Converting from Baquacil after 17 years!

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I figured that since the goal at this point is to maintain 15ppm FC that the CC part wasn't necessary. Please take a moment and help me understand the CC part of the test this early into my conversion.

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Oh, and I got one of the SpeedStir things and it's really cool! My daughters are already asking if they can do the tests :)
 
It's not critical in the early phase because you would expect your CCs to be very high as the chlorine destroys the Baquacil. But at some point soon you'll be able to maintain 15ppm FC but may not pass the overnight loss requirement right away. At that point your CCs are going to become important to monitor because it will be the signal that tells you the organic contaminants are getting lower and lower. Once you can maintain 15ppm FC and you can hold it without an overnight loss of less than 1ppm, you'll start the second phase of the conversion where you add chlorine stabilizer to your pool (CYA) and you'll need to get a CC reading of 0.5ppm or less two days in a row.
 
I wouldn't test so often at this point. Testing and dosing every hour should be sufficient. Even when my heavy lifting was under the peak of sunshine, my readings got low, but were never zero within an hour, it shouldn't go down to zero within 30 minutes at night...at least after the first day (night in your case) of dosing.

Also, I wouldn't worry about CC at this point. Wait until your water is clear and you've gotten rid of all visible bacqua-gunk (I don't call it "goo" because I never got the floating variety. Mine just settled at the bottom and...well...looked "gunky."). CC>0.5 is a indication that the FC is still fighting something. Up until your water is clear however, there is no doubt.
 
Yesterday afternoon when I got home from work the pool was very clear! I tested the FC levels and they were vey low. I added the recommended chlorine (3 Gal.) and begane to sweep the bottom of the pool. Wow - there was a lot of fine white stuff everywhere! I burshed it all toward the deep end and monitored the FC levels. By 11:00pm I needed to add another gallon and by the time I went to bead a few hours later my count was around 13. This morning my FC count was 11 but I didn't have time to add anything before leaving for work. I'm also wondering about something else so I decided to wait until I get home before adding anything to the water - i also plan to give the pool a good vacuuming when I get home today. So here is the something else - With the water looking as good as it does and the fact that this Sunday is Fathers Day :) I want to do whatever I need to do to have family over to swim. I'm willing to put a halt on this process in order to get the water ballenced for Sunday afternoon and then raise the FC levels again if I need to. I'm really wanting to make this happen so I'm looking for advice on the best way to make this work. Thanks.
 
What is your CC level?

Swimming in elevated FC levels is not recommended without Stabilizer and Stabilizer is not recommended for BQ conversions until you pass the OCLT. Seems like you are close though. Are there any nooks and crannies where BQ could be hiding out? Stairs? Ladder? Main drain cap? Skimmer Frame? light crevice? Return eyes?
 
Shpibby said:
So here is the something else - With the water looking as good as it does and the fact that this Sunday is Fathers Day :) I want to do whatever I need to do to have family over to swim. I'm willing to put a halt on this process in order to get the water ballenced for Sunday afternoon and then raise the FC levels again if I need to. I'm really wanting to make this happen so I'm looking for advice on the best way to make this work. Thanks.
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Sorry, don't know how the other Experts feel about this but it would be inadvisable. Right now your water has very high chlorine levels and NO stabilizer (CYA) in it. The active chlorine (hypochlorous acid) levels are extremely high. If you were to jump in the water now, not only would your eyes probably start to sting but the reaction of that much hypochlorous acid with your sweat and bather waste would start forming high levels of combined chlorines, particularly dichloramine and nitrogen trichloride which is very irritating. Any swimsuit you would be wearing would probably get faded.

So why not add some CYA, you ask? Well, once you add CYA to your water, there's no easy way to get rid of it. It will moderate the hypochlorous acid down to comfortable levels. But it would also completely stall or stop your baquacil conversion. We have several other Baquacil conversion threads going on right now where the people followed the pool store advice and added CYA in the beginning. Their pools are not clearing up.

So, unless you wish to pretty much dump your pool water and waste all of the effort you've put in so far, I don't think swimming on Sunday is likely. If you keep at the conversion process, you might get to the point by Sunday of where the Baquacil is fully destroyed and you start on the process of adding CYA and replacing the sand in your filter, but even then swimming may not be in the cards....

Sorry, but I would not recommend you change course now.
 
Husky25 said:
I was trying maintain a bit of a bright side for you, but @JoyfulNoise is probably right.

You are getting close though, from the sounds of it.
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Well, perhaps some other experts might have a better idea. I suppose if one were hit the pool with consistent FC levels of 15ppm and stick to it, you might be able to get to the point where you add CYA and change the sand. Then one would need to use the more expensive liquid CYA to get to 30ppm CYA and continue with the SLAM FC level of 12ppm. You can swim up to SLAM levels of FC.

It all depends on timing....

Shpibby,

Any chance you can get home or have someone add bleach to the water? Not adding it this morning slowed things down.

Also, if you vacuum up the white stuff on the bottom, vacuum to waste, don't use the filter.
 
You can jump start the cya addition if you do find yourself near the end of the conversion late sat / early sun....

get a 1 gallon bucket and fill with hot hot water....put the cya granules in a sock, let it sit in the hot water for 30-60 min (turns the hard granules to a gummy state) then
squeeze, squeeze, squeeze until it is all disolved in the bucket.

You'll pretty much have full liquid cya ready to pour in front of the deep end return jet. Some may settle on the deep
end so vacuum that if you see it.

If you already bought liquid cya (it costs twice as much as granules) then ignore my post.
 
I'm really confused! My FC only dropped 2 last night and I added enough to bring it back up to 15 this morning. About 2 hours later I needed to add another 1/2 gal. I was gone for the remainder of the afternoon - about 4 1/2 hours - and now my FC levels are at ZERO! I'll go ahead and add more chlorine, but my wife asked me if the FC levels fall gain tomorrow while we are at church, what's the harm in swimming tomorrow afternoon and then raising the FC count up to 15 again before going to bed. I don't know enough to answer her so I told her I'll ask the experts :)

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BTW - The water is crystal clear!!
 

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You have no CYA in the water so the chlorine half life is around 30mins because the UV destroys it. So you need to do your best during the day to keep it up and hope the overnight loss is good.
 
Yes. Bring it back up.

So here's what I think (other Baquacil experts may disagree) - if you raise it up to 15ppm tonight and then again EARLY in the AM, I think your FC will come down in time to swim. You need to have between 1-1.5ppm FC with zero CYA to swim. You should measure and adjust your pH when you first get back from church as your FC should be below 10ppm thus making the pH test valid. When you test your FC, check your CCs again. If your CCs are above 2ppm, it's likely to harsh to swim in. The water is going to be a bit harsh anyway even if your CCs are below 2ppm but only you can decide that. I would try to aim for a total chlorine (FC+CC) of no more than 4ppm.

Wear goggles when swimming to cut down in possible eye irritation and shower off real good when you get out (use soap to wash away the chlorine and not just a water rinse).

Then, when everyone is done swimming, start the conversion up again.

Just my opinion.
 
Sure was :) We got so many compliments from people who have swam in our pool for years! Not that our pool was nasty before, I have always stayed on top of my BQ plan, but it never looked this good!!! A BIG Thank You to everyone who has helped me get this far in such a short time! Now I need advice on the next step.

Each of the last 3 nights (Sunday night, Monday night and last night) my FC levels have consistantly dropped around 2-2.5 and like I've mentioned the water is crystal clear. So I'm wondering what my next step should be. Is it time to change the sand? Will that be the missing piece to the puzzle of why my FC level is falling more than it should overnight?
 

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