Well I think I'm finally tired of spending tons of money and not getting what I want out of a pool so I am going convert. I just loaded my pool with baquacil shock and sanitizer to kill the algea for my daughters birthday next Saturday but I am not putting anything else in. Got my 200 lbs of sand today for replacement after the convert, will start buying my bleach when I can, and I ordered my test kit. Got a couple questions.....trying to get all the knowledge I can before the conversion takes place.

How low does the baquacil need to be before I start converting?

Most of the rest I think I have enough information from everyone here.

But after I have converted, how do I do the daily test to keep my pool between the 3-8 ppm mark for FC? seems a daily test could be expensive, or do you all use test strips for that part.

How much bleach do I expect to add to the pool each day once converted?

I am looking forward to a pretty much maintenance free summer next year? WooHoo.

How low does the baquacil need to be before I start converting? Doesn't matter. It will go quicker and take less chlorine the lower the levels but it can be done at any level

Most of the rest I think I have enough information from everyone here.

But after I have converted, how do I do the daily test to keep my pool between the 3-8 ppm mark for FC? seems a daily test could be expensive, or do you all use test strips for that part. Most of us use the OTO chlorine test that costs virtually nothing.

How much bleach do I expect to add to the pool each day once converted? 2-3ppm seems most common. Depending on your pool size, that could be a quart or could be a small jug of clorox.....seldom more than that.

My pool is AG 24ft 13,600 gallon... It took about 40 of the 174 oz Walmart Great Value 6% bleach... I initially bought 7 cases (it comes 3 to a case) then went back and bought 5 more cases, THEN had to go BACK and buy it off the shelf since they were out of the cases... Be prepared! BUT it is WELL worth it! See my pics for how mine progressed... Granted I checked and topped off EVERY hour since I am on vacation this week, but it now SPARKLES!!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pitguy3/se ... 763801706/

I'm using the chlorine from the pool store nearby. It's 10.5% chlorine as apposed to the 5 or 6% in chlorox. It's $4.55 for a 2.5 gallon jug. So I'm using/carrying less liquid and I think it's cheaper.

I know I am getting ahead of the game, will be converting probably in the next 2 weeks, still need to get bleach, my test kit and more knowledge.

Couple of questions I need clarification on, I was not able to find the answers after reading quite a few posts.

1. during the conversion I understand that you need to back wash quite a few times to get ride of the buildup, but what about vacuming or do I just wait till after the conversion is complete?

2. vacuming or backwashing to waste will remove water from the pool do I just fill back up and continue what I'm doing? and how often?

3. brushing?

4. Calcium/waterhardness? I have seen post that say if you have a AG pool you don't have to worry about it, but then I see other posts that say to keep it at a certain level? Didn't know this, another expense maybe I should not have fell into with the baqua.

I'm no expert... and I didn't stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.. But I'll give it a shot...

1. Concernung Vacuuming... It's according if you begin to see buildup on the bottom as to whether you should or not... During my conversion, I saw NONE, so I just did a small maintenance vacuum (Bugs and small leaves that had gathered)

2. Vacuum to waste... Shouldn't cause a problem.. You won't waste that much water or Chemicals...

3. Brushing... Again, according to the build-up..

4. I'll leave that one to the experts... I haven't checked mine yet...

Hi Fortuneteller and welcome

Recommended CH level for vinyl is 50 to 300 and when you get your test kit, you can test yours.
Very rarely is it a problem in a vinyl pool.

Congrats on your decision to convert! We have many baq converters on TFP doing the happy dance now

We're glad to have you on the forum .

Anyone got a recommended brand of good quality Cyanuric Acid. Still getting ready.

Brand shouldn't matter. Just make sure it is at least 90% CYA.
The solid is a whole lot cheaper than the liquid too.

Got my Cyanuric Acid from Lowes - 100% for 11.00 a bottle not bad I guess, we will see. Got a quick question. I got my test kit in today, WOW that was quick, anyway, I am planning to do this every hour so that it doesn't take to long, looking at 3-4 days maybe a little longer but anyway, the test kit......I am assuming from reading all of these threads I will be measuring basically every hour and topping off to 15ppm. should I order more 870 and 871 to do this....I mean that is quite a few tests, or am I using the blue box expecting the FC to come down real fast and that is what I should start out with.

i have gone through 5 bottles of the 871, course i have other issues, but it goes fast.

I would order an extra bottle... I got 2 from Dave and it was like $14... I ran out before I got my replacements and had to go to the pool store and it was $14 for 1 bottle!!!

Just to let you know since I said brand doesn't matter when apparently it does. I bought Leslie's brand CYA, added 4lbs. to get to 40ppm, and after two weeks my CYA is only at 10!
I'm not sure what the deal with that is, but at least one other person on these forums has had the same issues with Leslie's brand CYA.
I would steer clear of their brand for sure.

I ended up getting two 3 lb containers - brand is Aqua Chem stabilizer, 100%, don't know weather that is good or not, we will see.

1-2 days left until I start my conversion. Now have 51 bottles of clorox 182oz each, hopefully it will be enough, haven't done anything to the pool for a week or so, letting the chemicals already in burn off as much as I can, baqua sanitizer is getting lower, shock is still a little high but we will see. Going to string up my cover over the pool like a tent to help keep the sun off of the pool, stupid I know but want to use all the bleach and not have the sun burn off any. got my test kit and ordered extra 0870-0871. Woohoo

Post as many before, during, and after pics as you can -- and congrats on almost having the pool you've always wanted1

ok started the conversion, will start posting data in a bit, but I put in 2.3 bottles of clorox and tested after 30 minutes, I did 10ml of the pool, put a heaping if thats what you want to call it into the bottle and swirled, no pink.....hmm. so I used the OTO, got 1ppm, hope I'm doing it right. if the ppm is to low can the water not turn pink?

