I have been reading up on conversion stories for a couple of months now and couldn't wait to get started on our own. My husband finally got fed up with our cloudy pool last Saturday and started draining it. We started our conversion with just over half new water. I ordered the TF100 test kit on Saturday so our conversion didn't officially get started until yesterday. I am going to try to load our pics we've taken so far. Thanks to everyone who has put their own stories on here that gave me the confidence to do it and to all who maintain this website and give such helpful support to us frustrated EX Baqua users! Can't wait for our sparkly pool!

I'll add more later..Thanks again!

Welcome, good luck

Good job! Your pics look very close to how my pool looked before I did my conversion. I couldn't stand the hazy looking water. And to clear it up, you had to spend a small fortune on Baquacrap chemicals. You'll be a lot happier with the chlorine pool. I'm about a week past my conversion, and we have been swimming everyday in clean, crystal clear, sparklilng water. It even has a different feel to it.
You won't regret it.

Thanks! Not much change lately..just been checking every hour or so and adding more bleach as needed. Still looks very milky. I am sooo anxious to have a pretty sparkly pool! My kids are too, they have school again in a week and want to get more swimming in before it starts! We've spent more time this summer trying to get the water right that we have actually swimming in it! Clearer days are on the way!

I do have one question. I know we aren't at that point yet but I know at some point towards the middle of the conversion it is better to just add bleach in the evenings. Just wondering how I'll know we're at that point? Thanks!

There isn't a completely clear dividing line. If you are super concerned about minimizing chlorine usage, you can add chlorine only in the evenings right from the start. And if you are super concerned about finishing as soon as possible you can keep on adding chlorine every hour around the clock till you are done. For most people in "normal" situations, it is worth switching around the time that the FC level starts remaining above 5 overnight.

Thanks JasonLion!

Another question..our FC went from 15 to 14 overnight last night. We have still been checking and adding bleach every hour or so today. Do we need to change our cartridge now or only after the CC drops to .5 or lower and holds? I just checked about 30 minutes ago and FC was 7 and CC was 2. That is the first time I've checked the CC. Do we still need to be checking every hour or just doing the overnight test? When do I add the CYA?
I'm sure I'll have more ?s in the coming days..I have read alot of the conversion stories but I am having trouble keeping everything straight

Since you only lost 1.0 ppm of FC last night, you can now replace the filter media and then add CYA to between 30 and 50. You should continue keeping FC at 15, which will get much simpler with CYA in the water, until the CC level is 0.5 or lower on two consecutive days.

Thanks again JasonLion!
latest update..last nights final check was FC-13, CC-1.5 and this morning at 7:20 FC-11, CC- 1
So I top back off at 15 this morning and do it all again tonight, right? slowly but surely...

Just posting my encouragement.....you're getting there and you understand the process.....nice work. It'll be very soon!

Thanks! I can't wait!

Another quick question...I bought the Aqua chem brand stabilizer (the only thing I could find) in a 3 lb jug. It is in a granular form. Do I just put it in the skimmer the way it is or should it be dissolved first? I know with the solid you should wait a week to test, is it the same with this kind?

Just a little update. We had a minor setback, We ran out of the 0871 and a day or so with none. I dumped in a little bleach sort of blindly just so we didn't get way behind. I checked it just a little while ago and FC was at 1.5 and CC was at .5 is this OK? I was at the point of only checking it at night and in the morning. We had one night of FC not dropping more than one ppm before the lapse in testing. Should I just jump right back in where we were? Just doing overnight test until CC holds at .5 or less for two nights in a row?

Thanks so much for all your help!

Partially skipping one day during a baquacil conversion isn't a big deal given that FC remained above zero. You might use a little extra chlorine the day after, but it shouldn't be an issue.

The CYA you bought is fine. I would put it in a sock and put that in the skimmer, but you can also pour it slowly directly into the skimmer if you want. Either way you shouldn't backwash/clean the filter for a week, and don't test the CYA level for a week.