Well, I'm converting from a baquicil to chlorine, using the great resources and guidance here at TFP.

I drained the pool to about 8-12 inches depth and refilled, finally getting it up to filter depth on Sunday. Added the first batch of bleach Sunday evening, shocked again this morning, this afternoon, and this evening. BQ is reading 0 using their test strips. I haven't seen any of the pretty colors that people talk about--water is just quite cloudy at the moment. I'm having a simultanous filter problem that is probably acting as a confounding variable in this whole process. Im ordering my TF100 this evening, so all of these reading are from test strips:

I added bleach at noon, and tested when I got home from work at 6, and read FC between 1 and 3 (pool does not get a lot of sun).

Added two gallons of bleach to get total up to around 15 at 6 PM. Just took a test five minutes ago (9:30 PM) and got these readings:

TC=10 (max strip reading)
FC=10 (max strip reading)
TA=120
PH=8.4 (although that actaully read low, around 6.8, before I added the bleach)

I'll test again in the AM, and see what I see. I can't wait to offer my remaning BQ chemicals on Craigslist.

One question. I've got a bunch of BQ PH increaser and decreaser, that says it's safe for chlorine pools--does that sound right?

Thanks again for this great site, and your advice.

Yes, the Baquacil brand of PH increaser and PH reducer are fine. Don't believe the PH reading when the FC level is high. At some point when FC is below 5, test and adjust the PH to between 7.2 and 7.4.

Thanks, Jason.

Took test strip reading this morning (can't wait for the TF100 to arrive). TC was around 5, with FC still around 10, though perhaps the little test strip pad was slightly less emphatically purple than it was at last night's reading. Hopefully I can get my filter problem solved, and maybe I will have turned the corner on this process. I'll try take a picture tonight and post.

Welcome to the forum, ntinh986!


EDIT Target of this e-mail removed, so please ignore! thanks END-EDIT

Your conversion shouldn't take too long, & you might not see all the "pretty colors". There isn't much baqua-goo left, since you diluted your old water with a lot of new.

I converted without draining ANY water. The browns and greens were nice. Nicer after they were all gone!!!

Congrats on the switch! You have definitely made the right choice.