About to start a conversion in VT

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C

cds247

0
May 25, 2016
16
Charlotte
Hi,

I'm in Vermont and the weather is starting to turn toward summer. We're about to convert our pool to chlorine from Baquacil.

I posted a quick intro in the new person forum, but the short version is that we are first time pool owners, have gone two years with Baquacil, fought cloudiness last year, and are converting to chlorine thanks to the great info on this forum.

I have been mentally planning to do this since last year, so when we closed it, we didn't add any Baquacil chemicals. It has been about 6 months since I added any Baqua-anything.

Last night I scooped out a bunch of leaves and gunk (as much as I could see), and brushed the bottom a couple of times to move algae into suspension. I opened the returns, put the skimmer basket in, put in some old filters and powered up the pump. I'm hoping to remove as much organic material as I can before we start the conversion. It's pretty soupy green right now...

The pool is a 30'x15' oval, flat bottom 4.5' deep, vinyl liner with built in fiberglass stairs. I think it is around 12,000 gallons or so. It was originally filled with a truck with municipal water (2 years ago) and since has been topped off with well water. We do not live in an area with water restrictions. The pool has a Haywood 3/4 hp pump and a 4 cartridge rainbow filter (pretty low tech) - no heaters or other devices attached.

I've read a ton of info here on TFP, and have played around with the pool calcs. I bought the TF-100 XL kit, although am not entirely sure all I need to do with it. I'm getting ready to start in a couple of days.

I (only?) have 17 gallons of 8.25% bleach (all my local Lowes had in stock). I have no idea how many gallons it will take, so any guidance there would be appreciated. I'll pick up more if I need them, but also read they can lose potency over time if not used, so don't want to over do it.

I stopped by the pool store to buy some filters and mentioned that I was converting and asked if they had any advice. They were not very helpful (thank goodness for this site!). The only thing they mentioned was that I may need to put in some non-chlorine oxidizer to burn off the sanitizer. I haven't read that anywhere here yet - is that true in your experience?

Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Charlie

 
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Good luck! If you have a Lowes, i'm assuming you also have a walmart. WMT is selling 10% chlorine for $2.50/gal. I do not think you have enough! But you can always run out and buy more. and i'm guessing you will.

I'm sure you've read the article here about converting, but do be sure to adjust pH before starting.

The pool store was probably talking about MSP non chlorine shock, but this is rather expensive. and you will need quite a bit. The supposed advantage of this is that you dont get a bunch of goo from converting the residual baquacil.

Did you test for Baquacil levels? Mine was still 30 after winter and also not adding any at closing. go figure. If you do have low levels, the conversion will go faster.
do
 
What's the criticality of the PH? Mine was a little high when I started.

I started last night - new cartridge filters, about 3 gallons of bleach. It was nearly dark, so no good pictures. Tested FC this morning and got 3.5 (7 drops to clear pink). Added more chlorine before work. Got clumps of what looked a lot like duckweed, scooped some off with a skimmer tool, the filters loaded up fast. My wife cleared the filters off and the loaded up again quickly. She's about to check it again.





 
The water is a lot more blue and I'm skimming a lot of green floating junk off the top. I've added bleach as needed.

My filter pressure is high, at 7 psi with a fresh filter, after rinsing like I normally do, can't get it below 15 to start and then it gets around 20 quickly. I think the filters are loading up with green Baquagoo.

Is there any way to clean filters well to get my flow back? How? Thanks!

 
Thanks for the reply.

I don't know. I can try... I've only done the pool thing for a couple of years and everything prior was baquacil branded stuff. Do I use straight bleach or diluted? If diluted, what kind of ratio? Thanks!
 
First and foremost, WELCOME TO TFP!!!

Next,What type of filter do you have? Is it possible for you to set it to bypass the filter and let the chlorine break down the Baqua. At this point your filter is only doing so much, the chlorine is doing the bulk of the work. Keeping the water moving is a MUST. Maybe even use a leaf net to scoop some of that BaquaGoo up before it hits your filter. Also, make sure you're brushing frequently. It will help greatly.
 
