pool chemical ???'s too

Terri in WV said:

The house I'm closing on has an inground pool and I'd like to get it up and running but don't really want to use all those chemicals to help maintain it. I read a couple of years ago about using baking soda as an alternative in pools(I can't remember to what-I didn't need to retain the info at the time ) Anyways, are there natural things I can use instead of all the chemicals?

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As another poster said, you can use baking soda to control the PH level, and bleach to control the chlorine level, and I often do. The benefit is that I find that it is cheaper to buy bleach than cholorine...BUT, bleach IS just another form of chlorine, you may save some money, but you aren't using anything less dangerous.

The PH level needs to be kept at the right level in order for the chlorine to work properly. The better control of the PH, the less often the chlorine will get out of wack....I tend to run my chlorine on the low side, but not to low, and boost it up after we have a lot of guests over (especially kids if you know what I mean).

Keeping the water crystal clean really is pretty easy once you get the hang of it...the trick is to make sure they never get to far out of wack...once you get algae growing in there or the PH gets real low and the water gets cloudy, you need to add an awful lot of stuff to get it back to normal....good luck.

get a big bag of baking soda from your local Sams or Costco it give directions on the bag.

if pH is less than 7.2 add 3-4 pounds of baking soda

if pH is between 7.2-7.5 2 pounds is needed

above 7.5 don't add baking soda

this is per 10,000 gal water

it goes on about the alkalinity as well


you don't NEED to use chorline which is unhealthy in itself...instead use GSE aka grapefruit seed extract or it's concentrate version

"Chlorine-Free Jacuzzi
Grapefruit extract has been used extensively as an algaecide, bactericide and fungicide in lieu of chlorine in a variety of bathing and swimming applications.
Although the water clarity cannot be maintained as well with GSE as with chlorine, the healthful effects of this natural botanical extract, when compared with the unknown long-term effects of the absorption of chlorine, suggest that GSE be the germicide of choice in many applications.

Accordingly, where water clarity is not an absolute requisite, GSE could replace chlorine, but, unfortunately, at this time a test kit for detecting GSE concentrations in water is not available. Where clarity is more important, swimming pools, for example, ozone and/or hydrogen peroxide can be considered along with GSE. For practical purposes, therefore, GSE is most often used to replace part of the bactericide that is measurable, such as chlorine, ozone, or other commercial preparations. We recommend ozone for testing and clarity issues, along with 1-ounce of GSE per 2-300 gallons of water to kill the microbes that might get past the ozone. "

http://www.nutriteam.com/water.htm

you can also use food grade 35% peroxide, don't have that info right in front of me, but a google search ought to bring it up.

I use GSE and baking soda with a filter in one of the big rubber pools and have no issues.

it also helps to have an one of them iondizers (sp), esp. if you have a "real" pool. do a google search for non-chlorine pool treatment, there are are some out there, a tad more costly, but healthier.