner’s Guide
Being a pool owner isn’t an easy task, you need to be very careful and responsive when it comes to operating your pool.
There are numerous reasons for the pool not working properly but the good news is, regular maintenance can negate the occurrence of most of the problems if NOT ALL.
Lowering pH levels below the recommended range can lead to itchy skin and irritating eyes, and in the worst case, plumbing might start to erode which is definitely not a good sign for the swimmers.
Trust me, raising pH levels in your pool is easier than you can even think of, all you need to do is to add either sodium carbonate or sodium bicarbonate to raise the pH level.
Make sure that the pH level falls in the range of 7.2 and 7.8.
In this comprehensive guide on raising pH levels, we’ve covered almost all the things that are related to the topic including what pH is, why is it so important to balance it, reasons for lowering pH levels, etc.
What is pH?
Well, pH is a scale used to measure the nature of the water in your pool.
So, with the help of pH, you can easily identify whether your pool water is acidic or alkaline.
And, then you can do the needful accordingly.
pH is abbreviated as potential hydrogen, that is, the ability of a substance to attract hydrogen ions.
In your case, it would be pool water’s ability to attract hydrogen ions.
Nonetheless, many of the newbies definitely would love to know what it REALLY means for their pool, right?
NOT SURE…how successful am I to read your mind, but IF I have been…
Then, please do give a thumbs up…all it does is motivate us to deliver better content every time.
Cutting long-story-short, the pH scale has a reading from 0 to 14 with the former being the most acidic and the latter being the most alkaline.
After having worked with quite a few swimming consultants/experts, I can affirm that the optimum range of pH falls in the range of 7.2 and 7.6.
And, if you’re able to achieve a pH of 7.4 then trust me, nothing could suffice it.
If the water is too acid it will damage your skin and eyes.
On the other hand, problems including scaling and murky water would trouble you if the water is too alkaline.
So, in simple words, excess of anything is too bad.
Why pH balance is so important?
Do I really need to answer the question, why pH balance is so important?
Anyways, I would try to highlight some points that would emphasize the negative aspects of pH imbalance.
Does it make sense?
Low pH irritates both skin and eyes
Not only the acidic nature of the pool water would trouble your eyes and skin but can also irritate the mucous membrane of your nasal cavity.
The reason is simple, acidic water will strip away your body’s natural oils.
Low pH can lead to corrosion of your pool’s equipment
It is quite obvious that the acidic nature of your pool water can corrode your pool equipment.
The lower the pH the more will be the corrosion.
Corrosion would be significantly visible on plumbing, linear, accessories, and other types of equipment.
Unbalanced pH reduces the effectiveness of chlorine drastically
Yes, you heard it RIGHT…
As a pool owner, you can never afford to show negligence toward pH balance.
pH level is known to influence chlorine to a great extent.
In fact, whether your pool’s water pH level is higher or lower than the normal range, will adversely impact the effectiveness of the free chlorine.
High pH can make your pool water cloudy
Murky pool water can pave the way to many unprecedented events.
Though cloudy water isn’t a problem in itself still it needs to be fixed at the earliest as it usually signals an underlying issue.
What causes low pH?
Well, to be honest, it’s a very broad question as many things can influence your pool water pH level.
Frankly speaking, the pH level is a very unstable factor and needs to be handled with care.
Low pH levels are known to be attributed to things like debris and rainwater getting into the pool.
To be honest, total alkalinity is a sort of stabilizing factor for pH so you can’t afford to ignore its testing on a regular and timely basis.
How To Raise The pH Level In Your Pool | Quick Hacks
So, here I come up with some of the quickest and easiest ways to raise pH levels in your pool water.
I’m hoping that now you’re clear with what the pH level is and how can it affect your pool chemistry, right?
Well, raising your pool’s level is NOT at all a terribly difficult process but it can take some time.
Let’s have a quick look at some of the steps that you can follow in order to achieve optimum results.
Chemistry Levels Testing
To keep your pool healthy and safe for swimmers, you need to keep track of your pool chemistry on a day-to-day basis to avoid any last-hour misadventure.
As said earlier also, normal pH levels fall between 7.2 and 7.6, and the ideal one should be 7.4.
