New to a baqu conversion

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justmarried1220

justmarried1220

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Jul 8, 2009
92
Hello TFP hope I can get some tips on a conversion.

After weeks of cloudy baqua Crud water and tons of money being spent we decided to convert after talking to some pool guys..(not the ones who sold us the baqua Crud, etc) They were very helpful or so I hope so.

We have a 24 foot above ground vinyl pool with a sand filter...
We were told to put 2 bags of turbo shock into the pool by mixing in a bucket with water first and then dispersing on top of the pool...which we did. We were also told to add liquid conditioner which we did.

Immediatly the water started foaming and turing pea green. That is all they said to do as of now (but continue to add 2 bag of shock tomorrow and friday with them this weekend.

I don't have any test strips, said we wouldnt need as of now, etc. Not sure if we are on the right check. Everything in our pool was okay according to water sample we took in to be tested before we started.

Would appreicate any tips or advice.
 
There is a section in our Pool School about converting a baqua pool to chlorine.

I suggest reading that before you start your conversion so you have everything you need at hand and are ready to spend the time with the conversion. The color show is outstanding from what I have read and seen from pics on the forum

You wont be sorry you made the change and will will find looking after your pool so much easier in the end.
 
We started the conversion before we found this website duh....I guess we should have looked first....just did what the pool guys said...I guess after reading everything I am just concerned that they had us add the liquid stabilizer during the conversion process...any advice on this and I have messed it up already?
 
Welcome to TFP!

Unfortunately, that wasn't very good advice. Adding liquid conditioner is going to slow things down dramatically.

We have a write up at Pool School on how to do a baquacil conversion, and there are a number of people here who have been through them who are happy to give advice.

Do you still have the results of your water testing? We need to know the PH and CH levels. It would also be helpful if you said how much liquid conditioner you added and either the water depth or how many gallons are in the pool.
 
You can put your pool specs in your signature. Go to User Control Panel, then Profile, then Edit Signature.

How many feet in diameter is your pool? That plus the depth gives us the gallons....

You will need a good test kit, I highly recommend the TF100, sold by TFTestkits.net. Because you are doing a conversion, you will be going thru the FAS-DPD solutions very quickly, and because of the stabilizer/conditioner being added already, it will take you longer to do your conversion. So I'd suggest you order FAS-DPD reagent refills ahead of time - both the DPD powder and the drops, discuss this with Duraleigh (who sells the kits), via email to their site, and he'll take care of you making sure you get the right supplies (ordering it now will save you time and money on shipping in the future.).
 
It looks like you have around 13,500 gallons and have raised CYA to about 30.

With a CYA of 30, you will want to raise FC to about 20 each time, instead of using 15 as suggested in the Pool School article.
 
Re: my coversion is almost complete!

Another small FC loss after adding CYA is annoying, but it isn't really surprising. You need to continue to maintain FC at 15 until your overnight loss is 1.0 or lower and CC is 0.5 or lower.
 

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Sorry I think I put the wroung round diameter after talking with my husband he said it is 21 feet by 52".I used the pool caluclater and figured it holds around 11000 gallons +- some....so what should I make the FC 15 or 20? with the CYA

Also our pump/filter went from 12 psi to 15psi this morning, the pool is a weird green with no foam or sludge on it. When I did shine my flash light in it last night I saw white specs floating around? Not sure on those, but when I talked to my husband he said he had used floc a couple of days before the conversion and thought that might it? Will this be okay?

PS. I am taking over the pool now that my husband it back to work. He usually deals with the pool but since his vacation is over and I am a stay at home mom I am in charge....so I will need lots of help.

I will look at the kits today and order. However I don't have any other kind of chlorine test kit, can I just get one at wal-mart and what would it be called?

Also what about the turbo shock? Since we already bought a box is this okay to use and at the dosage we were told 2 bags dissolved in water and dispersed into pool every evening by walking it around the perimeter (my husband did that last night but its up to me today)?

Or should I be adding more bags?

Need lots of help I know you guys are the best and will stay by my side through this. I did catch on my reading last night..think I read almost all baquacil forums, but will still need guidance?

Thanks ahead of time...I know my pool will be better off! :) :lol: :lol: :lol:

Any help would be great.
 
I would just round up and call your pool 12,000.

Shock to 20, learn how to use the Pool Calculator to determine how much chlorine to add to reach 20. If you put 0 in the "now" and 20 in the "target" and hit calculate, it will tell you how much bleach you need.

You really want to be using bleach or liquid chlorine, not the turbo shock which is Cal-Hypo. If you can get the 12.5% liquid chlorine from a pool store, it will mean less jugs. Otherwise get the 182 oz jugs from Wal-mart, they have a good price at $2.54 for 6% "Great Value" brand bleach.

If you order the TF100 before 2pm today you should have it in 2-3 business days - they use Fed Ex.

I wouldn't bother using anything else, the drop kits sold in walmart won't test high enough and strips are very unreliable.

You'll probably find you need to backwash more frequently to help rid the Baq goo.
 
I will go with the 12000 gallons for measurements but her is my dilema....since we already were sold a box of turbo shock (did it before I found ya'll) my hubby insists that we use it till it is gone. So at this rate will it be Okay?

Here are some more questions?

1.Also shoud I just do the 2 pouches daily since it is claimed to be 75% chlorine?

I will order the kit today..thanks for the tip.

2.My main goal at this point is to keep the FC at 20 right? Since we added the conditioner? ?????

3.Until my test kit arrives DO I need to get a cheap kit to check stuff? or don't bother?

4. Can I still use the pool calculater for chlorine amounts even though I am using the powder stuff to shock it? instead of the liquid form?

thanks
justmarried
 
Turbo shock contains calcium. If your CH level is low enough, then using it is fine. But if your CH level is already fairly high, using it can cause serious problems. I wouldn't use any more until you get a measurement of your CH level.

You will want to use more than 2 pouches a day. You can probably use 2 or 2 1/2 per application, and do that way more than once a day. You can use my Pool Calculator to figure amounts. I believe that what you have is cal-hypo 73%.

It would be best if you have some way of measuring the chlorine level right away, and a top quality test kit eventually. Practically any test kit can be used at first, where you are waiting for the FC level to get low. Longer term you will need a FAS-DPD chlorine test to measure overnight FC loss and exact CC levels.

Yes, your FC target level is 20 because of the CYA.
 
You are just fine with CH up to about 300, and you could go a little higher if you really need to. Since each pound of cal-hypo will increase your CH level by about 5.6, you can use about 14 pounds without any problems. I expect that the entire conversion will require more chlorine than that. Hopefully you didn't buy more than 14 pounds of Turbo Shock, and can switch to bleach after that.
 

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