OK TFP, I finally had enough and I ran out over lunch and purchased enough Clorox to get this conversion party started. I have let the chemical levels of Baquacil drop over the past few weeks and decided the time is right. I have a 10000 gal inground pool and when I get home tonight I will check to see where the initial dose of Clorox has gotten me on the FC and CC scales.

I did get an almost immediate color change to green and the pool went very cloudy so if nothing else, something has started to occur. I realize that this is a "visual" board so of course, I added the initial photos.

Cheers!

Yay to baquacil's death!!! Good luck, we're here for your success!

So I guess I expected a struggle with this yet I am not getting one. I am only 18 182oz bottles in to this and the pool this morning was very clear and the FC counts stayed high overnight. I dropped another bottle in before work to be sure and it does sound like my filter cartridges are clogged so I will clean them after work. The baquacil test sticks show that it is almost all gone already.

I am planning on scrubbing the walls and vacuuming the bottom tonight as well.

If this stays like this for another day then I assume that I am through the hard part and then I should begin to get my overall water chemistry worked out - correct?

Welcome to TFP!

It sounds like you are already well into the second phase of the conversion. During the second phase of the conversion you want to raise the FC level to 15 in the evening, wait at least an hour, test the FC level in the evening, then test the FC and CC levels first thing in the morning. Once the FC level falls 1.0 or less overnight it is time to move to the third phase. In the third phase you replace the filter media, start raising the CYA level, and continue with FC at 15 until the CC level is 0.5 or lower two days in a row.

Roger that and I am heading out tonight to get some of the products for the next steps in a show of wishful thinking.

Also, I saw some discussion about adding salt to the water to about 2000 I believe, in an effort to improve the water feel. I don't use a SWG and when I did the pool calculator entry for a 10K gal pool it said 167 pounds of salt. surely I have made a mistake somewhere as that seems like a large amount to add...

167lbs is correct

That said, definately wait until the conversion is done. Also you may want to test your current salt level though before adding as chlorine and other chemicals also add salt to your water over time, but then again, even if you were to acheive 3000 ppm, it would not be the worst thing to happen to a pool I have a SWG and the pool is always at 2800-3500 ppm and it's still standing Borates at 50ppm also improves water feel...but again let's get through the conversion 1st...you may find your plain properly sanitized chlorine pool feels just fine vs. when it was a Baq pool.

I got it and I am going to wait on the next steps - though patience is not one of my strengths. I was just going to start to slowly purchase the items I need. After the large clorox purchases and now baking soda, Borax and 200 lbs of salt - I don't want anyone to think I am building a bomb instead of just playing in my pool....

Thanks for the follow-ups.

So the chlorine loss has stabilized and tonight I will start to increase the CYA up to 30 since it is at zero currently.

Since I have a spare set of 4 cartridges for the filter, would now be a good time to replace them and clean out the filter or wait until I start the regular water balancing activities?