If you want a realistic example of what you are up against, scan through the entire thread of my conversion
Mark's Conversion
I fully understand that you feel you are caught between a rock and a hard place, having just invested $$ into opening with Baquacil. We had "started" by adding some oxidizer and sanitizer earlier this spring before taking the plunge into a full-blown conversion. Because we had higher levels of baqua in the system, it probably took longer and required more chlorine than most.
Some of the math I went through
everytime I went to the pool store for a bottle of Baqua oxidizer, sanitizer, and algicide = $75. To really do the program justice, I think I'd be into a bottle of sanitizer at least once/week, and oxidizer say twice a month, throw in some algicide every now and then - I'm up to say $300/month. This gets me water that tests "good" on the Baqua strips - but still lacks that clarity we all desire.....so....run the #$$% filter pump forever hoping it clears up. Oh wait - now the pool guy says here's some "filter aid" ($20) - it clears it up fine, but now I've got to replace my cartridges (another $200).
This pretty much sums up our summer of 2007 - probably count on two hands the total days of swim time we got.
I think I'm up to about $500 total so far for my conversion - cost of Chlorine (10% solution at Lowe's), test kit, and a new set of filter cartridges waiting to be installed once I purge the goo from my system. I'm not planning on needing to replace them for some time.
yes, I will need to add bleach throughout the summer, but I figure with the filter cartridges I'm NOT replacing alone, I can buy a lot of bleach; plus I get the added benefit of being able to use my pool.
you may decide to carry on this summer since you've already committed, but the more you read, you will probably decide to do the conversion to chlorine; maybe not this summer but somewhere down the road
good luck
may the force be with you 8)