So, if your pool’s water pH level is less than 7.2 then definitely, you need to find out ways to increase it.
The good news is, there are many pool water testing kits that could help you to check your pool chemistry without any hassle.
Pool Water Calculation
Yes, you heard it RIGHT!
Being a pool owner isn’t an easy task at all, and the more difficult part is taking care of your pool on a regular basis.
Correct me, if I’m saying something wrong.
You’re welcome to disagree with me.
I hope most of you would be well aware of the capacity of your pool, right?
If that is NOT THE CASE, then I highly recommend you should figure out the gallons of water that your pool can hold.
WAIT…DON’T GET SCARED…
It is easier to calculate than you can ever imagine.
All you need to do is to take the help of one of the formulas that I’m gonna discuss with you.
Rectangular or square pools: length x width x depth x 7.5 (if your pool has more than one depth, use the average)
Round pools: diameter x diameter x depth x 5.9
So, just input the data as required by these formulas and you’re good to go.
Does it make sense?
Chemicals Measurement
Sodium carbonate aka soda ash is one of the most popular chemicals used to raise pH levels and total alkalinity in pools.
As per my knowledge and experience, I can say that it takes around 6 ounces for every 2 pH points you need to raise 10,000 gallons of water.
Let’s understand it with an example.
Suppose you own a pool that can hold 20,000 gallons of water.
And, after doing pool chemistry testing you found that the pH level is 7.0.
So, you want to raise the pH level to 7.2 in order to keep the pH level balanced.
And, in order to do so, you would be adding 12 ounces of soda ash, right?
(points needed to raise/2) x 6 oz = amount of soda ash to add
The aforementioned number is just a rough estimate and you might need to increase or decrease the amount depending upon your requirement.
Chemicals Addition
So, once you’re done with the measurement process, the next thing that you need to do is to expedite the chemical addition.
Similar, to the aforementioned steps, this is also simple and even though you’re doing it for the first time you’ll not face any issue at all.
Well, in a five-gallon bucket, all you need to do is to add clean water and then do the measurement for soda ash.
Try to mix it the best possible way that you can and then pour it around the perimeter of your pool.
Make sure that your pool is ON during this time in order to circulate soda ash in the best possible way throughout your pool.
Re-Test Your Pool Water
Yes, you heard it RIGHT.
You need to re-test your pool water again to make sure that everything falls well in place.
Trust me, it’s neither a tedious nor a time-consuming task.
You need to wait for a few hours before you expedite the re-testing process.
In fact, you need to allow the chemicals to settle well and do their work before they are put to re-testing.
After testing, if you find that the pH and alkalinity are well within the range, then you don’t have to do anything further.
However, if the end result of testing isn’t favorable then definitely you need to expedite the entire process again.
You’ll have to add soda ash in an adequate amount to achieve the optimum result, and if in expediting the process, your pool water becomes cloudy then you don’t have to worry at all.
In most cases, it has been found that the cloudy water clears on its own over a period of time, maybe after a few hours.
Nonetheless, if after repeating the entire process still, you’re not able to reach the normal range of pH and alkalinity then definitely you’ll have to do the root cause analysis to figure out the real problem behind the fluctuation of pH and alkalinity.
So, the best thing that you can do is to test all the levels including calcium hardness levels, and free chlorine testing to detect the problem.
At the same time, you also need to ensure that your pool is free from dust, debris, leaves, etc as they can also contribute to fluctuation in pH levels.
It’s A Wrap
Trust me, as a pool owner, the best thing that I can do is to ensure that the proper maintenance procedure is followed on a regular basis.
A clean and safe pool would entice swimmers to swim for a longer duration.
Without fail, every day you should skim out leaves, dust, and debris.
Similarly, every week you should be testing the chemistry levels to ensure that everything falls well within place.
And, on a monthly basis, you should be doing deep cleaning including shocking your pool and brushing the bottom of your pool.
It goes without saying that at times your pool balance might become out of balance despite your best effort.
And, it is NORMAL, as a pool owner, you need to be mentally prepared to deal with unprecedented situations, isn’t it?
Heavy rainfall is one such example that might cause a pool chemistry imbalance and unfortunately, you don’t have control over natural disasters such as earthquakes, landslides, etc.
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