Getting away from baquacil!

[mike_mtbc]

Hi everyone! I’m new here to TFP, and very grateful to have found this amazing resource! It’s crazy what I have learned just reading this site for about a week. Here’s my story/question/concerns:

We bought a new house in August 2017 that had a partially inground Fox pool, 22,500 gallons, using bacquacil. I had an above ground pool using chlorine growing up, but it has been many years since I had to deal with any of this. For the past summer-and-a-half that we have used the pool at our new home, I just couldn’t understand the bacquacil - - and the cost was staggering, not to mention constant trips to the pool store to have the water analyzed. This season I made the decision to move to chlorine. Finding out about the BBB method sounds even more appealing to me, since I can really do it myself!

I have already purchased the Taylor 2006 test kit with the powder chlorine test, and have verified that the pH is good. I’ve checked through other posts about what happens when you add the bleach to the bacquacil pools - but just to verify, it’s gonna get messy, right? My water is clear right now, so it’s a little weird to intentionally ‘muck it up,’ but I understand that it’s part of this process to get rid of the bacquacil. Some other questions:
-After adding the bleach, does the filter run normally? I thought I saw that someone said to run it on ‘recirculate’
-When I start to vacuum the pool during this process, do I set it to waste?
-my sand was changed before the pool was opened this season (no bacquacil added) - will I have to change it out again after this process?

Thanks to everyone for sharing their experience and knowledge!
-Mike

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Did you use any CDX product in this pool?

 

[mike_mtbc]

Did you use any CDX product in this pool?

Yes, we did use CDX. But none added since last season.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

CDX often makes the conversion process more difficult. Since the season is now in full swing, you could potentially be looking at weeks without a usable pool. Given your location, that’s an awful amount of time to lose.

If you are really gung-ho on converting, then I would suggest you consider draining as much of the pool as you consider reasonable from a cost and safety (liner safety) perspective, refill and then convert. In doing so, you will dilute a major portion of any Baquacil sanitizer and CDX product in the water. It will likely make the conversion happen in days, rather than weeks and could save you from having to do a sand change (yes, conversion requires a sand change).

Or, you can struggle through one more expensive season of Baquacil, close the pool and then let winter snow melt and rain help you dilute it all away next year.

Up to you.

 

[tim5055]

Matt makes a good point of the amount of pool time lost.

Have you read the "How To" article on this?

Convert Your Baqua Pool to Chlorine

This Step-by-step guide will help you transform your pool from Biguanide (Baquacil, SoftSwim hereafter referred to as Baqua) to chlorine. Read more

www.troublefreepool.com

 

[mike_mtbc]

CDX often makes the conversion process more difficult. Since the season is now in full swing, you could potentially be looking at weeks without a usable pool. Given your location, that’s an awful amount of time to lose.

If you are really gung-ho on converting, then I would suggest you consider draining as much of the pool as you consider reasonable from a cost and safety (liner safety) perspective, refill and then convert. In doing so, you will dilute a major portion of any Baquacil sanitizer and CDX product in the water. It will likely make the conversion happen in days, rather than weeks and could save you from having to do a sand change (yes, conversion requires a sand change).

Or, you can struggle through one more expensive season of Baquacil, close the pool and then let winter snow melt and rain help you dilute it all away next year.

Up to you.

Thanks for all this info - - I didn’t realize that CDX would be more difficult to work out of the water. I’ll try to drain some water and refill. I’ve actually had to drain water over the last few days due to the amount of rain we recently had, so maybe that will go in my favor.

 

[mike_mtbc]

Matt makes a good point of the amount of pool time lost.

Have you read the "How To" article on this?

Convert Your Baqua Pool to Chlorine

This Step-by-step guide will help you transform your pool from Biguanide (Baquacil, SoftSwim hereafter referred to as Baqua) to chlorine. Read more

www.troublefreepool.com

Oh yes, I’ve been reading and re-reading this article! Thanks.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Thanks for all this info - - I didn’t realize that CDX would be more difficult to work out of the water. I’ll try to drain some water and refill. I’ve actually had to drain water over the last few days due to the amount of rain we recently had, so maybe that will go in my favor.

Do you know your current sanitizer level?

The CDX product is mostly dimethylhydantoin (DMH) which is intended to stabilize the peroxide oxidizer a bit to cope with UV and natural losses. The problem is that DMH creates a small chlorine demand that seems to take forever to go away. And so, in the process TFP outlines, exiting the conversion process never happens because there’s a constant overnight loss of chlorine to DMH oxidation. It’s frustrated many Baquacil conversion.

Rain can help but knowing where your sanitizer level is at is the most important. If the sanitizer level is detectable and you have CDX in the water, it can be a very long ride. Drain and refill as much as you can and the process will go much quicker.

 

[mike_mtbc]

Do you know your current sanitizer level?

The CDX product is mostly dimethylhydantoin (DMH) which is intended to stabilize the peroxide oxidizer a bit to cope with UV and natural losses. The problem is that DMH creates a small chlorine demand that seems to take forever to go away. And so, in the process TFP outlines, exiting the conversion process never happens because there’s a constant overnight loss of chlorine to DMH oxidation. It’s frustrated many Baquacil conversion.

Rain can help but knowing where your sanitizer level is at is the most important. If the sanitizer level is detectable and you have CDX in the water, it can be a very long ride. Drain and refill as much as you can and the process will go much quicker.

Thanks - I’m working on draining some and refilling.
The sanitizer level was very low when it was checked at the pool store 2 weeks ago.

I appreciate your expertise!