Beth's conversion!

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bethdorothy

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May 23, 2016
47
Carthage, Il
I'm converting mine this weekend. So your suggestion is to add a gallon every 10-15 minutes?? We've got a 19500 gallon pool, I did not use CDX, and did NOT add closing chemicals last fall. (I was disgusted with the water mold when we closed and decided I was done with baquacil) I'm buying bleach this week. Where did you get yours and what strength was it?? Thanks in advance!

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ps....we have a sand filter, not sure what a DE filter is, but how often did you back wash???
 
Well, I wouldn't add CYA before beginning your conversion unless you want it to last all summer ;) I totally understand you are new to all this, that is why I am making sure you nor anybody else risk their pool due to either bad advice or accidentally misinterpreting good advice.

There are instructions: Pool School - Convert Your Baqua Pool to Chlorine Adding CYA is not until step 7. I would suggest you start a thread of your own to document your conversion and give you a good place to ask questions personalized to your own conversion. There are a lot of people on the site who have done the conversion themselves and helped many others through the process, they will be extremely happy to help you through every step of the way and help you get your newly chlorine pool clear and clean.
 
bethdorothy said:
I'm converting mine this weekend. So your suggestion is to add a gallon every 10-15 minutes?? We've got a 19500 gallon pool, I did not use CDX, and did NOT add closing chemicals last fall. (I was disgusted with the water mold when we closed and decided I was done with baquacil) I'm buying bleach this week. Where did you get yours and what strength was it?? Thanks in advance!

- - - Updated - - -

ps....we have a sand filter, not sure what a DE filter is, but how often did you back wash???
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Hi Beth. Welcome to the site. That is probably too often. You want the chemicals to disburse evenly throughout the water. When I converted (See my Signature), I tested every hour and bumped the FC level back to 15 accordingly. I think I went through about 6 cases (4 gallons/12.5% ea.) in the first 2 days. Also use the recirculate function over the first few days and bypassed the sand altogether.

Don't worry about your pH or Alkalinity once it is initially adjusted. High FC levels make that test unreliable.

CYA is not added until your conversion is near completion. We have Ocean State Job Lot in the Northeast. Except for Muricatic Acid, I get all my chemicals there. From reading this forum the last few years, I think Menards has been mentioned for your area of the country. Visit the Best Places to Buy Liquid Chlorine thread in Just getting Started to find the best places.

To give you an idea, the heavy lifting for my conversion took about 4 days. and the full conversion took about two weeks (47 gallons of LC) because I had a lot of Baqua hiding places (steps, light etc.) which made me fail the OCLT. Plus I had to find time to change out my sand and everything that went along with it.

Good luck in your conversion. My pool truly has been trouble free since June 2015. Unless I am vacuuming, I spend less than 3 minutes/day on maintenance. Chlorine is so much easier than Baquacil and if you follow the advice here for maintenance, you'll avoid all the usual complaints surrounding Chlorine.
 
We haven't put the ladder in yet, should we?? I closed last year with water mold and did nothing with the ladder except store it in the shed. It's filled with sand and virtually IMPOSSIBLE to get the sand out of it. Wondering if I could just go ahead and drop it in at this point. I haven't vacuumed yet because it's been raining all morning so far. I bought 16 gallons of concentrated bleach from Aldi's this week, I'm beginning to think that may not be enough. How often should I be adding bleach and testing?? Also, my goal is to become a salt water user. At what point can I add salt?? And do I HAVE to use a SWG, or can we still use liquid bleach?
 
bethdorothy said:
We haven't put the ladder in yet, should we??
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No, but clean the ladder (underside of steps, in particular) with a bleach solution and an old toothbrush. Water has a hard time circulating in those closed confines and "BaquaGoo" will prevent you from passing the OCLT, when it comes time.

bethdorothy said:
I bought 16 gallons of concentrated bleach from Aldi's this week, I'm beginning to think that may not be enough. How often should I be adding bleach and testing?? Also, my goal is to become a salt water user. At what point can I add salt?? And do I HAVE to use a SWG, or can we still use liquid bleach?
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My pool's volume is not much more than yours and I used about 24 gallons in the first 2 days, IIRC. You can always use the liquid chlorine, even after you convert to SWG, but that is much later.

