What not to do $$$ Conversion to SWG
- Thread starter nomorepoolstore
- Start date
Alright ... here goes!
Last night @ 7:30PM I added 5 gallons of bleach to bring my FC level to 15ppm. I waited 2 hrs and rechecked my levels ... keep in mind that I do not have a proper test kit as of yet and am using a standard DPD test. My free chlorine tested at what looked like it could be 15ppm and when adding my drops for the TC there was little if no difference.
At 7:30AM today, I tested again to find a reading of
FC 0.5
PH 7.4
TA 170
TC 15
... put in an additional 5 gallons and waited 4hrs before testing again ...
FC back to 0.5
I grabbed a bottle of water and headed off to my not so local Leslies to have them sample my water. Here's where it gets interesting! As it turns out the manager there dislikes Baquacil and has plenty of experience with conversions. He tested my water and had no problem showing me while he tested what we were looking at. What was not happening at my local pool store is that they wer not properly testing for all of the Baquacil products that were in the water and pointed out why my water was green. It showed a very small level of Baquacil shock still in the water and that was the culprit that was holding on to the chlorine in the pool.
Here are his test results:
FC 25
TC 100
PH 7.4
TA 80 ( he explained that the baqua shock still in the pool was giving me a false reading and I would take my 160ppm and cut that in half)
CH 200+
CYA 35
He sold me on buying $20 worth on MPS (potassium monopersulphate) to burn the rest of the BS or Baquashock out and that would also take care of the green water. I took his word on it since MPS had done such a great job burning up the initial Baquacil in the system and for $20 ... why not!
We'll see what happens in a few hours but that's where we're at right now!
Last night @ 7:30PM I added 5 gallons of bleach to bring my FC level to 15ppm. I waited 2 hrs and rechecked my levels ... keep in mind that I do not have a proper test kit as of yet and am using a standard DPD test. My free chlorine tested at what looked like it could be 15ppm and when adding my drops for the TC there was little if no difference.
At 7:30AM today, I tested again to find a reading of
FC 0.5
PH 7.4
TA 170
TC 15
... put in an additional 5 gallons and waited 4hrs before testing again ...
FC back to 0.5
I grabbed a bottle of water and headed off to my not so local Leslies to have them sample my water. Here's where it gets interesting! As it turns out the manager there dislikes Baquacil and has plenty of experience with conversions. He tested my water and had no problem showing me while he tested what we were looking at. What was not happening at my local pool store is that they wer not properly testing for all of the Baquacil products that were in the water and pointed out why my water was green. It showed a very small level of Baquacil shock still in the water and that was the culprit that was holding on to the chlorine in the pool.
Here are his test results:
FC 25
TC 100
PH 7.4
TA 80 ( he explained that the baqua shock still in the pool was giving me a false reading and I would take my 160ppm and cut that in half)
CH 200+
CYA 35
He sold me on buying $20 worth on MPS (potassium monopersulphate) to burn the rest of the BS or Baquashock out and that would also take care of the green water. I took his word on it since MPS had done such a great job burning up the initial Baquacil in the system and for $20 ... why not!
We'll see what happens in a few hours but that's where we're at right now!
MPS will work more quickly than chlorine because of your CYA level, but it will end up costing more.
Sodium percarbonate is another alternative, but also more expensive than chlorine though probably not as expensive as MPS (though I'm not sure).
Oxiclean is a combination of sodium carbonate and sodium carbonate peroxyhydrate where the latter is the same as sodium percarbonate. Basically the sodium percarbonate is a chemical combination of sodium carbonate and hydrogen peroxide already so Oxiclean has more sodium carbonate in it which is probably less effective since it is the excess of hydrogen peroxide that gets rid of Baquacil, though needs to be at high pH to do so effectively (that's what the sodium carbonate is for).
Todays update:
Baqua Shock and green color is almost gone ... added 2lbs MSP and it should be Baquashock free and clear by tomorrow afternoon.
Leslies test results;
FC 4
TC 4
PH 7.3
TA 70
CYA 35
I also had them test for metals since that could be another reason for the green color and no metals were found.
That's it for now!
Baqua Shock and green color is almost gone ... added 2lbs MSP and it should be Baquashock free and clear by tomorrow afternoon.
Leslies test results;
FC 4
TC 4
PH 7.3
TA 70
CYA 35
I also had them test for metals since that could be another reason for the green color and no metals were found.