Add 10ml, then 1 heaping, swirl, how long swirl?
add drops and swirl, how many before swirl? how long swirl between drops?

OTO shows about 1ppm, but chlorine test I added 10 drops swirling at 5 then 10, = 5ppm. Just want to make sure I'm doing this right?

Right at the start of a baquacil conversion you should expect the FC level to fall dramatically, to zero or almost zero, in only a short time.

After adding the R-0870 powder you swirl till it is well mixed, usually a few seconds.

When you are adding drops of R-0871 you should be swirling continuously and adding a single drop about once every second or two (assuming the sample remains pink). As you get towards the end and the pink becomes very light you probably need to slow down to several seconds between drops, continuing to swirl constantly, so you can be sure to spot the drop that turns the solution completely clear. Sometimes on the next to last drop the solution can look almost clear, which is difficult to tell apart from completely clear, so look carefully towards the end. The solution can also turn clear for a moment and then turn pink again. If that happens for only a moment they you ignore it and continue adding drops. If the sample remains clear for 10 or 15 seconds, swirling the entire time, then you are done.

From your description, you did not do the FAS-DPD test correctly, not enough swirling and no pause between drops, so the result is not valid.

The simpler OTO test, drops turn the sample various shades of yellow, is the most reliable way to distinguish no chlorine from some chlorine. All of the other tests will show zero chlorine occasionally when there actually is chlorine. The FAS-DPD test hardly ever has this problem, but when it shows FC and CC at zero it is still a good idea to double check with the OTO test.

Cannot help you with the testing, but when you start your conversion, your chlorine will be consumed almost immediately.

Someone will chime in...

By now, you are very likely at zero, so boost it back up to 15.

The more frequently you can do this, the faster you will be swimming!!

Ok time to start documenting.

I am going to try to give a lot of information in a smaller thread so that you don't have to read 8 miles of postings also I will try to add some of the items I was thinking about but seemed to never be mentioned or at least I may have missed it.

Why am I converting, well because of cost and that seems to be the only reason. This year was the last straw, took off my cover and pink algae everywhere (water mold), started immediately to brush, and kill with Shock and CDX, a lot of it, then changed my sand, now my water is crystal clear, well for a month or so, probably because my numbers were so high from getting rid of the mold. My water most of the swimming season is clear not cloudy, I am always fighting green algae growing on the sides of the pool and clumping on the bottom of the pool where it looks like small piles of sand. So I end up buying Sanitizer/algaecide $34.00 (2qt bottle) and Shock $19.00 (1gal bottle), from the point the algae shows up I and maybe you are immediately playing catch up, you have to put in the stuff, find out that you didn't kill it all, starts to grow back within a week, got to buy more, algaecide doesn't seem to work at all, calcium and alkalinity is starting to go up in price and come to find out you don't even need the calcium they recommend for a vinyl pool. Now the pool although it is clear it has a very light green tint to it, again, algae is growing, dangit, Anyway.....

26 July I added 2 gal Baquacil shock so that I could get rid of the algae because of my daughters birthday on 1 August, I figured I would start the conversion after that on a weekend. I have not put any baqua products into my pool since this date and am letting the baqua numbers come down as far as I can get them.

Also figured I might as well get 200 lbs of sand since I will need it, store it in the garage until I am ready for the change. Ordered the test kit on 26 July, started collecting the bleach, hopefully will have all that I need by the time I am ready to convert.

Went and got my water sampled to give everyone a sample of my baqua starting point.

28 July (evening)

Baqua Sanitizer – 57
Alkalinity – 93
PH Level – 7.7
Calcium – 160
Baqua Oxidizer – 238

06 Aug (evening)

Baqua Sanitizer – 18
Alkalinity – 70
PH Level – 7.6
Calcium – 190
Baqua Oxidizer - 102

Started this at 5pm this afternoon and will try to show on the hour, based on recommendations from different threads to make the conversion go a little quicker and I don't want to have to drag it out.

Started August 06, 1700 using the pool calculator -

DAY 1

1700 - FC was 0ppm of course. Added 423oz or 2.3 182oz bottles to get the FC up to 15ppm. Cheated used 2.5 (was easier to measure) LOL
1730 - FC was 1ppm for a loss of 14ppm. Added 2.3 to get the FC up to 15ppm
1830 - FC was 1ppm for a loss of 14ppm. Added 2.3 to get the FC up to 15ppm
1930 - FC was 5ppm for a loss of 10ppm. Added 1.5 to get the FC up to 15ppm
2030 - FC was 5ppm for a loss of 10ppm. Added 1.5 to get the FC up to 15ppm
2130 - FC was 5ppm for a loss of 10ppm. Added 1.5 to get the FC up to 15ppm

enough for tonight, going to bed, will start in the morning again.

hope I am doing this, pink takes a little bit while swirling to show up, once there use a piece of paper and swirl as I add until the pink disappears. double check with OTO or blue box that came with kit. I think I'm color stupid but we will keep going and see what happens. Wife watched me do it and seems that the pink is going away at 10 drops, comes back in a few seconds later but think that is right.