Coming to "the Dark Side"!!

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poolmomma

poolmomma

0
Jul 2, 2009
78
Southern Virginia
So today is my first day of the conversion process. I ordered my kit from here this morning. I have bought bleach and started off by using a total of 7 gallons to get my FC up to 15 after 6.5hrs of trying! Mind you all baqua poop readings are 0 already, even the sanitizer, which I thought was going to be a b*%$h to get out! My pool never turned brown like I have seen, but it did go from yellowish green to what it is now...milky green. I am not going to add any bleach unless I need to before bed. My question to you all would be...My pH reading is 6.8 right now TA is 100 but I do not have a kit or strip or anything to test for the rest. Do I need to bother with it right now?

Pool before conversion. You cannot see the ladder bottom and when I opened the filter, the water was PINK! While vacuuming my robo buddy was filtering out TONS of the paper-like mold everyone talks about. GROSS!

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About 3 minutes after adding 4 gallons of bleach...
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After 6.5hrs and FC @15. Never had any brown color come out, but there was scum...
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Looks like it's progressing. I never had all the goo everyone else talked about either, just some funky colored water for a couple of days.

I also had the water mold last year when I opened, thats when I decided that I would do the conversion this year and I couldn't be happier!

Although the weather has been lousy and I haven't really got to enjoy it, at least I don't have the worries I had last year. Everytime it rained I could hear the algae growing..lol..now, I just add a couple quarts of bleach a night and wake up every day to a crystal clear sparkling pool.

Even though I used a lot of bleach during my conversion and still use more than some daily (full sun all day, no cover), it is still cheaper than what I was spending on Baq products every month.

Good luck and keep us updated :-D
 

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Today is no change. I upped my pH then added the correct amount of bleach to get it back up to 15 and there it has sat for 3hrs. The color is still the same and I have only had to backwash once. Is it my understanding that you only need to keep it at 15 and need not add any bleach unless it goes below 15? Also, our pool stores are closed and I am down to just test strips as my test kid says it won't be here until the 8th and no one else carries anything that resembles a FC test, how am I going to get accurate reading from a test strip that only shows FC at 10...bright purple? I will guess that I have to guestimate? My backyard is enough to give anyone a bleach headache!!!
 
Hmmm, I didn't have the proper test kit in the beginning either, so what I did was 3 times a day morning, afetrnoon and late evening assume that my free chlorine was down to zero and use the pool calculator to bump it back up to 15. It may take the conversion just a touch longer, but it won't hurt anything until your test kit arrives.

My water was the same yucky color for a few days, so don't dispair. It went from army green, after about a few days a kind of limey green, then a few more days I could see the speration of clear water from the green water, and that took even a few more days. Just keep adding bleach at least 3 times a day and I think you'll be fine :)
 
Thanks! Well I had to backwash again and the Crud that came out was the COLOR of Crud! HAHA! My pressure only rose about 5psi, but I am glad I backwashed because it took two cycles for clear...CLEAR water to come out!! That means clear water in the filter!!!! I was getting PINK water from the filter and now it is clear! I am so excited even though my pool is still lime green. Just getting clear BW water is exciting after BWing all those times with murky water. What a relief I feel already.

Since we will be up a bit later tonight, I will watch the color on the test strip...frustrating!...and add as needed until bedtime. We don't get full sun all day on the whole pool so I have only been losing like 5-7ppm during the day which is kinda nice in the bleach department! The kids are getting anxious and jealous of all of you with sparkling pools!!!
 
No change today. Still holding onto about FC 10 overnight with not much burnoff during the day. Today it isn't TOO hot and the sun is shining good. I didn't test FC but once this morning because of having just strips but did add bleach at 0930 and 1430 (230p). We are leaving for the evening so I will check FC when we return and add bleach before bed. I went looking for a FC test today and Leslie's did not have one. Hopefully I will get my kit on Monday rather than the 8th! 6 days via fedex seems like a long time to me even over a holiday weekend!

Anyway, water is still limeish blue-green. I am hoping to wake up to a break in the murkiness sometime soon! I have a playdate in 9 days and would like to have the pool available!

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY EVERYONE!!
 
