THX for the liberation and education - now some advice?

[alpha18]

What's my next step?
I am converting from baqua-gold$$$$ to BBB. After all the pool store advice/products I turned to you guys. As for the pool store advice, this is what I have done so far:

shock x 2 (great colors) - still green
changed out sand
shock - still green
aluminum sulfate (floculant) & vacuum to waste. During this I'm sure some Al-Su ended up in my filter (on the new sand) but just a little.

The water now looks pretty good, but here are the #'s
5/23 @ 12noon
Added all the BBB & 3lbs.CYA

5/23 @ 10pm
FC - 14
CC - .5
pH - 7.4
TA - 100
CYA - 0

5/24 @ 8:30am
FC - 5.5
CC - .5
pH - 7.2
TA - 100
CYA - 0
Added:
remaining 2lbs CYA of the 5+lbs Rx'd by the pool calculator
1/2 box of borax
No Bleach - waiting on CYA levels

5/25@ 9:30am
FC - 0
CC - 0
pH - 7.5
TA - 130
CYA - 0-10 (slightly cloudier but still easily able to see the dot with tube completely full)

The water still looks good. The pump has been and is running 24/7 for past 3 days.
Water temp. is 75 F.
Pool gets full sun 3/4 of the day

Do I continue to offer my bleach sacrfice to the sun god? OR is the Chlorine being consumed by something else?
What about my elevated TA?
What's my next step?

Thanks again for the freedom from my ignorance and reliance on the pool "experts"/salesmen.
Adam

 

[mpacheco72]

Continue sacraficing. Calculate how much CYA you added and then shock according to what your anticipated CYA level is.

 

[mpacheco72]

You should keep FC between 3-7 based on an anticipated CYA level of about 40.

 

[alpha18]

You should keep FC between 3-7 based on an anticipated CYA level of about 40.

thx
I'll shoot for mainting that FC level.

As far as the CYA level anticipation goes, I now have a new problem. ---- just walked out to see my wife backwashing the filter.. ..oops....guess I should be passing this education on.

I've been adding the CYA granules directly to the skimmer basket, but just read a thread suggesting I use an old sock. Does it matter and should I add some more CYA due to the backwash?

 

[mpacheco72]

I wouldn't want to add more since you won't know if you're going to boost your CYA too much and therefore raise the amount of FC you'll need. I'd rather wait and see what your level is the next few days and adjust accordingly then you have to drain your pool because you added too much.

 

[mpacheco72]

The only other thing I noticed was that your FC dropped a lot over night. It went from 14 to 5.5 and that's a lot to lose without direct sunlight. You might want to do another OCLT tonight to see if you lose as much.

 

[duraleigh]

I am late to this thread but I see nothing to make me think your process of conversion is over. Aren't you still losing chlorine overnight? In that case, you must reshock the pool.

It sounds to me like you are establishing maintenance levels of chlorine before you have finished shocking....can't do that.

How much chlorine is in your pool right now? What does your water look like?

 

[JasonLion]

+1 for what duraleigh said.

The conversion is not complete until you pass an overnight FC loss test and have CC at 0.5 or lower. You are still losing FC overnight, so you need to continue at shock level. There are complete directions in Pool School.

 

[alpha18]

Thanks jason and duraleigh for your response. I had figured I still needed to do the shock process, but wasn't sure if I should wait for the CYA levels. The bleach seems to disappear into the sun every day.

 

[Leebo]

If you've been backflushing after you pour the stabilizer into the skimmer, you've waisted much of that too. Head to pool school and read up on the baqua to chlorine write up. You're still going to have some time shocking at a level of at least 15FC....maybe even higher depending on your CYA level.

Read pool school....and no cheating!

 

[alpha18]

If you've been backflushing after you pour the stabilizer into the skimmer, you've waisted much of that too. Head to pool school and read up on the baqua to chlorine write up. You're still going to have some time shocking at a level of at least 15FC....maybe even higher depending on your CYA level.

Read pool school....and no cheating!

the backwash incident happened only once after the CYA had been in there for 2 days, and so........with a 0-10 CYA level still, when do I know the level is as high as it is going to go, and add some more stabilizer? Keeping the FC @ shock level for an extended period with 0 CYA seems like it could quickly get into $$$.

I've been recovering from surgery on a blown disk in my back I had 10 days ago, so have been doing lots of TFP reading. All of pool school and even found your baqua conversion. Good job by the way!! I love the pics.

I'm sending the fam back to the store for bleach and stabilizer (can't drive yet). I guess I just get this thing to 15ppm FC and hold it regardless of how frequently I need to add bleach until I pass the OCLT. and then the rest of the baqua conversion steps.

And just wait the week on the CYA level OR add some more? don't want to add too much, right?

thanks all,
Adam

 

[Leebo]

Don't add any more stabilizer until the swap is finished. For now you should be fine with a shock level of 15FC. As you stated....you'll want to keep it there as much as you can. It sounds like you may have very little baqua to start with, so your swap maybe close to being done. The only way to find out truly where you are is the OCLT. That "test" tells the entire story. You want to slowly crawl up to your goal on CYA once you're finished with the swap. Honestly, I myself don't see much difference in chlorine use daily with a new reading of 45, as I did when I had 30ppm in the water. Still lose about 2FC's a day. Start low on your goal....then work up.

Thanks for the words on the thread....I enjoyed the swap the entire time. It also taught me a TON about this entire BBB "system". It also helped that I wasn't paying for it however.