That's it for now!
In conclusion,
It has now been quite some time since my last post, but I wanted to follow up and give thanks.
Since my last post I had only added 2 additional pounds of Fresh and Clear shock by Leslies pool. I believe that if I had listened to the salesman from the beginning (yeah, I know ... no more pool store! Right!) I would have been done with my conversion much earlier and much, much cheaper I'm sure! Their Fresh and Clear product oxidised not only the Baquacil sanitizer but also the Baqua Shock ... and both in short order. All in all I believe I spent a total of $120 at Leslies! Bottom line ... make sure that if you are not testing your water yourself, make sure that your pool store is able to test for all Baquacil products, not just the sanitizer.
Since turning on my SWG I think I have spent a total of $30 - $40 on chemicals ... it's been a few months and nearly no cost and my levels have remained quite stable.
Thanks to everyone here that gave me direction ... I would not have had the guts to tackle this alone!
Cheers!
It has now been quite some time since my last post, but I wanted to follow up and give thanks.
Since my last post I had only added 2 additional pounds of Fresh and Clear shock by Leslies pool. I believe that if I had listened to the salesman from the beginning (yeah, I know ... no more pool store! Right!) I would have been done with my conversion much earlier and much, much cheaper I'm sure! Their Fresh and Clear product oxidised not only the Baquacil sanitizer but also the Baqua Shock ... and both in short order. All in all I believe I spent a total of $120 at Leslies! Bottom line ... make sure that if you are not testing your water yourself, make sure that your pool store is able to test for all Baquacil products, not just the sanitizer.
Since turning on my SWG I think I have spent a total of $30 - $40 on chemicals ... it's been a few months and nearly no cost and my levels have remained quite stable.
Thanks to everyone here that gave me direction ... I would not have had the guts to tackle this alone!
Cheers!Fresh 'N Clear Shock is non-chlorine shock (potassium monopersulfate aka MPS) and is not magic. It would have oxidized the same things that chlorine does -- both the Baquacil and the hydrogen peroxide -- but would have cost at least twice as much (usually three times as much) though the conversion would not have been colorful. It might have oxidized faster, that is true, especially when one has CYA in the water (which isn't normal in a Baqua pool). When you have a lot of Baquacil and/or hydrogen peroxide in the water, then it takes a lot of oxidizer to get rid of it no matter what the oxidizer. Another option would be to replace the water if the water were less expensive than bleach or chlorinating liquid.
MPS pool products aren't much higher than around 43% MPS (this assumes 88% purity of the triple salt known as Oxone from Dupont that makes all MPS). Fresh 'N Clear is around $2.45 per pound in bulk. One pound of non-chlorine shock is equivalent in oxidizing power to around 57 fluid ounces of 6% bleach. Even if the bleach cost $1.50 for 96-ounces (and most bleach costs less than that), 57 fluid ounces would only be 89 cents so almost 1/3rd the cost of the Fresh 'N Clear Shock.
In your case, the CYA in the water significantly slowed down the oxidation rate of chlorine. In a normal Baqua conversion, there isn't any CYA and the chlorine conversion proceeds at a reasonable speed in most cases. This is why one should not use Dichlor (or Trichlor) when doing the conversion and should use just bleach or chlorinating liquid. If one wants a faster, though more expensive, conversion, then one can use non-chlorine shock or sodium percarbonate.
Richard
MPS pool products aren't much higher than around 43% MPS (this assumes 88% purity of the triple salt known as Oxone from Dupont that makes all MPS). Fresh 'N Clear is around $2.45 per pound in bulk. One pound of non-chlorine shock is equivalent in oxidizing power to around 57 fluid ounces of 6% bleach. Even if the bleach cost $1.50 for 96-ounces (and most bleach costs less than that), 57 fluid ounces would only be 89 cents so almost 1/3rd the cost of the Fresh 'N Clear Shock.
In your case, the CYA in the water significantly slowed down the oxidation rate of chlorine. In a normal Baqua conversion, there isn't any CYA and the chlorine conversion proceeds at a reasonable speed in most cases. This is why one should not use Dichlor (or Trichlor) when doing the conversion and should use just bleach or chlorinating liquid. If one wants a faster, though more expensive, conversion, then one can use non-chlorine shock or sodium percarbonate.
Richard