Starting Conversion today 6-11-11

[mindy1978]

So I am planning to start my conversion today. I have spent a lot of time reading other conversion stories and I'm ready to get started. My test kit will be delivered today, so I am heading to the store to stock up on bleach.

I have a 17x33 in-ground pool about 18K gallons using a DE filter.

I did have a few questions before starting.

- Should I remove the ladder from the deep end before starting?

- It rained a lot last night. Will this have any effect on starting the conversion?

- When should I start vacuuming? Does it take a few days or will stuff start accumulation right away?

I will post pics as I go along. Pool looks wonderful right now, but I can't stand the smell and taste. Wishing I never started the baquacil...but, you live and learn. Never again.

So here are my starting pics:

Steps:
[attachment=0:2q3h5bgw]steps-before.jpg[/attachment:2q3h5bgw]

Shallow end:
[attachment=1:2q3h5bgw]shallow-before.jpg[/attachment:2q3h5bgw]

Deep end:
[attachment=2:2q3h5bgw]deep-end-before.jpg[/attachment:2q3h5bgw]

Mindy

 

[JasonLion]

Removing the ladder is best, but is not essential.

Rain is not a problem. Just check that the PH is between 7.2 and 7.4 when you start.

Vacuum as needed. Generally no vacuuming will be required the first day, though it varies. There will usually be a period of frequent vacuuming, typically on the second or third day, though the timing varies.

 

[mindy1978]

Got my test kit today. Thought my PH was good with test strips but with kit it is about 7.8. I added PH Minus. How long should I wait to test again?

I'm feeling impatient because I have everything I need to get started and the time, but now I need the PH to go down.

Mindy

 

[JasonLion]

Let the acid mix in for half an hour with the pump running, and then you can test again.

 

[mindy1978]

Just added my initial dose of bleach. I added at the return, is that all right. Water is pretty cloudy now with some white scum on the top.

Do I need to check the chlorine level to make sure it made it up to 15 or just wait an hour and test again?

Mindy

 

[mindy1978]

Also, when filtering to waste, the water usually just goes into our side yard. Is this bad for the grass? Should we try to re-direct it elsewhere?

Thanks so much!

Mindy

 

[JasonLion]

Just wait an hour, measure the FC level, and add enough chlorine to bring it back up to 15. The first several times it is likely to be zero.

The water should be just fine for the grass, though later on there may be unsightly blobs of baqgoo.

 

[mindy1978]

So, I'm not sure if I am doing this right. I have the TF-100 test kit.

1 Hour after adding initial dose, I tested chlorine. It was 17.5 ppm. I didn't think this could be right, so I tested again with the same result. I am doing the test where you keep adding the drops until the water goes from pink to clear.

I am going to measure my deep and shallow end just to make sure my calculations for volume are correct. Perhaps I added too much chlorine.

I added 6, 96 oz jugs.

Is the white scum floating on top white water mold? Or just part of the process? If it was mold, would this process eliminate it? Or should I take other steps to ensure it's eliminated?

Here are my pictures after 1st dose:

[attachment=0:2gb3voym]shallow-1hr.jpg[/attachment:2gb3voym]

[attachment=1:2gb3voym]pool-1hr.jpg[/attachment:2gb3voym]

[attachment=2:2gb3voym]deep-end-1hr.jpg[/attachment:2gb3voym]

Thanks for all of the help!

Mindy

 

[mindy1978]

Just checked chlorine about 3 hours in and I am a little freaked out. It registers at about 25ppm. I am worried about fading the liner with the levels this high. Should I drain some of the water and put in fresh?

Ok, so I am editing this post because I don't know if I have been doing this chlorine test right. I was putting the drops in one at a time and then stopping and looking at the water.

Am I supposed to keep it spinning and add the drops? If I do this the water changes after about 2 drops. But when I stop it spinning, it turns right back to pink.

I feel like I may have wasted an entire evening I could have been moving forward because I didn't understand the test kit.

My water stills smells very strongly of chlorine if it is at a 0, I would think it wouldn't smell so strongly.

I am so confused!

