And I'm Off... B -> C

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ssteckley

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Aug 29, 2011
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Selinsgrove, PA
This was our first year with a pool and let me tell you, nightmare doesn't begin to describe after deciding on baqua. I research everything, but didn't even do a basic search when it was decided we would try this stuff, it just sounded easy. :hammer: We put around $2K in baqua + other chems into the pool this year as the baqua levels and algeacide levels would constantly drop to 0. We finally realized we had a water mold problem and that was likely the reason, but the 2K spent already left a very bad taste in our mouths (for obv reasons). Finally did some research and doesn't look like mold and baqua is uncommon. Anyhow....

So the conversion begins. All baqua numbers have been near 0 all year round so I figure this shouldn't be too bad. Calculator told me 4+ bottles of 182oz, so I threw in 5 last night. I currently only have strips and a small cheap chlorine test kit (my test kit should arrive today). After I put this in, I barely had any reading on the strips and the liquid kit (went to walmart quick) showed 1-2 for FC. I have a 24K gallon pool, but the calc said I should be at 15 FC with that dose. This morning, it was about the same reading but I threw in 2 more bottles and will test in a bit to see if I get a better reading.

Long story short, can I trust the readings of the kits I have? I don't want to throw in too much bleach when my test kit should arrive today. Thoughts?

Here are some pics of the start. Pretty normal I guess...

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I would just wait until you get the kit. I would also suggest you dose tonight just after the sun is off the pool....you will get maximum use of your chlorine when the sun isn't killing it.
 
Welcome! :wave:

You obviously know how we like pictures, so thanks for posting those. Nice pool, btw.

Since you don't have any stabilizer in your water, you will need to continually add bleach during the day and just before bed. Sun eats away chlorine when not stabilized. You'll fix this later, but now just maintaining an adequate dose of chlorine is most important. I admit that without the test kit it's like shooting blind, but since it's coming today, just keep adding a bit of the bleach. If you're afraid of overdosing then don't add too much.

Watch your filter pressure, and backwash when psi goes up 8-10.

Again welcome, and you're going to love a BBB pool!
 
Hey, welcome To TFP! Youll have some work, but it will be so worth it to get a sparkling and sanitary pool. There will be plenty of us to offer help and support too. If you look around youll see that color is pretty common fo a Baqua conversion. Glad you found us.
 
Thanks everyone. Kit came this morning and here are the first readings I did...

FC 1.5
CC 2.5
TA 160
CYA 70

That is all the testing I did so far (work from home so trying to do some). I am going to dump a few bottles of bleach in now just to try to give it more.

We definitely still had water mold, so do u think some of the bleach is going to kill that rather than sticking around?

Thanks for the help. More pics to follow...
 
I think 15ppm held/maintained during this conversion will do some significant damage to the mold. I'm slightly confused over the day/night chlorine level maintenance with a conversion but I'm not converting so I haven't really had any reason to investigate it. While sunlight can deplete chlorine, I'd be wary of not dosing during the day and letting FC fall to 0 if I was converting. It seems like it would stall the conversion but perhaps that's just part of the process. ??

If it were me, I might think the expense of chlorine lost to sun (no CYA) would be worth it if I could keep on the pool all day to maintain 15ppm. Compared to $2K, a hundred bux of chlorine that the sun helped eat up, but that was also in the pool all day actively "converting" is a drop in the... pool, right?

Perhaps Duraleigh can clarify?
 
Have you added any stabilizer as of yet?? If you haven't added anything I would disregard your CYA levels? I would guess that it is just a side effect of the green water throwing off your readings. It SHOULD be around 0, which would make your shock level 15. If you've added stabilizer then your new shock level is now around 30. Which test kit do you have?? I would never even think of doing the swap without a good kit, no way in heck would I think of it with test strips.

Plan on around 50-70 jugs of bleach and some work. You've got some long days and nights ahead of you, yet once the swap is complete the work is nothing. I've swapped a month ago and since I've finished I've only tested the water daily and added maybe 5 gallons of bleach. We started with high levels of Baqua Sanitizer and white mold as well. It took us around a week of day and night testing and shocking, but the payoff is amazing. Good luck.....the groups here will get you to a sparkling clean pool.

and we all love photos!
 
