Baquacil Conversion

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Finally looks like we will have a full week without snow and nighttime temps in the mid 20's. Didn't want to start my conversion until I was fairly certain I wouldn't have frozen equipment, etc. to deal with. To update, I have deep cleaned my filter, replaced the seal and o-ring inside my pump with high-quality aftermarkets, re-taped all threads on my PVC fittings, and drained and refilled about 1/3 of my water with spring rains (and snow melt!) I have secured all my Chlorine and other chemicals to get underway. My Baquacil strips now show no residual oxidizer, and only a slight amount of sanitizer remaining. My water temp is now up to 55 degrees. I think I'm ready to go! Readings today using my new TF-100 kit, at 1:30 p.m.: PH 7.4, CH 250, TA 90, and of course, no Chlorine or Combined Chlorine. CYA is also 0, to be added once we are near the finish line.

Should I try to clean the solar cover and winter cover to remove the Baquacil residue (and with what?) or just consider replacing them and starting over? Neither is new. Also, in looking under the winter cover with a light, I can see what appears to be dead algae on the bottom. I know we had an algae bloom late in the season, and I pounded it with three gallons of oxidizer prior to closing. I'm planning on vacuuming that to waste prior to starting. Otherwise, the floor looks quite clean, the sides don't feel slippery, and the water is very clear. I believe I have read "How To Convert Your Bacqua Pool To Chlorine" at least a dozen times! Did I miss anything?
 
Go ahead but be sure to lower your pH first to 7.0/7.2 range. The bleach is going to add a lot of excess lye to the water which will raise pH. When oxidizing contaminants with bleach, you really want the pH to be lower as that will maximize the amount of hypochlorous acid in the water and offset the initial pH rise when the bleach is added.
 
Yep, you forgot a photo after you’ve dumped in loads of chlorine ?

Towards the middle of the conversion you can take the covers and toss them in for a large “chlorine bath” or if you’ve got room lay them in the yard and wash them down with a mixture of bleach and water. Neither are a major worry however as little baqua is likely on either of them.
 
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Finally got this conversion underway early yesterday morning. Took a few pic's that accidentally got deleted :confused:, but I had no drastic color show; just a change from clear deep blue to pea soup over the course of a couple hours. Skimmed off some of the scum manually around 6:00 last night. Took most of the day to get my FC to hold at 11 by midnight last night. This morning, FC was @10 at 6 am. Added the amount of chlorine to bring it to 15, then brushed my pool. Stirred up a lot of cloudy green water and it also dropped my FC back to 6. I was wondering if I should try to vacuum some of the water to waste to lighten some of the chlorine demand, or just wait for my readings to hold closer to the desired 15? My readings right now are: FC 11, TA 100, CH 250, CYA 0, and PH 7.4.

Thanks
 
The more solids you can get out of the water the better. If you can vacuum slowly to waste without stirring up big clouds of debris, that would help a lot.
 
Did the vacuum to waste last night and it seemed to go well (could not see the bottom to verify I was successful.) I then added 400 gallons of water to replace what was lost. My FC was then down to 4. Today, I am back up to 15 quite quickly, and I can now see down the sides to the bottom, as well as a faint outline of my liner design out to about 2' from the sides. My filter is still set to recirculate. I see no visible solids floating around this morning. I want to brush again today (in between showers.) 2-3 days of rainy weather are forecast, including today. Cloudy skies are good for my chlorine already!

I plan to use hairnets once I begin to filter the water. How clear should things get before I begin (sand) filtering? I don't want to start too soon and have an endless backwash situation, if possible. With fingers crossed, it seems to be so far- so good.
Right now my readings are: FC 14, TA 100, CH 250, CYA 0, and PH 7.3.
 
If you lower your pool water level first, you’ll get the maximum benefit of the chemical-free rain water diluting away anything that’s left.

At this point, if you can’t catch it with your leaf net, then the filter will get it. You should start filtering now, I don’t think the loading will be that bad. You can backwash to restore pressure...in fact, a dirty sand filter does a slightly better job filtering the fine stuff than a squeaky clean filter. Since the sand is going to be changed anyway, just use it now and don’t worry about the loading.
 
Sounds good. I just lowered my water. I'll let the rain do it's thing to replenish the water. In the meantime, I can now make out the pattern on the floor of my pool for about 10 feet. Not clearly, but it is becoming more visible. I can see a faint yellow deposit on parts of my wall. Probably leftover Baquacil. I think I'll do another brush tonight, bring it up to 15 on chlorine, and see what it looks like in the morning. If all is ok, I will start filtering and keeping an eye on the pressure. I won't vacuum again until I can get a good look at the bottom--no sense blindly pushing stuff around instead of seeing what I'm doing. Your thoughts?

Thanks for all the help!
 
ghall6292 said:
Sounds good. I just lowered my water. I'll let the rain do it's thing to replenish the water. In the meantime, I can now make out the pattern on the floor of my pool for about 10 feet. Not clearly, but it is becoming more visible. I can see a faint yellow deposit on parts of my wall. Probably leftover Baquacil. I think I'll do another brush tonight, bring it up to 15 on chlorine, and see what it looks like in the morning. If all is ok, I will start filtering and keeping an eye on the pressure. I won't vacuum again until I can get a good look at the bottom--no sense blindly pushing stuff around instead of seeing what I'm doing. Your thoughts?

Thanks for all the help!
Click to expand...

