Just purchased a house with a 12' x 24' above ground rectangle pool. (8600 gal) is what Jason's calculator said hopefully that is right.

They used baq last year and we want to use the BBB method.

I just got everything hooked up (Hayword 1.5 hp pump) and a 100lb sand filter. Intake is a skimmer.

Finally got all the leaks out.

When we took the cover off a week ago it wasn't really green or anything just had some leaves in it, I assumed we had no chlorine since it had been all winter and they used baq.

I poured in 268 oz of 6% bleach per Jason's calculator. Nothing happened no cool colors or anything like I've been reading.

I got my TF100 today and tested and FC is at 0 and PH is at 7.8

I'm off to Wal-mart to get some PH down (Forget which B that is, gotta look it up).

I've never taken care of a pool in my life, so I'm just trying to read and get it all right.

Now the questions:
1.) Should the filter be running the whole time when I'm checking these levels and doing the conversion.
2.) After I add the pH down (what level should I go to 7.2 or 7.4??) how long do I wait before testing the pH to see if it worked? Instantly? an hour? overnight?
3.) After I get pH right. and I pour in bleach how quickly will the FC go to 15. (Should I dump in the bleach and test immediately or wait 10 minutes? I know it said to get it to 15FC then check hourly I just don't know when to test after adding the bleach.

Thanks in advance...

You can likewise use muriatic acid (home depot, etc.) in place of pH down. Keep your pump running this entire time. YOu should retest in an hour or so and 7.2-7.4 makes no difference....both are fine.

The FC will register in your pool quickly also....usually an hour or so is a good wait period.

You can check FC often at first but, if it doesn't consume all your FC, start to extend your time between testing. i.e if you FC is at 15ppm at 9:00pm and it is at 13ppm at 11:00pm, you can safely assume you will have a little FC left in the morning.

Each time you test, you bring it back up to fifteen but look for the FC consumption to be less each time so you can then test and add less often.

1) Yes, pump on 24/7.
2) PH anywhere around 7.2 to 7.4. Wait an hour or more with the pump running and test the PH again and adjust further as needed.
3) Add enough bleach to raise FC to 15, wait an hour or more, test the FC level again and repeat. For the first while the chlorine will all vanish. After several times there will still be some chlorine after an hour.

Ok, sounds great. Thanks for both of your responses.

While looking for the pH down solution (muriatic acid - I found and you suggested) I noticed the calculator asked for TA and Borates.

TA is 130 - Should I adjust this?

Didn't realize that the TF100 didn't have Borate test so I have no clue what the level is. I suppose I shouldn't assume it is at 0. Can I get strips at Wal-mart for that? Are they accurate? (That is like the only place around where I live) or do I need to get them online? Is there a chance that I have borates in a previous baq pool? Even if it has been all winter?

And when I dumped all that bleach in shouldn't I have seen something happen? If I didn't have any baq or chlorine over the winter shouldn't the pool have been green?

You should enter your current TA level in the Now column for TA in the Pool Calculator. It uses that to help it calculate the amount to use for PH changes. If you have never intentionally added borates, just assume borates are zero. You can get borate test strips, though not from WalMart. They are not very precise.

The water may change colors later, or it might not change at all. It depends on the pool. Turning some entertaining color is very common, but not universal. Your chlorine did all go away, so it is doing something in the right direction.

So should I go lower pH and aerate to bring pH up and TA down? Or is 130 ok or at least ok for the conversion

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Leave the TA alone for now. Once the conversion is complete and things have settled down you can deal with TA.

Status:

I didn't read where you were supposed to adjust pH *slowly* so I ended up at 7.1- 7.3 (hard for me to tell, only done 3 of these tests ever.)

Brought FC to 15 last night twice.

Overnight I lost 7FC, so about 1FC per hour.

CC was 3.5 yesterday around 5pm.

CC is 3.0 this morning so I think I'm getting there slowly.

When I do the TA test should I record the drop that turns the solution from green/clearish to pink or the next drop that turns it bright red?

Currently
FC: 15
CC: 3
TC:18
TA: 130-140
pH: 7.1 - 7.3

Should I be adding bleach all day and keeping it at 15, won't the sun just take it out and I'll use a ton more bleach that way? Or is best to just suck it up and keep pouring the bleach in. Also should I do a CYA test sometime or just wait until I don't lose more than 1FC overnight?

Add drops till the color starts changing, then continue adding drops as long as the color continues changing. The final drop that doesn't change the color any further doesn't count, all of the other drops do count.

Now that you are maintaining some chlorine overnight, you have a choice to make about maintaing FC at 15 during the day. Raising FC back up to 15 all day will get the conversion done sooner, but you will lose a lot of chlorine to sunlight. If you only ad chlorine in the evenings, you won't use nearly as much chlorine but the whole thing will take longer.

Was overcast most of the day so I was able to keep FC 8+ all day. Been at 16 (apparently too much bleach) for two hours now, we'll see how it is in the morning. Checked CYA today it is 0.

Pictures:

You want CYA to be zero until you pass the overnight FC loss test.

Scrubbed the walls and vacuumed three times yesterday.

FC was 16 last night.
FC is 11 this morning.
CC is .75 this morning.

There is a really small spot of debris at the bottom that I need to scoop / vacuum out, but WOW the pool is crystal clear. I'm not sure I've ever been in a pool this sparkly (scary isn't it)

So last night I checked pH (haven't done that in a few days) and I was at 8.2 or more.

I added 16oz by volume of dry acid which should have dropped me to 7.4 or so.

This morning I'm at 8.0-8.2. Any ideas what the heck went wrong? I've had the pump on 24/7 and it is moving the water surface. Do you think it is aerating that high?

Also FC was at 16 last night and now it is at 19 (I didn't add any chlorine). What would cause it to go up overnight??

You don't want to test PH when FC is that high, the results won't be valid.

Test PH again when FC is 5 or lower, which will probably happen sometime today.

Ok. I wondered. So what about the fc going up overnight Is my conversion complete?

How long did you wait after adding chlorine last night before testing? Also, was the pump running this morning before you did the test?

It had been about four hours in the FC was at 16 the pump ran all night long and now it is at 19

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Strange. Still, that counts as passing the overnight FC loss test.

Ok, it has been cloudy / raining all day. As I said last night FC:16 this morning FC:19. I thought pH was too high (when really FC threw it off) so I added 16oz pH down last night.

Currently (Without adding anything at all today) 7pm.

FC: 4.5
pH: 7.5
TA: 120
CC: .25
CH: 140
CYA: 0 (untested today but was 0 days ago and I haven't added any stabilizer)

So should I replace the sand tomorrow? Will the new sand mess with my levels at all? Should I bring FC to 15 for a day to clean anything that is in the new sand or is it already clean??

When should I add Stabilizer?

Is 140 CH ok for vinyl pool, will I have any cloudiness problems?

Those numbers look good. CH at 140 is fine. You add CYA after changing the sand. Changing sand often helps CC go down, but otherwise should have little effect. When you get the new sand in you should backwash for five minutes and that will take care of most of the cleaning the sand needs. Then bring FC up to 15 overnight one more time and double check that CC remains low overnight and you are good to go.