converting baquacil to chlorine

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34zoned

0
Apr 21, 2011
26
Eastern PA
hi all,

i just recently opened my pool so i can get a jump start on having a clear pool this summer. baquacil was was giving me sucha a hard time last year so when i closed it, i figured when the spring time comes i'll open it up and start using chlorine. but to my suprise when reading and following the steps from here, i just want to make sure i'm doing this right. i went to the pool store and bought shock. i tried it a couple of days ago and went back and they sold me more telling me that i would need to double the dose since there was still baquacil left over. since the cost was over $30 i went to kmart and bought (2) 182 oz of regular clorox bleach. (also my dad recommended that i put bleach since he did it for many years. too bad i never listened to him in the first place.) so as of today 4:00 pm i put 32 oz of bleach and have the filter running all day and night since tuesday. i backwashed and the water was white murky mush. my water balance is fine and it's kind of greenish trying to upload a picture but the fil is to big.

thanks
 
34zoned said:
hi all,

i just recently opened my pool so i can get a jump start on having a clear pool this summer. baquacil was was giving me sucha a hard time last year so when i closed it, i figured when the spring time comes i'll open it up and start using chlorine. but to my suprise when reading and following the steps from here, i just want to make sure i'm doing this right. i went to the pool store and bought shock. i tried it a couple of days ago and went back and they sold me more telling me that i would need to double the dose since there was still baquacil left over. since the cost was over $30 i went to kmart and bought (2) 182 oz of regular clorox bleach. (also my dad recommended that i put bleach since he did it for many years. too bad i never listened to him in the first place.) so as of today 4:00 pm i put 32 oz of bleach and have the filter running all day and night since tuesday. i backwashed and the water was white murky mush. my water balance is fine and it's kind of greenish trying to upload a picture but the fil is to big.

thanks
Click to expand...


Welcome to TFP :wave:

When you say your water balance is fine, can you please post the test results?

FC
CC
PH
TA
CH
CYA (this may oe may not be zero, since you have used powdered shock)
 
If you read through some of the baquacil conversion threads, you will see that most pools go through a lot of bleach to complete the conversion! You will need to add enough bleach to reach shock level according to The Pool Calculator and continue adding bleach to maintain shock level throughout the day. The more often you can test and add bleach the quicker the conversion process will go.

The best way to know if you are at shock level is to perform your own tests on the water. You need a quality test kit such as a TF 100 or a Taylor K2006. These kits contain the FAS-DPD chlorine test that will allow you to test chlorine levels greater than 10 ppm, which you need when you are in the conversion process. The pool store guy is wrong. You need the chlorine result so you will know how much more to add. Not having a quality test kit puts you at the mercy of the pool store guy who may or may not know how to help you.

Keep the pump running 24/7 during the conversion and backwash the filter when you have a 10 pt rise in pressure. Please post more conversion pictures. We like to see the interesting colors! (We're kind of strange that way!)
 
i got a test kit and tested as follows:

FC- 3
TC- 15 (was more red when i add drop #3, i guessed it to be 15 no number to look off of)
CC- 12
ph- 7.5
cya- 20
ta- 90
baqucil- less than 15 (using the baqucil test strips. when i checked yesterday it was higher it seems to be going down.

backwashed last night before i went to sleep, added 64 oz. woke up this morning backwashed and it was a milky color. did a rinse and set to filter. i also started to see some baquacil goo on the skimmer but not as much as some other people. here is what it looks like today at 9:00 am[attachment=0:yw0ssr36]923 am.jpg[/attachment:yw0ssr36]
 

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nothing changed since my last post until today. 7 am this morning i dumped 1jug (182oz) of bleach before i went to work and came home and here is a pic. not a good picture since it was taken from my phone but i can see the bottom of the pool, so that's a plus. only problem is i ran out of the powder, i did order more so i'm just measuring it by eye[attachment=0:1877zjak]4-26.jpg[/attachment:1877zjak]
 

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You want to raise the FC level to about 15 in the evening, test it to find out exactly what it ended up at after it mixes in, then test again first thing the next morning. If you lose 1 ppm or less of FC then you are almost done with the conversion (just adding CYA and getting rid of CC left).

Have you read the article on doing baqua conversions in Pool School?
 
last night around 10 pm 4/29
FC 6 added some more bleach to bring it up to 15, and also added cya to bring it up to 30.
CC 2.5
ph 7.5

today at 9am
FC 22.5
CC 1.5
ph 7.8

today at 2pm
FC 16
CC 1.5
ph 7.8
TA 160

is there anything else i'm missing? i changed the sand, added some stabilizer for the cya and trying to keep the FC at 15. when can i check the cya level it all disolved in my sock when i checked it this morning.
 
last night around 10 pm 4/29
FC 6 added some more bleach to bring it up to 15, and also added cya to bring it up to 30.
CC 2.5
ph 7.5
today at 9am
FC 22.5
CC 1.5
ph 7.8
Click to expand...

Don't take this the wrong way, but this isn't really useful as it stands. There is too much that is unknown.
We, and you, really NEED to know the final PM FC level, and then the resulting AM level. In this case, all we know is that:
1) you had a measured PM FC of 6 and you added 'some' chlorine.
2) You had an AM FC of 22.5

You have said that you added enough to reach 15, but this is bound to be somewhat inaccurate since there are always measurement, pool volume, and strength inaccuracies. So in reality, you added enough chlorine to reach at least 22.5, and likely even higher. This is why Jason said to test it to see where it ends up after it mixes in. You cannot know the overnight loss unless you know for certain the last PM FC level and the first AM FC level while the sun is not shining on your pool.

In this stage, if you add chemicals after you take a measurement, you need to take another measurement in order to know for certain how the levels have been affected by the addition.

See if you can get a new overnight loss test result for us.
 
ohm_boy,
not taking it the wrong the wrong way, i understand what you meant. this site is very helpful. i grew up with a pool since i was a kid, but i never did anything but swim. my dad did all the work. now that i have a pool, i know i realize the all the maintenance that goes into keeping a tfp.

results for 4/30 at 10:30 pm
FC 13.5
CC 2.0
PH 7.5
TA 150
CH 150

will post in the morning without adding anything, thanks.
 

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