You're making great progress. Keep it up.

BTW continue to use concentrated straight bleach with no additives (i.e scented or splashless). Check out this thread for liquid chlorine deals in your area. If you are close to an Ocean State Job Lot, you can get a case of 4 true gallons of 12.5% sodium hypochlorite for $12.
 

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Hi, and thanks. I have a four cartridge rainbow filter. It doesn't have a bypass, but I could just take out the filter cartridges and it would just pump water around. I've been scooping the goop off the top with a net skimmer on a pole and emptying the skimmer basket. It seems to be making progress. I've been brushing a couple of times a day too.

- - - Updated - - -

Thanks - I'm using gallons of bleach from Lowes, they're close to where I work. It is basic unscented straight bleach (8.25%, I believe) at 121 ounces (slightly less than a gallon ?). I don't have that other store near me that I know of. Sounds like a great deal though! Thanks for the reply and the encouragement!
 
So the pool is super clear blue now, and has been for two days. We're not getting any more Baquagoo dropping out and the filter pressures are back down in the normal range when we wash them (7psi when clean). However, the FC isn't stabilizing. We're testing 2x per day now, bumping it up to 15 each time. We're getting readings in the 6 ppm (?) range now, but it isn't staying up as we'd like. We're keeping at it, but is there any rule of thumb for how long it takes to stabilize?

Note: we've had a lot of rain in the last 3 days, the pool level is up 2 inches.



 
Once you pass the OCLT (lose less than 1ppm FC over night) and have less than 0.5 CC, then you can add stabilizer and change your filter media (Sand, I assume). If you don't pass the OCLT, there is still probably still some hidden BQ consuming your FC somewhere and you need to attack all exposed surfaces with a brush. How is the liner attached to the stairs? Did you brush behind the screw guards? Around the skimmer mouth? Do you have a light?

Anyhow, once you pass the OCLT, you should only a couple few ppm's of FC once you bump your CYA level (Stabilizer) to 30, using poolmath.

Looks like you are very close.

P.S. you may want to consider creating a signature with pertinent info about your pool. Even if you think you will only lurk from here on out, you may find you need help somewhere else. It will help others help you without have to keep redescribing your set up.
 
Signature added. Sorry about that. I thought I had made one, but I guess not.

The liner seems to be attached to the stairs with a plastic strip of some sort, not really sure exactly. We don't have any lights or other breaks in the liner other than skimmer, two returns and the bottom drains. I have attacked all surfaces including the skimmer mouth with a brush repeatedly. I do not know what screw guards are...

Fingers crossed on the OCLT. I tested at dark and got 12ppm on the FAS-DPD test. We'll see what the morning brings.

I have the CYA ready to roll.

I need to read up on the CC test.
 
The pool passed the OCLT - 12 PPM at dark, 12 PPM at dawn before sunup. 0.5 CC or less (it barely turned pink at all, but one drop made it clear). No measurable CYA. Per pool math I've added 50 oz of CYA by weight in some white tube socks. I'll also put in fresh (new) filters this morning. Woo hoo!
 
It looks great, and CYA 30, ph 7.5, 0.0 CC, TA 100. Chlorine is burning off faster than we understand. We test at 8AM and the water doesn't even turn pink - so we add a gallon of 8.25% bleach and by noon, we're down to 1ppm or less again. The filters are brand new as of last week, and flowing well ~5psi at the filter, and not clogging up. Water is crystal blue and clear.

With a CYA of 30 and no SWG, the table says we should have a sanitizer level of 2-4ppm (I think).

Any tips or guidance?
 
My wife put in a gallon of bleach. Two hours later she tested it - after adding the powder, no color change (to pink), so she set it aside. 30 minutes later she happened to notice it still had water in it, but the water had turned pink. She used the drops and counted 8 - 4ppm. Is that a valid test? Is there some reason the water wouldn't turn pink at first, but would after sitting a bit? Our water is pretty cold... Possible the powder isn't dissolving? Help....
 

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