New member to the board. Last year we bought a house in central Ohio and knew nothing about pools. Someone told us about Baquacil so we decided to use it and it was just a complete headache for us.

We would like to open are pool in about two weeks and switch to chlorine. We have a Heyward sand filter, 25,000 gallon octagonal, vinyl liner pool.

I have been looking over the board for the last few days, but all I can find is for pools already open. How can we open the pool cover up and does this?

Any help would be great as I am still new to all the pool terminology and I am eager to learn.

Welcome to TFP!

A good place to start on pool openings is Pool Openings. You want to do the opening right up to where you would start adding chemicals, have the pump running and cover off etc, then switch to the conversion from baquacil to chlorine instructions.

When you have more questions feel free to ask

Thank you, this will help out. I think first things first, is to get a good testing kit.

Exactly! There is an article in Pool School that compares the two recommended kits.

I couldn't convince my fiance about pouring bleach into pool even though it is the same thing so I bought liquid chlorine 10% to pour into the pool to make the conversion. She also freaked out about baking soda until she saw the actual arm and hammer stuff in the pool isle at walmart today!

You seem to have things under control

Welcome to the forum

Show her the bottle of liquid chlorine and the bottle of bleach - the active ingredient in both is Sodium Hypochlorite....She can't deny it if it's there in black and white....

Some people can deny anything.

Well I believe I have convinced my fiance to the bleach! There are 2 gallon jugs 6% at Walmart for about $2.50 here in Central Ohio. We are getting married in 3 weeks and the reception dinner is in our back yard. We want to have floating candles in the pool for it so as it get my tf test get I will be ready to rock and roll!

BTW, I ordered the Leslies test kit this past week (Tues.) and got this reponse this morning (Fri.):

"The following item from your recent order is temporarily out of stock
and will be delayed 1-2 weeks:

ITEM # 81329 Chlorine FAS-DPD Service Test

We are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause you. Often items
that are no longer available through Leslie's Direct are still
available at one of our 600 plus Retail Stores. To locate a store near
you please go to http://www.lesliespool.com. If you have any questions
concerning your order please call us at 1-800-537-5437."

So I called the store here in Columbus, they are out of them, canceled the order and ordered the TF-100 Test Kit today. Hopefully it gets here fast!

Interesting....it's catching on!

You'll be happy with your kit - and they ship fast...I bet you have it by Tuesday/Wed.

Note- the walmart jugs aren't 2 gallons, it's more like a gallon and a half. Just an FYI. It's still a great price though.

Any pool stores by you that sell 10-12.5% ? Less jugs to carry, since you will likely use a lot for converting. At any rate, if you can find them for around $3 a gallon it's a good price.

AND one more thing...we want pics of the pretty reception background!!!

Well they sell 10% liquid chlorine (hth brand) at Walmart in the pool isle in 2 gallon boxes for about 10 bucks.

I will double check the pool store by my house. I went in the other day and asked about sand when changing after the conversion. Its about 7 bucks for a 25 lb bag. Our Heyward takes 300 lbs of sand.

I have read about cleaning filter/pump after conversion. How do you go about doing this?

Thanks in advance!

I took the cover off tonight and the water level is significantly down from when we closed. I think there might be a leak in the liner. Has anyone had any experience getting liners fixed or how a leak is determined?

My water level was down a foot - no leak. It was a combination of water on the winter cover weighing down and pushing the water in the pool up and out thru the top rails, and also evaporation.

I would fill it to basically normal level, watch it for a day... and maybe try the bucket test: http://www.troublefreepool.com/pool-school/leak_detection

Wedding in three weeks, huh?

To save yourself the stress of "My GOD! What did you do to the pool???? The wedding is in XX days!", make sure your fiance understands the pool is going to turn all kinds of cool colors once your pour the bleach in. I forgot to tell my wife before I converted last year and she just plain freaked out. One week later the water was crystal clear.

Stock up on LOTS of bleach and follow the directions on this site and your pool will be crystal clear in no time.

I believed I have found one of the leaks, hopefully there is no more. I jumped in; algae and all right after the cover was off! I going out to but a wet patch tomorrow to put on it.

A side note: a very nice friend order too much chlorine for his pool and asked if I needed any. Went over there tonight and he gave me 19 gallons of 12.5% liquid chlorine. That will definitely help with the conversion!

That is a very nice friend!

Can one "register" for liquid chlorine? Such a GIFT! Glad you found the leak! Wish it wasn't a leak!

We got our sand in the pool section at Lowe's for just under $6 for 50 lb bags.

Good luck with the conversion!

Went home during lunch time and added a wet patch. Will check it out when I get home from work. Keeping my fingers crossed.