I tested and added every hour or so for the first two days. Day 3 was a Monday, and work intervened, but I bumped FC to 15 in the morning and after sunset.

I can't answer salt water questions with much specificity, except that you need to complete the conversion to regular chlorine, before thinking about upgrading to salt. Also yes, you need a SWG, the salt needs to undergo electrolysis in order to chlorinate.

Getting back to your ladder...from the sounds of it, you use sand in the base. Is the base watertight? how did sand get in there in the first place? Again, I would leave the ladder out of the pool for the duration of the conversion and until you finish a SLAM and pass the OCLT. Then, see if you can pass an OCLT with the ladder in the pool. If so, you are probably good to go. If not, you'll need to figure how to get into the base or consider getting a new ladder.
 
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The sand was to be added from the top before putting it in the pool. (picture is very similar to what we have) The water was able to enter the ladder through some holes in the ladder for added weight. Our deck is against the pool, so we don't use the back side of the ladder. The holes in the top part of the steps are only big enough to put sand in and then put the railings in. We would NEVER be able to get the sand out at this point as I'm sure it's packed in there from being wet. Hoping the water mold hasn't harbored in there all winter.
I will be grabbing more bleach while I'm in town today :) I've added 8 gallons so far this morning, and my first FC test after the initial 4 gallons was .5ppm. Looks like I've got a long road ahead this weekend!!
 

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Yesterday I spent vacuuming and scrubbing the side walls. I've got a lot of muck (dead mold) at the bottom of the pool, not that I can see the bottom yet! When I stopped for the night, according to my tester, the FC was 14. This morning it was 7. (Is it normal for the water to turn back to pink if it's not dumped out right away?) We've had a lot of rain overnight and I had to backwash quite a bit off the pool as my skimmer was overflowing. I'm assuming that has something to do with the decrease in FC? Also, the water does not turn monster green anymore when I add bleach. At this point, I've added 16 gallons of bleach. I'll have to work on it between rains today and do some more vacuuming and scrubbing. Does anyone have any suggestions at this point??? I'm not 100% sure about the CC testing...........I have a TF-100XL kit. (and a spinner) I need to run to town to get some CYA and more filter sand. Is it a MUST to replace the filter sand after conversion?? Thank you again for any help!
 
steps-I would take the apart as much as you can. Take the rails out, lay the steps on their side and use a full force blast from a good nozzle to force the sand out. You might have to turn it this way and that to get it all out but you do NOT want to take a chance of having any goo in there after all of your har d work!

-FC test water turning back to pink after sitting is very normal. Once it turns clean call it done.

Please do not put the CYA in the pool yet.

Yes you HAVE to change the sand in the filter once you are 100% done with the conversion. When it is time we have some tips so make sure to ask what to do before you start. I don't want to overwhelm you so will save it for when you are ready.

Chlorine/bleach does add some salt to the pool. Some people also add extra salt to their pool even if they do not have a SWG. It is said to "soften" the water and make it feel silky on your skin. We can get into this more once your conversion is done.

You have done a good job so far! Keep it up and your pool WILL be a Trouble Free Pool from now on! :hug:

Kim:kim:
 
You should not add any right now. Your only concern right now it getting all of the goo out and getting your pool clear and balanced. Once that is done we will work on the salt. If you want to you can go ahead and order your salt test kit. Look in my siggy for where you can order if from. I do not know which one is best though. I will let you do some searching to see who likes what and why.

Kim:kim:
 
Here is a pic from first thing this morning. I can see the bottom!!! FC was 7 last night so I added 2 gallons of bleach. It was 7 this morning, so I did the same. Not sure if I'm testing right, but CC shows 3. (I added the drips to make it red, then added the drips to make it clear again) It looks like there's dead algae on the bottom today. (That sand looking fluffy stuff) I'll vacuum again today and retest. Any suggestions????


View attachment 61621
 
You are doing it right! Vacuum to get that stuff out. You are now at step 7 of the conversion:

7.When you lose 1 ppm of chlorine, or less, overnight it is time to clean out your filter and change the media. Once the filter is cleaned up, add enough CYA to reach 30 ppm. Continue to maintain FC at 15 ppm.

You are waiting for the FC to stop dropping overnight. It will happen............keep going!

Kim:kim:
 

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