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Mattkvaldez84

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Jul 18, 2020
14
Canon City, CO
I have been struggling with cloudy water in my pool since I have opened it. The most frustrating part is the money that I have spent on Baquacil products. I am thinking about purchasing a SWG system, but I want some feedback.

Do I need to drain my pool water?
Is the conversion going to be difficult since I have been using CDX for the past three weeks?

PH-7.3
TA- Over 240
22,500 gallons
 
Hey Matt and Welcome !! You can either drain most of your water and only fight the remaining bits, or you can launch an all out chlorine war on your 22k gallons. The process can take a couple of weeks for the chlorine to eat the Baqua chemicals like they are algae. You will be adding bleach several times a day to maintain the proper high levels to clear the water. Once you have completed the conversion you can either stick with bleach, or then add salt and a SWG but you have to go to bleach first.
 
No two pools are the same but probably in the 20ish range. At $3 -$4 a pop it won’t break the bank.
 
Is your fill water expensive ? If you live in a cheap area it’s far easier to drain and start over, Or drain 80%+ and only have 1/5 the fight.
 
Mattkvaldez84 said:
I have been struggling with cloudy water in my pool since I have opened it. The most frustrating part is the money that I have spent on Baquacil products. I am thinking about purchasing a SWG system, but I want some feedback.

Do I need to drain my pool water?
Is the conversion going to be difficult since I have been using CDX for the past three weeks?

PH-7.3
TA- Over 240
22,500 gallons
Click to expand...


Matt...may I ask, out of curiosity, how long you've been using biguanide??
 
Hi, I did a conversion from baquacil to chlorine this Spring. My pool was a hot mess when I opened it, as it had a pink slime issue last Fall when I closed it. If I could do it over, I would have drained it. Instead, I schlepped to the pool store and asked them to please take all my money and help me. mistake. They had me put massive amounts of shock in it, which did kill the biguanide, and made pretty colors. But, when I was finally ready to start with chlorine, they had me use massive amounts of granular shock, literally over 400 pounds of it when all was said and done, as I could not keep a chlorine level up. With all that shock and pucks, my CYA went so high that chlorine was being lost daily. 2 weeks ago I found this awesome helpful bunch and I now am on a better path. I'm waiting for my pool store to call me and ask if everything is okay.

So, short answer - drain it, if you have a place to AND if you can, fill it yourself. I drained my pool down 2/3 this week to get my CYA down, not as horrible as I thought it would be, and made me wish I had just done that to convert it. It's not a perfect level (60 versus 110 though) and I know that I can manage that through the rest of our new england summer. Over the winter I'm sure my CYA will diminish.

I bought the T100 test kit and spinner for testing, very happy with it.
 
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flyingv said:
Hi, I did a conversion from baquacil to chlorine this Spring. My pool was a hot mess when I opened it, as it had a pink slime issue last Fall when I closed it. If I could do it over, I would have drained it. Instead, I schlepped to the pool store and asked them to please take all my money and help me. mistake. They had me put massive amounts of shock in it, which did kill the biguanide, and made pretty colors. But, when I was finally ready to start with chlorine, they had me use massive amounts of granular shock, literally over 400 pounds of it when all was said and done, as I could not keep a chlorine level up. With all that shock and pucks, my CYA went so high that chlorine was being lost daily. 2 weeks ago I found this awesome helpful bunch and I now am on a better path. I'm waiting for my pool store to call me and ask if everything is okay.

So, short answer - drain it, if you have a place to AND if you can, fill it yourself. I drained my pool down 2/3 this week to get my CYA down, not as horrible as I thought it would be, and made me wish I had just done that to convert it. It's not a perfect level (60 versus 110 though) and I know that I can manage that through the rest of our new england summer. Over the winter I'm sure my CYA will diminish.

I bought the T100 test kit and spinner for testing, very happy with it.
Click to expand...
saw your note about using CDX, that is what I had been using for over 4 years, and still got the slime.
 

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farmerpatti said:
Hi....question on totally draining....should you 'brush' the sides and bottom after the draining and before refilling? If so, what should you use?
Click to expand...
For starters it's not ideal to do a total drain with your liner. You'll risk either tearing your liner or ending up with multiple wrinkles. Leave some water in the pool to help hold the liner in place. Brushing the pool's walls with a diluted mixture of bleach will help remove the little bit of Baqua that may have "stuck" on the liner. This can be done while the pool is empty if it's easiest for you.
 
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flyingv said:
But, when I was finally ready to start with chlorine, they had me use massive amounts of granular shock, literally over 400 pounds of it when all was said and done, as I could not keep a chlorine level up.
Click to expand...

This is what happened to me when I first started with my pool. I never got as far as 400 lbs - but the next step would have been to add 100. Similar to the advice you got, I was also told to add only granular and so also could not hold a chlorine residual. Wish I had known then what I know now relative to the relationship between granular and CYA levels.
 
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