Frogabog.....

At the start of the conversion day and night hourly shocking is suggested. I think he suggested night only shocking as they had yet to get a good test kit. At the start the sun won't have time to touch the FC levels as the baqua will consume it alot quicker. There were times where 15 minutes after shocking to a level of 14fc I would retest and it would be down to around 3 already. Shocking at night will slow the swap, but it's not worth the risk to ruin the liner with a poor test kit to try day and night shocking.
 

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If it were me, I might think the expense of chlorine lost to sun (no CYA) would be worth it if I could keep on the pool all day to maintain 15ppm.
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Probably so. My thinking is an afternoon "guess" dose might not be very helpful and would not get things off to as good a start as an evening precise dose. However, frogabog is correct, as long as you don't exceed the guidlines with a bad overdose, keeping your FC constantly at or very near the suggested shock value will ALWAYS make the process go faster than if you get careless and don't keep the FC up.

It's also worth mentioning here that 14ppm will not be ineffective nor will 16ppm cause you to grow additional appendages or make your pool catch on fire. :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

The guidelines developed here (by folks way smarter than me) are just that....guidelines and not hard, fast absolutes. 10-12ppm would probably convert your pool as well (but slower) and 18ppm might do it faster but that's getting into an area where damage to a liner, etc. might occur so the "ideal" number seems to be around 15ppm.
 
Thanks all.

I have not added any stabilizers yet, no.

As a side to my original questions, the good test (TF100) gave similar results to what I had last night for the chlorine, so I definitely need to add a lot more bleach. I've added 4 more jugs (182oz) already today and will probably dump double that in this evening (local walmart keeps running out, may have to go to Clorox).

How long after adding bleach can u retest to get a reasonable reading? My fears of overdosing are quickly fading as it seems anything I put in, is gone pretty much right away...

ss
 
With pump running full on, I'd think you should be able to test in about half an hour. Half hour is the standard wait time for swimming after adding bleach. You could brush the pool and mix the bleach in that time so if you're brushing and running the pump together it's probably mixed in nicely by half hour later.

Like Leebo said, the chlorine is going to go fast at first. I don't think even at half an hour you'll see any kind of verification that what you added is in the pool. It's consuming it way too fast right now. Once it stops loosing chlorine like it will for the next few days a half hour test might work but right now, I'd go with the known values for your volume (pool calc) and forget about verifying that you hit 15ppm till you get a <1ppm loss at 1 hour.
 
I'm not sure I'd suggest double dosing it just yet. I would simply suggest 4 jugs once an hour for today. Working at home will help you on this one. Just pop out once a hour and dump in 4 jugs of bleach. It should take you up to around 14FC or so, and if I would guess you'll be at around 2FC's in about an hour. Eight jugs would put you around a FC level of 22, which with no CYA in the pool you will risk fading the liner. At the quickest i would at least wait 30 minutes and retest....but not much quicker than that. Forget testing the CYA then at this point. The green "goo" you've got in the pool threw that test results off. If you've yet to add stabilizer, you've got no CYA levels.

As for the store running out.....talk to the manager. They'll be more than happy to order you a shipment. Just go ahead and order around 50 bottles, you'll use it. They'll leave them in the box as well, saving you the effort of carrying around the jugs. :D


edit for making sure to cover butts

Make sure you do still test the FC level each hour as well. If you stay ontop of hourly dosing, you may find yourself keeping more than you'd think. I'd hate to see a year old pool ruined over not testing when you have the supplies. TEST HOURLY TOO!!
 
I didn't just realize this, but I guess I just started to wonder. The walmart brand is a yellowish tint. We bought them all out yesterday so I got some Clorox brand and it is clear. Any worries to the yellowish Walmart brand?

Update:
Was at 10 FC last night before bed so dumped in 1.5 jugs. Was at 7 FC this morning, dumped in 2. Ways to go yet I am sure, but at least it wasn't 3. :-D

Not much difference so far, but I am sure you want pictures...
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