Hi all...this is my first post. I am a new pool owner. We purchased our pool used this past spring and set it up in May. We started with baquacil and have not had great luck with it. My parents have used it for years with great success, so I thought I'd do the same since they could help me. I am not having their luck. Very few clear water days and I feel like I'm just wasting my money and too much of it. I'm also fighting some sort of algae on my latter and skimmer. So I've been reading on here off and on for a few weeks. I'm now going to just go for it. I think our quickest bet is going to be to drain the pool. We can do it pretty quickly and our water is cheap. So I plan on draining tomorrow and getting it filled right back up. My test kit will be here Tuesday. My first question is, does anyone have a ballpark guess as to how much bleach I should buy to start off with? I'm sure I will have more questions soon. I'm a little nervous. Hopefully I can get my kids back swimming before too long.
Getting ready to start a conversion
- Thread starter amberw2878
- Start date
- Jun 22, 2014
- 47,729
- Pool Size
- 17888
- Surface
- Fiberglass
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- CircuPool RJ-45 Plus
Hi and welcome! After your drain and refill, there are a few basic things to do first until yore kit arrives:
- You must add stabilizer (CYA). Shoot for a "Target" of 30 ppm per the Poolmath calculator . Use the "sock method" by a return jet to dispense.
- Add enough regular liquid bleach to achieve about 2-3 ppm each day until your kit arrives and CYA starts to build. That should be about 1/2 gallon each evening.
- If you can test PH, try to maintain it in the mid-7s.
Once you receive your kit, we'll be able to get more specific. Hope this helps! Have a great evening.
- You must add stabilizer (CYA). Shoot for a "Target" of 30 ppm per the Poolmath calculator . Use the "sock method" by a return jet to dispense.
- Add enough regular liquid bleach to achieve about 2-3 ppm each day until your kit arrives and CYA starts to build. That should be about 1/2 gallon each evening.
- If you can test PH, try to maintain it in the mid-7s.
Once you receive your kit, we'll be able to get more specific. Hope this helps! Have a great evening.
At 8,500 gallons, I'd say start off with about 10-15 gallons of Liquid shock or 15-20 121 oz. jugs concentrated bleach. Here's my thinking, Yes you are draining the pool and refilling with fresh water. However, unless you are scrubbing the pool walls, there will still be some residual Baquacil chemical leaching into the water as it touches the pool surfaces. Even after a good scrub, there is still bound to be residual BQ. Regardless if you are converting via SLAM or drain/refill, it stands to reason that you are still going to have to SLAM the water.
That said, don't worry about overbuying LC or concentrated bleach, as long as the "Bottled on" dates are pretty recent and you have decent storage, you are going to use it eventually.
That said, don't worry about overbuying LC or concentrated bleach, as long as the "Bottled on" dates are pretty recent and you have decent storage, you are going to use it eventually.
Thank you for the advice. Got some bleach on hand, drained during the night, scrubbed walls and washed out skimmer and pump best I could this morning. I removed ladder to give it a good cleaning too. Refilling now and test kit will be in today. Hoping it doesn't take me too long to get it back up and running.
UPDATE: Pool was done filling yesterday evening. Things are going better than expected so far. Love the testing kit. My numbers so far...
9pm last night FC:20 (guess I added a little too much) CC: 1 PH 7.0 TA 120
8 am today FC 13.5, cc 0.5, ph 7.4, this was after a storm over night and I was so pleased with how clear the pool was.
Added a little over 2 cups of bleach (per the pool math calculator),
9 am same readings, added just over 2 cups again,
10 am same readings, added the same.
It's been a pretty cloudy day so far, so I think that's helping??
9pm last night FC:20 (guess I added a little too much) CC: 1 PH 7.0 TA 120
8 am today FC 13.5, cc 0.5, ph 7.4, this was after a storm over night and I was so pleased with how clear the pool was.
Added a little over 2 cups of bleach (per the pool math calculator),
9 am same readings, added just over 2 cups again,
10 am same readings, added the same.
It's been a pretty cloudy day so far, so I think that's helping??
Welcome and great job so far! Just as an FYI, when you FC is over 10, the PH testing is not accurate and really can't be tested.
Clean the debris out of the pump and skimmer baskets, but the chlorine will oxidize the fine organics that are stuck to the plastic. I was amazed how clean my baskets got. I think the best thing you can do once you finish refilling the pool is to keep your Chlorine level at 15, pass an OCLT, and change your sand, and then concentrate on passing a true SLAM.
Thanks. I did clean baskets and anything I could touch. We are all amazed at how clean and sparkly everything looks. Haha! Kids can't wait to swim again. Hopefully not too much longer.
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