 

[JasonLion]

The FAS-DPD chlorine test does need to be done fairly quickly. What you want to do is to keep the vial swirling the entire time, adding one drop at a time fairly rapidly, if it goes clear and stays clear for 15 seconds of swirling, then move on to the CC portion of the test. Left sitting for a minute, the sample will always go back to pink.

The problem has to do with the CC level bring really high. When CC is really high it can "leak through" into the FC portion of the test if you don't move along quickly enough.

If the sample turns clear for a second or two and then back to pink, that doesn't count as the end. If the sample goes to a very light almost clear pink, that doesn't count as the end. But if it goes fully clear for 15+ seconds, that is the end.

 

[mindy1978]

Wow, thank you so much. At least now I know how to do it right. Although right now my eyes are going buggy from staring at a vial trying to figure out if it's clear or pink all night.

After reading your last post, I got a sample of water and performed 3 tests with the same sample one after the other. All of the results were different.

Test 1:

FC: 18
CC: 3


Test 2:

FC: 13.5
CC: 2


Test 3:

FC: 10.5
CC: 2

Does this make any sense at all? Would the chlorine levels drop just from sitting on the counter for 10-20 minutes?

I am just going to assume there is enough chlorine for the night and test again in the morning. It is so hard to tell when the water is completely clear. I wish it would just tell me a number digitally, now that would be awesome!

You are awesome! Thanks again for all of your help!

Mindy

 

[JasonLion]

Yes, the FC level can go down in a small sample sitting open on the table for 20 minutes.

 

[mindy1978]

Tested this morning, and if I'm doing the test right, chlorine levels are still really high. Around 18ppm. Any idea what could be going on. I haven't had any chlorine loss.

I am extremely concerned about fading my liner, should I be worried?

Am I the only one that isn't confident in the chlorine test results. I am having a really hard time telling when the water turns completely clear. It's making me question my results.

 

[JasonLion]

Don't worry about your liner. One night at 18 isn't going to do anything. A conversion typically involves a week or two with FC at 15, and has not caused problems for others.

Assuming FC is really around 18, the FC level should start to fall very rapidly once the sun hits the pool. That will provide an opportunity to double check your testing, at least to some extent.

Now might be a good time to read the extended test kit instructions for the FAS-DPD test, here. From your description it sounds like you were doing something wrong when you got an FC result of 25, but having been doing things correctly since then. However, there is some chance that you are reading CC as if it was FC. You should be using a 10 ml sample and multiplying the number of drops by 0.5.

I am trying to figure out what might be going on. During a conversion, the initial chlorine additions should vanish almost instantly. How sure are you that baqua was used in this pool? Is that something you did yourself, or are you working from a report from the previous owner? The FC level could very plausibly be 18 if there never was any baqua in the pool in the first place. And finally, you said you added six 96 oz jugs of bleach. Did you add any other chlorine before or after that?

 

[mindy1978]

I wasn't using the bacquacil brand, but splashes-free, another biguinide system. I order from specialty pool products online. I was having my water tested at a baquacil dealer and the last test showed my sanitizer levels at 41.

I haven't added any more after initial dose.

Pool gets full sun all day, so I will re-check after getting home from church. I was considering taking a sample to a pool store just to double check.

Thanks again.

Mindy

 

[mindy1978]

One more thing. When I use the test strips, it registers very low, like .5-1.

But pool still smells strong of chlorine.

 

[JasonLion]

Splashes Chlorine Free sanitizer is indeed a baqua chemical.

The chlorine smell is coming from CC. Between that and the test strip results it really seems like CC must be bleeding through into the FC portion of the test.

 

[mindy1978]

Ok, so I retested twice.

FC: .5
CC: 10

FC: 1
CC: 9

Does that make more sense?

Filter keeps slowing down, so thinking about cleaning it. Do we add more DE powder after cleaning the filter or at all during this process?

Mindy

 

[dattia]

One little tip that I use that helps me tell when the sample goes completely clear is that I sit the vial on a white piece of paper. If there is any pink tinge at all, it will show up against the white background.

 

[JasonLion]

That makes a lot more sense. Time to raise FC up to 15 again.

Backwash the filter, and skip the DE for now. The filter is going to get lots of baqgoo even without the DE.