Hello;
I too switched from baquacil to chlorine last year after 12 seasons with biguinide products. Just getting way too exspensive and never really cared for the oily feel of the water. I have an above ground 21 ft. by 52 inches round, 11,000 gals. I live in Massachusetts... Here is what I did... In early May, on a cloudy, gray day, I vacuumed the pool out to WASTE and I bought a sump pump and emptied my pool down to about an inch of water left across the bottom. Occasionally, I sprayed the side walls of the pool with water... Then, I refilled the pool with water and took a reading. Obviously, the baquacil reading, sanitizer, was nothing ! I changed the sand in my filter and started the pump once the pool was filled up with water again. ( About 2 days later for me... ) Everyone's water pressure is different... I had also cleaned out the pump resovoir and bought new hoses. They are cheap enough... So as the pump began running, I started adding chlorine, BY THE GALLONS, to the water. Much to my delighted suprise, the water got just a li'l bit of a hazy tint to it and after a few days, ( 4 1/2 ) it was sparkling clear with the fresh smell of chlorine !!! I personally think that allot of people out there are trying to change over with a decent amount of baquacil left in the pool water, pump, filter and hose lines. The higher the level of baquacil, the harder the change over will be. My advice is to do exactly as I did. Remember to please use common sense. Like, DON'T go out and empty the pool down to 1 inch of water under the direct sunlight with the temperature at 104 degrees !! You WILL damage ( SHRINK ) your liner. Watch the 5 day forecast and wait for those cloudy, gray days... Your liner then will be fine. Its like anything else... COMMON SENSE... The only downfall is YES ! You WILL use GALLONS of chlorine but the end result is so worth it !!! Yes, you can use household bleach. The difference being in the strength between the two. Household bleach is at 6 percent while pool chlorine ( bleach ) is at 12 percent strength. You figure out the math as to which one you can get on sale and save... Naturally, by using household bleach, you will have more bottles to throw away... So, best wishes to you and enjoy the outcome !!!!!!