Use of cover while converting to cut out sun exposure?

[themitzelfamily]

Hello all! We have been poring over this site since we stumbled on it last season, and have been grateful for the abundance of useful info here! I just officially joined, so please forgive the lack of pool stats... Hopefully my questions are more general, but my husband knows the particulars of the equipment and dimensions so I can hunt them out if needed.

So... We bought a house with an IG pool and, after one expensive and tentative season with Baquacil (the pool has been Baqua for many years, it seems), we are in the process of following TFP's conversion protocol to chlorine. Like another member currently converting, our pool store (the same pool store, we're in Ann Arbor!) is closing and it's going to be harder to get Baqua locally anyway, so it was clearly time to convert. So far, so good. We have the TFT 100 XL test kit and so far the conversion seems to be going as described. We started the process a few days later than expected since I had to repair fallen tiles before getting our water level up and the weather was rainy, and now we're bumping up against a long weekend out of town.

My question is whether or not is it advisable to use a cover (in our case, a cheapy winter cover that we can scrub after the conversion is complete and switch to a clean new solar cover) to cut out the effect of the sun eating the chlorine during the days while we're gone... Will it speed the process and actually use less chlorine, or will it eat or mess up the cover and/or cause us heartache and ruin in other ways? I am mainly looking for a solution to prevent dropping FC to zero and starting to grow stuff, or imposing on our new neighbor to dump gallons of chlorinator every night for us. Our overnight FC went from 17 to 13 ppm this AM, so I would think covered it could last much longer. We started the conversion on Sunday AM and have been doing our best to keep the FC at 15, skim the goo, backwash (DE filter), and scrub as needed. We leave town on Thursday evening, back on Monday evening.

What can we do to not go backwards in the conversion while we're away?

Thanks for your help!!

 

[JasonLion]

Welcome to TFP!

No, don't use a cover during a baqua conversion. You generally want to put the cover on for an hour or two near the end of the conversion, but the rest of the time you want the cover off so the pool can breathe. The cover would also be damaged by prolonged exposure to high FC levels with zero CYA.

Once you can hold a significant FC level overnight you usually want to switch to only adding chlorine in the evenings. That will take a little longer, but use way less chlorine.

Skipping one or two evenings of chlorine isn't a big deal. If it is going to be three evenings missed you should think about asking a friend to come over to add chlorine once in the evening while you are gone.

 

[themitzelfamily]

Thank you! We will arrange to have someone add 15 ppm worth of chlorine Sat evening, and that sounds like a workable compromise.

Also, thanks for poolmath!

 

[mrsklement]

I wonder how many of the Baquacil pools in the Ann Arbor area will be converted to chlorine this year due to the pool store closure!? I hope your conversion goes well, and I'm sorry for cleaning all the local Meijer stores out of their store brand bleach the last few weeks - LOL.

FYI: Clearwater Pools on Jackson Rd. has liquid chlorine on sale every Wednesday ($10.99 for 4 bottles, 12% chlorine).

 

[themitzelfamily]

I wonder how many of the Baquacil pools in the Ann Arbor area will be converted to chlorine this year due to the pool store closure!? I hope your conversion goes well, and I'm sorry for cleaning all the local Meijer stores out of their store brand bleach the last few weeks - LOL.

FYI: Clearwater Pools on Jackson Rd. has liquid chlorine on sale every Wednesday ($10.99 for 4 bottles, 12% chlorine).

Thanks for the local pro tip, mrsklement! That sounds better than what we have been doing, which was 10% at $12/case of 4. We're looking forward to lessening the expense of pool ownership

I should post a pic, but the pool is already looking much better than it ever did last year, and it's not fully converted yet! Sparkling clear! We are so happy with the progress...