Today is Day 4 of my conversion and I am filling my pool back up...with RAIN! BOOOO! It seems as if I lost more chlorine before the rain on this cloudy day than I have this whole time. Now it is raining after I just added bleach so I expect to lose more as the rain tops up. I think I see some clearing coming, but it could be my imagination since I have been working on this for 4 days! My husband has little faith in my efforts and wants me to just drain and refill. Of course I am NOT going to waste all I have done so far just because he has no faith in what I am doing! I think he thinks I am a nut! LOL! Hopefully we will see clearance soon. I am hopeful. :)
 
Don't let a little rain get you down. :-D Rain can actually speed up the conversion. Less chlorine is lost to sunlight, so it is simpler to maintain FC at 15 while it is raining (unless it is a major storm).
 

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You go girl!! Keep it up, my dear hubby had little faith during the process also, and now can't believe the clarity and cleanness of the water!

It took me about 7 days for the water to completely clear, but I had low baquacil levels to start with. If you started out on the higher side, it will take a little longer, but it WILL start clearing.

The only thing I have to do anymore is add a couple of quarts of bleach nightly. My numbers stay pretty much balanced and I don't have to use and algaecide. It's only costing me about 10 dollars a week in bleach, so lets say 40 dollars a month. Compared to the 80+ I was using in baquacil, just TRYING to keep the pool clear (and it wasn't working to well).

I have been converted since the end of May and have not had one issue with my water, the lessons I have learned here have been invaluable. Finish your conversion, balance your water and chlorinate nightly (takes about 5 minutes) and the pool will be a joy and not a chore. :-D
 
Re: Coming to "the Dark Side"!! EXCITING UPDATE!

I CAN SEE THE BOTTOM STEP!!!!! :party: I dropped my brush and skimmer wand in on accident and I can see their handles too! :whoot: I think we are about to see clearness and I am absolutely FLOORED with the thought!!!!!!!! I will post an updated pic later. Taking the fam to dinner!
 
DAY 5 and it is raining again today but my FC is still bright purple on the test strip. Fed Ex still says estimated deliv of my kit to be July 8th which kinda sucks, but I think I am doing ok. I would just like to have it when I have to do my overnight tests and CC to get it right. The bottom of my pool is more visible this morning. I am hoping for clear water by Wed. We shall see!
 
poolmamma,

Don't let your hubby get you down! :roll: Mine thought I was crazy too, but you should see our sparking water now. My conversion took me almost 3 weeks. When I was still working I could only get to shock level before work and before going to bed for 10 days. We just had a 4th of July party with 25 people! It is the first time in years that our pool didn't turn green the day before the party. It always gets close to or over 100 degrees around the 4th and with baqua, the pool always went green.

My photos are on "Started a conversion on Sunday" back at the beginning of June. I never got the scum either, just funny colors and really cloudy green water.

I too didn't have a test kit at first, so I would test the water with my strips and if it was below 10, my strips could read FC. Then I used the pool calculator to top up to FC 15. The test kit came in the middle of my conversion process and it definitely helped speed things up.

Don't drain and don't give up. :-D This process works. Just so you know, I did use over 80 bottles of bleach some were 96 oz, some were 182 oz. I paid anywhere from 1.59 to 2.59 a bottle and picked some up on my way home from work each day. I have had hernia surgery and not supposed to lift heavy stuff. It will still be cheaper than baqua in the end.
 
The difference in clarity today is AMAZING! As soon as my camera is charged I will take some pics and post one. I know, I post everyday, but this conversion is making me sooooooooo happy!! :party: :flower:

Editing this post to include my first round of TF-100 results

FC: 7
CC: 2
TC: 9
pH: 7.3
TA: 200
TEMP: 78

I am going to bump the bleach to 15 but I have been pretty close with my measurements and guestimates! Although my TA seems a bit high, my pH is ok. My pool is getting close, I can FEEL it! WOOT!
 
Looking good! :whoot:

Keep it up, you won't believe how easy it is to maintain once you've finished.

I just keep my chlorine at the recommended level (maybe just slightly higher) and vacuum and brush once a week and the water stays crystal clear :-D
 
No don't worry about your TA at all. Conversions take time, and will get done at the pace they get done at, regardless of the TA level. If your FC level is below 5 at some point you can double check the PH if you want. Aside from FC and CC, PH is the only other thing that matters right now. However, PH is normally fairly stable during a conversion, and shouldn't need to be checked very often.
 

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