Starting a Baq conversion today. Here are my numbers

[milesvdustin]

Will do BuckeyeChris. She just checked the water, FC 4 and CC 2.5. GLad to see the CC is going down quickly, had to add 190 ounces of 10% to bring it back to 15.

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Also, when the conversion is done, for my daily check I just use the little kit in the blue box that came with the tf 100, right?

 

[milesvdustin]

Topped the pool off for the evening. Fc is 15.5, cc is 1.5.

I got in there and checked out the bottom as i cant see it. Tons of algae, leaves, dead bugs, etc. My vacuum does not work for a hoot. I had better luck feeling with my feet and then poking the hose around down there. I set the filter to recirculate again.

Just keep at it?? Or what else should i change up? I added cya on the first day, but only enough to hit 10ppm once its all dissolved. Will that hinder the process?

 

[Husky25]

Apparently CYA will affect your progress, but use PoolMath to adjust bleach additions. I think it stands to reason to stop testing CC until your pool is clear. It seems to me that, in the TFPS, clear water and <1 ppm FC loss are the two elements you have the most control of. So until then, <0.5 CC is not important.

Regardless of BQ or Chlorine, your vacuum not working is a pressure issue. How often do you backwash? Is your pressure gauge working? Any air leaks? Vacuuming to waste (if you can) eliminated the pressure issue for me. Keep that junk out of the filter.

 

[milesvdustin]

It is a rinky dink pos vac. its very old, and has a small opening that quickly plugged. With just the hose in, it was good. I was using it on recirc to get the leaves up, then to waste to deal with the big algae spot on the middle. It stirred things up good so hopefully a lot more dies tonight. If i cant clear this soon my wife will kill me and we wont have a pool.

 

[Husky25]

It is a rinky dink pos vac. its very old, and has a small opening that quickly plugged. With just the hose in, it was good. I was using it on recirc to get the leaves up, then to waste to deal with the big algae spot on the middle. It stirred things up good so hopefully a lot more dies tonight. If i cant clear this soon my wife will kill me and we wont have a pool.

Show her the pix in the thread I started (Yet Another Baquacil Conversion). I've brushed about 6 times so far and vacuumed 4 times in 3 days, all to waste.

Before you expect to get much results in the pool water, scoop as much debris out of the pool as you can, then fix your vacuum. You need a pole, skimmer plate, hose, and vacuum head. Perhaps your problem is with the pump. Unfortunately, I have little experience improving flow with an old pump...I hope someone else chimes in.

My wife saw today's progress with our pool and FINALLY said she was convinced.

 

[milesvdustin]

The flow of the pump is great, until you hook up the vac. Im looking for a new option. Preferrably something with its own filter bag or pump system or something to that effect.

I need to clean the sand i think, but this is an old pool and it will drain out to below the fittings as it has no shutoff valves to prevent this.

 

[milesvdustin]

Fc this morning was 11.5. Gonna top it up and wait til this evening to do it again.

 

[milesvdustin]

Wife just called, pressure in the filter was 25. Backwashed for a minute, pressure back down to 12. At least its getting the hazy stuff out of the pool! I will get back in it tonight and brush brush brush, scoop scoop scoop again. At least the water temperature is nice!


Anyone use an aquabot jr? I have some amazon gift cards that I dont have a use for, it seems like a good solution to my vacuum problem. Thoughts?

 

[milesvdustin]

Went and got some skimmer socks. They are catching mountains of what appears to be dead algae and other stuff. I stirred the pool up with a broom at lunch and it clogged it jam full twice in 30 minutes. Wife is keeping that up until i get home. Water is cloudy, but a striking blue.

 

[milesvdustin]

We vacuumed a TON of junk out of the pool last night. Not too many leaves left in there, I cant find any. Lots of pockets of goop laying on the bottom, we ran the vac with a skimmer sock in and it would totally plug every 10 minutes, we changed it out probably 10 times before I dosed it back to a FC of 15 and set it to filter all night. FC this morning was 14. Still hazy, can see about 6 inches clear, then another 6 until I cant see anything. I need more liquid chlorine, i only have 5 jugs of my original 20 left. I think i was lucky on that front as it hasnt had any baq chemicals since last summer.

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Should I take the FC up to 20 to make this go faster?

 

[mcnealjs]

I would be careful to take to 20. In a previous thread someone said it should stay around 15 as getting above that could cause fading of the liner.

Jeff

 

[milesvdustin]

Ill stay with 15. The liner is a bit faded anyways from age. Wife called, she sucked a bunch more junk out this morning, 5 skimmer baskets full of goop. Gonna keep on with the vac until we find nothing in there. Sure would be easy if we could see the bottom!

 

[Husky25]

Keep testing as often as you can. Maintaining 15 ppm is far more important than over shooting it. Can't argue with thousands of instances of actual case study. They say that any sustained levels higher than 15 ppm may fade your liner.

 

[milesvdustin]

Im pretty much at the evening and morning dose of chlorine now, work sucks.

 

[milesvdustin]

Well, my wife went to the pool store and bought chlorine tabs because the pool guy said my "shock chlorine" was too high. Also my ph was off so she bought ph balancer, whatever that is, and dumped a bunch of baking soda in the pool. Interesting to see how badly this is going to mess things up now....

 

[jblizzle]

Yeah ... competing methodologies is not going to work.
Why even bother having the water tested at the pool store? If they don't test, then can not sell you junk.

 

[milesvdustin]

Fc was 1 and CC was .5 when I got home last night. Pool still cloudy with no improvement. I am going to put new sand in the filter and clean it all tonight. Father in law said the sand hasnt been changed in several years, and he typically runs the filter nonstop all summer long.

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We did finally get all the goo and **** off the bottom of the pool. I jumped in it last night and slowly felt the whole bottom and I didnt even find a grain of dirt or anything. The vacuum is working now, put a different hose on it and it covers the whole pool easily now.

 

[milesvdustin]

Only lost 1 fc last night, cc is .5 or less. Sample barely tints with 5 drops of 0003. I mean barely. Almost there.


Oh yeah, today we csn see the bottom of the pool! Still cloudy, but i can see the pattern on the liner plain as day!

 

[milesvdustin]

Passing the oclt and cc, pool is milky cloudy, can see the bottom.

Fc 5
Cc less than .5
Ch 75
Ta 140
Cya approx 20.

Just put new sand in the filter as well. Im getting mad at the pool.

 

[jblizzle]

So what step of the conversion process are you on?

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Sounds like you are around 8, but the water should not be cloudy. Have you added CYA to get to 30ppm? I think you need to continue the SLAM process until the cloudiness is gone.