Sounds like a solid approach. Typically the water will clear up long before the chlorine demand goes down. It can be a little frustrating because the water looks great but the chemistry is telling you it’s not quite right yet. That’s usually the hardest part of the conversion - waiting for the chemistry to balance out.

If your pool has a light, you’ll need to consider when it will be a good time to pull it out of its niche. In fact, if you can pull it out soon, that would be great. Sometimes people find the baqua-goop hiding in all sorts of places.
 

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We have no light, thank God! I have power washed our ladder and have not put it back in. I drilled a couple extra 1/4" holes in the front and back of each step to allow the chlorinated water better access. There appear to be no holes in the ladder's uprights, so hopefully no Baqua or algae can be hiding in there. I also went to the local farm store and bought a large capacity syringe, approx. $2.50, that has a catheter tip (no needles) with about a 1/4 hole in the tip. I plan to fill my syringe with bleach and give each step a squirt about once a week to help with peace of mind. One syringe full (250 ml) should do all 5 steps. I'll probably forget something, but I keep trying to find one thing to check each day.
 
Hi,
It's been a couple days since I checked in. I could see all of the bottom of my pool yesterday morning. I saw several areas where the Baqucil had pooled up on the bottom. Things were still far from clear, but much better. I turned off the circulation and brushed down the walls, then let the pool sit for about 2 hours to let everything settle on the bottom. Then did another vacuum to waste. After It was done, the bottom was much better, and with the Baquacil gone off the wall, we had lost our yellow-blue water color and it was now aqua colored. I refilled the pool to normal levels. I began filtering with a hairnet in the skimmer basket. (I am now on my sixth net; they are catching a LOT of barely visible junk!) In the early evening, I did a regular vacuum to filter, changed out the hairnet, fired up the filter, and brought the FC back up to15.

When I saw the pool this morning, I was amazed! The water actually looked as good as it ever has. But a small amount of junk had again settled in spots on the bottom, and my FC was once again back down to 8. I vacuumed again this afternoon, then brushed the whole pool again. While everything was in suspension, I changed out the hairnet, started the filter, and went in for dinner. When I came out about an hour later, the water in my pump basket was cavitating and my pressure was around 8 pounds, down from its normal 12-15. I removed the hairnet and it weighed about 2 pounds. Lots of Bacqua-goo was gone, and my pool water looked unbelievable. I'll bring my FC back up to 15 at dark, and see if the chlorine demand will diminish overnight, after getting all that junk out today.

It looks like I may be headed toward the home stretch, I hope. Once we pass the OCLT, we'll get the filter cleaned out and replace the sand. Then get some CYA in the mix to help the chlorine; gonna shoot for 40ppm. The last big hurdle will be the CC's at 0.5 or less for two days in a row. Then balance the water and ….
DONE!!
 
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One more question. I only lost 3ppm of FC overnight, my best yet. I added enough this morning to bring me back to 15. Should I continue to add chlorine to bring me back to full SLAM level throughout the day? Seems like the sun will burn off a lot of FC with no CYA in the water. Will I just be wasting my chlorine, or is it vital to try to keep the level at 15 all day long? Definitely don't want to start over now that I'm this close.

If I need to add throughout the day, how often should I do it? Hopefully not hourly! (When I was doing the hourly's, it seemed like by the time I went out and got my sample, ran the test on my workbench, checked the Pool Math calculator for the proper amount to add, added the chlorine to the pool, and rinsed all my containers, I had like 15 minutes until it was time to start again.) I felt like I was in one of those "I Love Lucy" candy factory episodes. LOL
 
Directly out of the Baqua conversion article --- "Toward the middle of the conversion, it is more prudent to test and add your bleach in the evening, or at other times when the sunlight is not directly shining on your water."
 
Ready to add my CYA. I am going to run it at 40ppm. Pool math tells me I need to add 4.5 pounds. My wife has "gladly" donated a pair of pantyhose for the project. My question is this. Four and a half pounds seems like an awful lot to suspend on a nylon stocking in front the return jet. I worry about a catastrophic failure and dumping a bunch of undissolved granules into the water. Better to divide the CYA in half, one for each leg of the nylons? Your thoughts?
 
I have now hit my goal of less than 1 ppm of chlorine loss on my OCLT for three straight days (got much easier after addition of CYA!) Also, my CC is less than 0.5 for the second straight day. Thus, my conversion is now pretty much complete. Total chlorine used: 34 gallons. Not too bad, but probably could have used less had it been newer stock; got very quick results once I replenished with some late-April production dates.

Since I just added my CYA two days ago (shooting for 40 ppm,) I have not yet tested it (as advised) until it has had time to fully integrate with my water. My other readings are as follows: PH 7.5, FC 15, CC -0.5 to 0, TA 110, and CH 300. Going to begin letting the FC drift down today.

Thanks to all who helped me through this. Everyone on this site rushes in to help anybody who asks; it's amazing! I would like to give a special shout-out to Marty, Matt, and Leebo for putting up with what I perceived to be dumb questions; I never felt they thought the questions were dumb. I hope to someday be as knowledgeable as these folks, and perhaps able to help the next TFP newbie when they needlessly feel helpless.

Thanks again to all, and enjoy a great swim season,
Gary
 
Great Job!
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Thanks, Felipe. I lowered my PH from 7.6 to 7.2 to start the conversion. It has now crept up to 7.5. No adjustments planned until after FC settles in around the 5-7 mark. But thanks for the reminder; just because I knew, doesn't mean I'd remember! LOL
 

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