Baquacil conversion with percarbonates

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Update this morning.
I have scrubbed the pool (to the best of my ability)......a little morning cardio. I think I scrubbed everywhere but difficult since the water is still cloudy.
Still no goo to be seen and my filter pressures are the same (20 psi)
After I scrubbed, I checked my water again:

pH 7.5
TA 140
Calcium 300
I also dipped a baquacil test strip and the sanitizer level is unchanged from last night
No rain today so We'll see what it looks like tonight
 
So your TA went up about as much as I predicted when I plugged the numbers into a spreadsheet but your pH did not rise as far. Your water must have been very acidic to start with. Don't worry about CH for now.

Do the strips measure oxidizer levels? Just wondering where those are at?

So it does appear the percarbonate destroyed some of the sanitizer. If it went down to 15-30 range from the original 40 that the pool store measured, then it seems it did lower it. I had hoped it would go closer to 0 though.
 
Just got home from work.
Pool doesn't look much different
Pressure on my filter actually went down a few psi (forgot to mention earlier this morning I did backwash and the water was quite cloudy.....but not goo-like).
Think I'm going to vacuum to waste some to see if I can get anything off the bottom of the pool.
I did email my pictures so they can be added here as well
Water numbers soon to follow
 
When you're ready to add chlorine, expect it to drop very rapidly. I would add the dose needed to get to 15ppm FC and then brush vigorously with the filter set to recirculate so you can get the chlorine dispersed rapidly. Only go about 15mins at most and then test FC levels. Don't be surprised if your reading is somewhere near zero. With all the residual peroxide and remnants of biguanide in the water, the chlorine is going to be RAPIDLY destroyed (or, to be more specific, it's going to annihilate the peroxide and oxidize the heck out of the biguanide).

Keep adding chlorine until you start to get it to hold...you want to get it to 15ppm and MAINTAIN it at that level as consistently as you can. Once you start to see it hold, lets evaluate what kind of goop is in your pool. We could try to run it on filter mode OR you could try to let it settle and then vacuum to waste. Depends on how much goop forms and whether or not it floats or sinks.
 
I'd love to know if you're getting any oxidizer levels left?? The less H2O2 around, the more the FC can destroy the Baquacil. Do you have strips for oxidizer level?

Yes, the chlorine consumption will be intense. Your water is loaded up with organics and the chlorine is going to oxidize that stuff likes there's no tomorrow. This is what makes baq-to-chlorine so cumbersome, organic oxidation. Hopefully the high peroxide levels short-circuited some of that for us.
 
The baquacil strips do not give you a level. Only show you 2 levels: add initial dose and add maintenance level. The first is a faint light blue and the second more like a sky blue. My level is almost black so I figure it is quite high.
I plan to take a water sample tomorrow to the store (they will probably flip out a little with my levels). I'll post them and we can decide where to go from there
 

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Thanks Lee for posting those for me. The first picture is my before (prior to putting the percarbonate in). The picture to the right of it is what the pool looked like just after I added the sodium percarbonate.
Second row, first picture is an hour after.
The picture next to it and below are from this morning. Hope that helps.......
 
Just got back from the pool store. Elated that I got in and out without any major inquiry or questions but not too thrilled with my results......
Sanitizer. 45
pH 7.2
Calcium 194
Oxidizer 236
I know this is not ideal (and not what I was hoping for after adding the percarbonate).
Do I postpone adding the chlorine to allow my sanitizer level to come down more?
 
I'm going to be out most of the day today (going up to the mountains to be with family & friends).

At this point I don't trust any of the Baquacil test results but it's not out of the realm of possibility that the percarbonate didn't work. It's obviously there (high oxidizer levels) but without an exact biguanide reading (with a real titration based test kit) the strip testing if sanitizer levels is just too unpredictable.

Start the conversion process with chlorine, you've wasted enough time. Put the filter in recirculate and add bleach to 15ppm FC. KEEP ADDING UNTIL YOU GET A READING. The peroxide and FC are going to annihilate one another. So I don't expect your first additions to register at all.

Good luck. If I get a cell signal, I'll check in later.
 
I suspect the percarbonate did assist some, but we won't know how much at this point. Your next step as Matt mentioned is to switch to liquid Chlorine to finish off the conversion. Set the filter to recirculate at first and expect to use a good bit of chlorine at first. Have a camera ready as well as you're likely gonna get some colors upon adding the chlorine.

Add enough chlorine to hit 15ppm (3.5 jugs of 8% bleach) and brush frequently. The more you brush the faster the conversion will go. Test at least once an hour and bump your FC back up to 15ppm each time.
 
So my son and I added 3.5 bottles of chlorine. Nothing too major happened. Is this the point that we should have gotten goo/foam?
The pool is on recirculate and no major colors so far. I did scrub the pool.
I tested the FC after 15 minutes and I stopped the process at 30 ppm
At 1 hour I tested again and stopped at 20 ppm (I don't want to use up all of my reagent right out of the gate).
Will test again in an hour
 
No colors is a good thing!

I tested the FC after 15 minutes and I stopped the process at 30 ppm
At 1 hour I tested again and stopped at 20 ppm (I don't want to use up all of my reagent right out of the gate).
Click to expand...


Can you expand on this more? Are you saying your FC was at 30ppm??
 

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