Need help with Conversion (Baquacil to Chlorine)

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DanMac17

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Jun 26, 2018
3
Amherst, NH
Hello All,

I purchased a home last year that had an inground pool in which the previous owners were using Baquacil/CDX. Spent the whole summer last year trying to clear a cloudy pool and watching others enjoy their clear chlorine pools. This year I decided to make the switch and went to the local pool store for their advice and testing. I hadn't added any Baquacil chemicals since last August and when they tested my pool water in the middle of June the Sanitizer was measuring 21ppm and the Oxidizer was reading 1ppm. I was advised to powder shock it with 4 lbs of oxidizing shock to which to pool lit up green (but was blue by morning) and then from that point on dump 2 gallon of liquid shock (12.5%) every evening until the pool no longer reacts. After 16 days and still getting a reaction I decided to join TFPs and started doing this method (started last Friday). I bought the TF-100 XL kit and have been adding enough chlorine (8-12 gallons per day) to achieve 15 ppm FC with little change in the reaction that I was seeing before. I searched forums all day yesterday and came across advice to clean the sand bed of my filter for baqua goo and sure enough when I pulled the cover off the filter this morning it was a nasty bed of goo (sorry no pics). Becoming very frustrated and ready to drain the pool down, is there something I can do to speed the process up? I had the water tested too last week and the water test said I had 7 ppm of baquacil remaining in the pool (no idea how accurate that is where I've been shocking it like crazy). Any advice is appreciated! I'll try my best too to answer any questions about my pool/situation.

Thanks,
Dan Mac
 
Hello Dan and welcome! :wave: So it appears you found our Pool School - Convert Your Baqua Pool to Chlorine page. Great! But here's the issue now ….. that CDX. It has been an issue as of late for other members converting as it seems to interfere with the breakdown of the goo and overall conversion process. If any stabilizer added that also complicates matters.

We generally coach members through a standard conversion, but in your case I might be inclined to recommend a very healthy water exchange. You may not (or should not) drain it all to protect the liner and framing, but a good water exchange should alleviate much of the CDX and anything else residual so that you can start the bleach conversion treatment again. I wouldn't change the sand yet as there is baqua goo still in your plumbing as evidence by opening up the filter. By changing some water, you give the chlorine the advantage to breakdown the goo as noted on the Baqua conversion link above. Then once you pass the steps in sequence, then you can change the sand out for good. If you change the sand now, you will probably have to change it again just to complete the conversion.

Those are my initial thoughts. We have a couple other Baqua advisers who watch for threads like this who will probably reply and give some advise. Hang tight for more confirmation. Glad to have you aboard!
 
First and foremost, WELCOME TO TFP!

I was advised to powder shock it with 4 lbs of oxidizing shock to which to pool lit up green (but was blue by morning) and then from that point on dump 2 gallon of liquid shock (12.5%) every evening until the pool no longer reacts.
Click to expand...

If I may ask, can you please tell us about the powder shock? What type was it do you know??
 
Thank you so much for your answer! I was really hoping to not have to drain it down but I had a strong feeling it was going to come to this. When you say drain down, are you talking halfway or more? I am on well here so I'm not sure if that will be too much water to refill with that...

- - - Updated - - -

It was called "Shock and Swim" by the chemical company Target. And I was wrong on how much it was 12 pounds not 4
 
I made the conversion. I had struggles before we had Identified CDX as an issue. During the conversion I could not hold FC during sunlight hours but it would hold during darkness, (It was like I had no CYA). I used a lot (again a lot) of Chlorine. I was determined that wither the TFP care worked or I was going to bury the Pool! In hindsight now knowing about the CDX issue I wish I had drained and refilled. (hence Texas Splash recommendation is probably the right thing)

Before you do that could you post a set of Test results from your TF-100.

The TPF method works, and works very well you will not regret it once you get past this conversion process.
 
Hey, Dan, welcome. you didn't say anything about how you were vacuuming the goo/backwashing the filter. If you vacuumed to the filter instead of to waste, no wonder it is gooey. Sounds like most of the gooey part is done if you are not getting any visible reaction when you add the chlorine to the pool.

Open the filter again after backwashing to see how much goo was removed. If it is not backwashed out, you might want to manually remove the goo. it is okay to remove a little sand while doing that, just be sure to cover the standpipe so you dont drop anything in it.

Dont forget to clean your light niche if you have one.

I also used CDX and it took a bunch of chlorine, but i did not drain any water. Up to you. Hang in there.
 
Honestly I had no idea about the "goo" until about a week ago when I came here but I'm assuming that first week is when all that happened (the pool looked really nasty when adding the oxidizing shock and then the LC). I haven't vacuumed only brushed down the walls so I'm guessing the goo came in through the skimmer/deep end drain. The goo I vacuumed out off the sand bed stunk like shock so I'm wondering if it was robbing me of some (or most) of the LC. I ran a sample of my water to a local pool store that does the computer test, figured where the FC was zero after baking in the hot NE sun I would get a close to accurate read and the baquacil sanitizer was down to 2 ppm from 7 ppm 5 days ago. I tested my water ph and alkalinity and they were both low so I will balance those in between doses of LC. With any luck I'll be rid of this stuff by the weekend and can replace my sand. I've come too far, can drain it down now! Thanks for the encouragement and advice!
 
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