Hi! I feel as if I know everyone here even though this is my first post and I'm a new member. I've been lurking for a bit. Observing as some would say! On to our dilemma. We started having problems with our Baq holding last year and it went down hill from there. We switched to chlorine towards the end of the season with the idea of going back to Baq this year. The cover came off in the spring and everything looked great. I was quite surprised. I've heard of people with chlorine pools opening to a green mess. I still wanted to go back to Baq because of the ease of it. I can go away for a long weekend and not worry about it. We went ahead and started Baq since our chlorine was zero. Right off the bat the pool went cloudy on me and then within just a few days my levels were very low just like the problem we had last year. We decided to go ahead and let things drop and go with chlorine and not mess with. Then went in a few days later to the pool shop to have levels checked and our oxidizer was way higher than it had been even though nothing had been added. Our sanitizer was up too, which I expected since I had put two pints more in. That stuff's expensive! I'm not sure what to make of the levels being different other than operator error. Or possibly, I collected the first water from one area of the pool and the second one from on the other side of the eyeball where the water would have just come the filter. So I've been reading about the BBB method and think it sounds grand. Wish I had known about before I dumped all that Baq into the pool!!!
I have a question on the conversion. I know I can just start putting bleach in and keep those levels up. Last year when we when switched to chlorine I used a product (yes,from the pool store) called flip-out. It's active ingredients are potassium persulfate and sodium bisulphate. You're supposed to be able to swim during the conversion and not have all the lovely shades of water. Is anyone familiar with it and what is it?? You just put in 2lbs per 10,000 gal. and throw some pucks in the skimmer and go. It runs $30 for 2 pounds and I have one pound left from last year so I would only need two pounds. Leslie's doesn't sell it but poolsupplies.com does if anyone wanted to see the description. It seems as if you can go through a lot of bleach, more than $30 by going with that method The next question is since I only have a limited amount of baq having gone through our new sand do you think I would still need to replace it or maybe just backwash and clean it?? We replaced the sand last year for the first time after 4 seasons of fairly light bather loads. The old sand wasn't the least bit gummy or yucky at all.
I'm waiting do anything drastic until I can get a decent test kit. The pool store doesn't sell anything better than Wally. Saturday we'll be able to go to a Leslie's pool store and grab that.
I'd sure appreciate any help you all can give me.
Thanks in advance!
Barbara
24 ' above ground vinyl
1 hp pump
18" sand filter (I think, the 18" part not the sand part)
Our last readings on Tuesday were: (just in case it matters!)
Baquacil sanitizer 27
TA 81
CH 154
Baq Oxidizer 110

flip-out, and similar procedures, do let you swim through most of the conversion, but they end up costing more and taking longer. The whole "You just put in 2lbs per 10,000 gal" and your done thing is simply not true. You end up with a partial conversion with too little baq to do any good and no chlorine, so no sanitizer in the pool at all. You have to do that over and over and the costs can mount up pretty quickly.

I strongly recommend that you purchase a kit over the Internet. Very few Leslie's have the kit with the FAS-DPD chlorine test, which you need to finish a conversion. Often they will tell you that is what they are selling you, but you end up with something else that simply won't do the job. I recommend the TF-100 from TFTestKits.net. The Taylor K-2006 is also good.

Thanks so much for getting back with me. I really wanted the TF-100 kit but I don't like to wait!! I may anyway. If I order it tonight it shouldn't take too long too reach us.

Thanks also for the advise about flip-out. We will just deal with the mess from the chlorine and go on. I will definitely wait until the kit comes before we begin though. Indiana isn't that far from North Carolina, is it?

Barbara

Hopefully you won't hear from us again. Our conversion will be painless and all the info here will makes us look like we've been doing this all along.
Thank you for the calculator and charts. I love that kind of stuff and makes me more confident that this is doable.

Dave ships most orders same day...you should have it in 2-3 days tops...sometimes next day

Welcom to TFP Barbara C.

You won't need any luck; just POP (pool owner patience)

If you can take the time, we all like pictures. It would be great to have pictures of your successful conversion throughout the process. It does, too, give encouragement to others who want to do the conversion.

gg=alice

Thanks for the encouragement. I will go ahead and get that ordered. It would make my husband very happy if we didn't have to stop at a pool shop this weekend. I will do my best with the pictures. I'm not the photographer in the family! We're still trying to figure out who those people are with us on vacation Thanks for the welcome too!
Barbara

Okay, so the contemplating is over and we're going to do it but waiting until Monday. Lots of reasons that no one probably cares about! Question? I've always used baq water from backwashing to water my food garden without any problems. Can I continue do to do that with bleach. Seems like it would actually be better because not so many chemicals. The stabilizer is the only thing I'm not sure about. Any thoughts??

Backwashing is not a problem at all, especially if you are just looking to use the water for plants, grass...etc.

BTW...if your pool is a 24ft round, it's probably closer to 13.5K gals rather than 15K, as noted in your sig...just in case you run into issues calc'ing chemical dosages.

Thanks for the info on the gallons. I just used the figure the pool shop gave me. I should've known better I finally have a little test kit to practice testing the water. Any suggestions on how to get the right amount of water into the cells?
Thanks!
Barbara