Is baking soda a good substitute for soda ash in raising the ph in my pool?

Question

We have been using baking soda as a ph adjuster in our pool for the last 7 years with no problems. However, we have had problems this year with cloudy green water and had to get some advice from our local pool supply store. We were told to use a flocculant (alum in this case) and soda ash to raise the ph. We bought the soda ash because the salesman told us the baking soda would not raise the ph correctly. The flocking process almost fixed the problem but the pool turned cloudy again before we could remove all of the flocculant from the bottom. We are considering using the flocculant again but wondered if it would be safe to substitute the soda ash with baking soda to raise the ph enough for the flocculant to work this time around. The small bucket of soda cost us about 6 times as much as a large bag of baking soda. We have already spent several hundred dollars trying to get the pool right so I hate to spend much more on this problem.

Answer 1

baking soda(sodium bicarbonate) raises the ALKALINITY not the PH..sounds to me like you have a algae bloom problem.. Good clear water is a balance of Chlorine at 1-3 ppm except after shocking (I shock my pool once a week but I have 70-100 kids in my pool).. Ph should be around 7.4--7.8 .... Alkalinity around 80 --120ppm (I keep mine at 110ppm) this is where you use BAKING SODA... and your CH (calcium hardness is any where from 200-- 400ppm) I keep mine around 220...Try to acheive these values ..then try an algaecide per instructions... scrub the sides, let it settle ... vacuum thru the waste on your filter..(no sense in running algae thru the filter then backwashing)... P.S. .. to increase CH,(calcium hardness) I use Ca Cl..(calcium/chloride) the same thing as ICE/MELT pellets @99% purity unlike the 77% stuff you get at the pool supply store you'll use 25% less and it' about $20. for 50 pounds   GOOD LUCK....

Answer 2

Save your money and buy the baking soda. Very little difference between that and soda ash. Just the name.

Answer 3

baking soda raises the alkalinity more than soda ash(they both raise the PH)...so it depends on what the levels of alkalinity/ph levela are to begin with.....

Answer 4

nooooooo its not idk it just sounds like a bad idea