Conversion beginning
- Thread starter bdl17
- Start date
Quick question before you start the conversion.......when was the last time you've added Baquacil?? With only 7500 gallons you maybe much better off draining most of the water and refilling fresh rather than going through the entire conversion process.
We do loveeeee pictures however! Welcome to the forum!!
We do loveeeee pictures however! Welcome to the forum!!
It's been 3 weeks since last addition of oxidizer. Then it rained for two weeks straight and turned swamp green. I went by Pool place advice and flocced it on Thursday, blind vacuumed the goop off the bottom yesterday to have it turn milky and back to the wonderful shade of green it is today. My test results as of 4:45 today before finally biting the bullet and deciding to convert are as follows:
FC - .05
pH - 8.4
TAB- 180
I bought some muriatic acid and went by pool calculator to lower the pH. Have done nothing else yet.
FC - .05
pH - 8.4
TAB- 180
I bought some muriatic acid and went by pool calculator to lower the pH. Have done nothing else yet.
Thank you for the welcome woddyp and Thank you Leebo ...I appreciate the quick response! To give you a little more background, the pool is only 2 years old. Used Baquacil the whole time. It turned green each and every time it rained last year and now I'm having the same reaction this year. I flocced it at least 4 times last year in two months due to rain and green mess! I have no problem draining it and starting fresh I just couldn't decide which would be financially and/or stress wise the better idea.
I just re tested and this is the result:
FC - .5
pH- 7.8
TA - 80
I just re tested and this is the result:
FC - .5
pH- 7.8
TA - 80
If you have cheap fill water that is good quality (no metals) it would probably be cheaper and easier to drain/refill. Whatever you choose, be sure to post more pictures. We love pictures here!
A drain/refill will be quickest by FAR if your fill water is good. You will still need to do the steps as there will be Baqua goo in the pipes and such.....but FAR less than if you were to start right now.
A drain and refill would def. be easier....I just don't think cheaper. I'm ordering the right test kit tomorrow, I currently am using one I already have and it works but I would rather have a better detailed one as y'all have all talked about on here. I am on city sewer and my water bill when I filled it the first time was close to $150 bucks that month. I would really rather not go that route if I can get by without it. I went ahead and added my first dose of bleach almost an hour ago....it can only get better right!!!!
Will re test in about 15 minutes. It turned yellow this time.....
Will re test in about 15 minutes. It turned yellow this time.....
When you do a fill on your pool, if you call the sewer office, they may not charge for the 7,500 gallon fill water "sewage charge" as you did not create sewage with it.
Good luck, do you have the 20 jugs of bleach you are going to need to start the conversion? I normally see conversions take 20-50 jugs of bleach before they are finished. $150 for the water may be a deal to not need to deal with the conversion process of 7-14 days.
I ask as I have read many of these conversions. I have not converted. I am not an expert on these.
Good luck, do you have the 20 jugs of bleach you are going to need to start the conversion? I normally see conversions take 20-50 jugs of bleach before they are finished. $150 for the water may be a deal to not need to deal with the conversion process of 7-14 days.
I ask as I have read many of these conversions. I have not converted. I am not an expert on these.
techguy...Thanks for the input...I didn't know I could call about that! Good idea if I have to do a refill. Yes, I have the bleach, getting it from the DG here in town for around $2.50 a bottle. You may be right in saying that converting may be as costly or around about the same as if I just started over. I debated both back and forth over the last few days before just taking the punge and trying the conversion. I hope I made the right decision.
I would defentily check to see if you could cut that $150 in half. If not, one plus in your swap is that you've had a ton of fresh water added via rain the last few weeks. Your Baqua sanitizer levels should be lower than before, helping in the conversion.
If you decide to continue with the swap let us know. We can walk you some without a test kit until yours arrives.
If you decide to continue with the swap let us know. We can walk you some without a test kit until yours arrives.
Leebo...tell me in your honest opinion what you would do....at this point I am 4 bottles of bleach in....I can drain tonight and start over. I will have to change my sand anyway, so I can drain the pool completely, clean all the baqua-gunk out and drain and replace the sand including wash all the lines. When the refill is done there will be no baquacil at all, start my refill and be looking at a fresh start with possible swim time this weekend verses keep going and possibly not be able to swim for another week or more.....
I hate to ask a stupid question but I am just now learning. I have never dealt with chlorine and am still learning about these tests. I have a 5 way test kit. Please explain to me what exactly the difference in the free chlorine, total chlorine and combined chlorine is and what exactly is my test kit results telling me when I use the 5 way kit until my new kit arrives? I have read and re-read the information and the definitions on the different types but I still dont quite get what the difference is in what the test kit results are.
I hate to ask a stupid question but I am just now learning. I have never dealt with chlorine and am still learning about these tests. I have a 5 way test kit. Please explain to me what exactly the difference in the free chlorine, total chlorine and combined chlorine is and what exactly is my test kit results telling me when I use the 5 way kit until my new kit arrives? I have read and re-read the information and the definitions on the different types but I still dont quite get what the difference is in what the test kit results are.
My feeling is is if your water cost is less than ~$100 (25-35 bleach jugs), I would dump the water and start over.
I see it this way... $100, 24 hour water change over plus maybe a week of final conversion and balancing ... or at least a week of continuous testing/pumping/babysitting to consume the goo and then your sand change and then the same week of final conversion and balance. I made the same decision in the past with a swamp to blue conversion where my known water cost was lower than the unknown bleach and power costs.
