After lurking on the "Baqua - Use and Conversion" bbs for about a week, and after seeing all the support that the admin and other users give through this process, I began my own conversion to chlorine today! I'm going to post my experience in the hopes that others can learn from my mistakes (that are bound to happen!) and makes the process easier for them.
So far today: I started with a very low Baqua level (never added any since uncovering the pool and getting the sand filter running about a week ago). I started with fresh sand in the filter (D'oh! I realized only after looking into the conversion that I will have to change out the sand after...). I used the Pool Calculator to tell me how much bleach to add.
At 3pm, I added 824 oz of 6% bleach - the water went from pretty clear to cloudy, but still mostly blue.
At 4:30p, my hth 6-way strips from Wally World told me:
FC - 0
ph - 7.2
TA - 80
TH - 200
CA - 0 (maybe 30? The color is not much different for 0 and 30...)
At this point, I added 824 more oz of the bleach. The water turned a murky grey-green with some brown swirls...scary and swamp-looking!
At 6:30p, the tests said the FC was at zero again, and everything else was the same. The water looked less grey-green, but still cloudy blue-green. I added 824 more oz of bleach.
At 8:15p, I tested again and the FC was at about 5, the other levels were the same, and my wife described the water as "milky sea-foam green" :-D (Beautiful description...I love this woman...) I used the Pool Calculator again, and added 550 oz of bleach. I'll check again first thing in the morning before going to work, and add bleach accordingly. So far, so good - I guess?? : )
So far today: I started with a very low Baqua level (never added any since uncovering the pool and getting the sand filter running about a week ago). I started with fresh sand in the filter (D'oh! I realized only after looking into the conversion that I will have to change out the sand after...). I used the Pool Calculator to tell me how much bleach to add.
At 3pm, I added 824 oz of 6% bleach - the water went from pretty clear to cloudy, but still mostly blue.
At 4:30p, my hth 6-way strips from Wally World told me:
FC - 0
ph - 7.2
TA - 80
TH - 200
CA - 0 (maybe 30? The color is not much different for 0 and 30...)
At this point, I added 824 more oz of the bleach. The water turned a murky grey-green with some brown swirls...scary and swamp-looking!
At 6:30p, the tests said the FC was at zero again, and everything else was the same. The water looked less grey-green, but still cloudy blue-green. I added 824 more oz of bleach.
At 8:15p, I tested again and the FC was at about 5, the other levels were the same, and my wife described the water as "milky sea-foam green" :-D (Beautiful description...I love this woman...) I used the Pool Calculator again, and added 550 oz of bleach. I'll check again first thing in the morning before going to work, and add bleach accordingly. So far, so good - I guess?? : )