Goodbye baquacil

[red-frogg]

Hello everyone! I just started my conversion from baquacil to chlorine today. I have dumped 6 gal. of 6% bleach in and took my first reading about an hour after I added it. Here is where I am:

Total hardness: 0
Total chlorine: 3
Free chlorine: 0
pH: 7.4
Total alkalinity: 80

My question as a newbie to this process is: Should I continue to add bleach (about 3 gal./hour) until my total chlorine gets to 15? I also have concerns about running my filter overnight. I understand that I need to run it 24/7 to get all the junk out of my filter, pipes, etc., but I still get nervous...can't keep my eye on it to make sure nothing is going wrong... Would it hurt to run the filter on "recirculate" during the night time to make sure the filter doesn't get stopped up or something awful like that...I know I'm a worrier and my husband tells me that it will be ok. Just newbie nerves I guess. Anything has to be better than the past 3 years of cloudy, milky, ucky water that nobody wants to swim in.

 

[Smykowski]

Welcome!

You need to bring it up to 15, and use as much as it takes to hold it there. Use the pool calculator to figure out bleach amounts. Dose, test, and redose as often as you can, the more often the better.

 

[jcowart]

Couple of tips. I helped my sister when she did hers. Don't really worry about the high CC at the start. Save your regents, it will be high. After you start to get a hand on it then run a FC and CC test. When you first start all you really want to do is keep the FC up. I do hope you have a good test kit. Oh.... take pictures.

BTW: where are you getting 6%. That's not really common anymore. Most household bleach went to 8.25%. Also add you pool specs to your sig.
http://www.poolcalculator.com/ will be your new friend in short order.

Pictures please

 

[Richard320]

We need pictures every step of the way - through the mushroom cloud of the initial dose, the technicolor show, the clumps of ectoplasm, the color changing to something people might want to get in, right through until sparkling.

 

[red-frogg]

OK...Here's my first pic!!!!

jcowart ~ you are correct...I am using 8.25% bleach...it's hard to see that tiny writing w/out my glasses!! I have ordered a TF-100XL test kit. I am using my parent's kit until mine gets here...hopefully tomorrow (fingers crossed).

Has anyone had problems running their filter during the night? I'm just worried that it will get clogged but my husband doesn't seem to think that will be a problem as long as we backwash good before bed. Just curious as to everyone else's experience.

I will post pics of day 2 tomorrow and update my levels. Thanks to everyone for being so nice and helpful!!

 

[duraleigh]

Run your filter 24/7. If it clogs up, it will not harm it, you will only lose a lot of efficiency.

Are you backwashing your filter each time the pressure rises by 25% or so?

 

[red-frogg]

Ok great! Yes I have backwashed it once today and will do so before bed. I haven't noticed the pressure increasing yet and I have been checking it each hour. Hopefully all will continue good throught the week!!