IIRC you could change the sand while the water is being replaced. You will still be doing a goo-chlorine conversion just with much less goo.
I see it this way... $100, 24 hour water change over plus maybe a week of final conversion and balancing ... or at least a week of continuous testing/pumping/babysitting to consume the goo and then your sand change and then the same week of final conversion and balance. I made the same decision in the past with a swamp to blue conversion where my known water cost was lower than the unknown bleach and power costs.
IIRC you could change the sand while the water is being replaced. You will still be doing a goo-chlorine conversion just with much less goo.
bdl17 said:
I'll break this down into two parts....and give you the pro's and con's of each.
If it would only cost you less than $100 to drain/refill the pool.....
If your local water department will cut you a deal on your rate and you are able to refill the pool for under $100 I would seriously look into this option. You will not want to drain your pool 100% as you'll run the risk of your liner becoming wrinkled and then you'll need deal with that. You'll want to leave maybe a foot of water in the pool to hold it in place as you refill. Of coarse this will leave some Baquacil products in the pool, but the addition of fresh water will greatly cut down on the amount and speed up the process greatly. Once the water is drained it will help out by getting in the pool and scrubbing down whatever you can reach with a mixture of bleach and water. You'll then refill and start the conversion over again. You'll add enough FC to reach the 15ppm mark, and repeat as often as you can. Don't replace the sand until you lose 1FC of chlorine or less overnight. It shouldn't take long if you can hit it hard for a day or two.
This COULD end up costing more money in the long run depending on the amount of Baquacil in the water now....but with only being able to test Baqua using test strips there's really no way to tell for sure. In theory your Baqua levels should be very low before the swap, as the rain should have diluted it down.....but it becomes a Crud shoot.
If it costs $150 to drain/refill.......
Then it's a toss up what to do. One major plus I found after I went through the conversion about 2 years ago is that I learned the SLAM process forwards and backwards. The conversion is mostly just a process of Slamming the pool over and over and over....without the help of CYA to keep the chlorine in the pool. Often however the CYA wouldn't help, as the Baqua get's it first. You could end up spending more cash on bleach as you would have fresh water.......or you could spend less. Once again, there's no real way of knowing. If you do swap one major suggestion I have is to hold off until your FAS/DPD kit shows up (TF-100 I hope) as it's a PITA to guess, and almost impossible using the 6way kit you have now. This option will end up taking longer as there's no way to speed it up. If you're willing to test hourly and bring to 15FC....then the process shouldn't be that drawn out, but once again there's no way of telling.
In my honest opinion..... I would drain and refill the pool. The speed is a major reason why, as you should be able to finish and be swimming by this weekend (IF you put in a full day or two tending to the pool). Doing a swap often can take over two weeks from start to finish.....plus all the bleach you will use. We also can blindly attempt working on the conversion using your 6way kit, until the new kit arrives.
bdl17 said:
Let's break each down......
Free Chlorine (FC) is the level of disinfecting chlorine available to keep your pool clean. You COULD kinda look at this as "good chlorine".
Combined Chlorine (CC) is basically the breakdown of the chlorine as it's killing off stuff in the pool. Look at this as "bad chlorine"....as it's a sign that your pool is starting to turn south, or already has turned. Your ideal level for this is more or less zero.
Total Chlorine (TC) is the total of the two above (FC+CC=TC). It's not mentioned much here on TFP as we look at each number (FC & CC) separately.
Go ahead and post your current test results using your kit you have on hand and we'll guide you on each.
OK, Thank you so much for that. These decisions will drive you bat **** crazy! Whew! I will test as soon as I get home today which will be in about an hour and a half. I will post results then make the decision. And yes... the TF-100 is the one I ordered.
All those numbers look right, now its your call on the swap.
Drain or SLAM??
If you chose to do the full conversion then raise the FC to 15 once the sun goes down. You'll test again in the morning and do it again. Odds say the chlorine levels will be very low.
Drain or SLAM??
If you chose to do the full conversion then raise the FC to 15 once the sun goes down. You'll test again in the morning and do it again. Odds say the chlorine levels will be very low.
Ok....right now I am STILL weighing my options....I have the sump pump ready if we go that route and have bleach ready as soon as sun goes down if we convert.....
I'm leaning toward going with it and doing the full conversion seeing as I still will be looking at leaving some in....it's in the sand in my stairs which I am in no way able to take out and in the sand in the filter as well as will still be in the lines and pump....I wasn't quite thinking clearly about totally draining it and its 90 degrees here right now!
I got the bleach for $ 2.25 a bottle at the DG right down the street so if I go through 20 bottles (just an estimate....that's around $50) I bought the kit so you know how much that was, it should be here by Wednesday.
I hope I'm not being hard headed but I think SLAM we will go and proceed with what I started!
I'm leaning toward going with it and doing the full conversion seeing as I still will be looking at leaving some in....it's in the sand in my stairs which I am in no way able to take out and in the sand in the filter as well as will still be in the lines and pump....I wasn't quite thinking clearly about totally draining it and its 90 degrees here right now!
I got the bleach for $ 2.25 a bottle at the DG right down the street so if I go through 20 bottles (just an estimate....that's around $50) I bought the kit so you know how much that was, it should be here by Wednesday.
I hope I'm not being hard headed but I think SLAM we will go and proceed with what I started!
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