Lynchburg Virginia Here

[mtswat]

Hello pool gurus! My name is Marcus and while I have been around pools my entire life this is my first attempt at owning one. It was just by happenstance actually. We bought a new home that happened to have a very nice, simple, above ground 8000 gallon pool, Hayward 1200 cartridge filter and a vinyl liner.

it has been a bit more difficult that I imagined it would be. We opened the pool a week and a half ago. A note from the previous owner informed me it was a baquacil pool. Not CDX, I found later it’s not actually baquacil but soft swim products. Never the less, it wasn’t chlorine, which is what I grew up with.

we knew that things would be a bit more expensive to upkeep it but decided to give it a try. After a week and 550 dollars in chemicals from the pool store with little to no positive results, I kicked the pool store to the curb and went I search of information on my own. I found the this forum late last week and decided to begin the chlorine conversion.

I purchased the TF-100 test kit with PH meter and XL options and began dosing the pool with liquid chlorine last week.

I have cleaned and switched the cartridge in the filter several times and the water seems better. However, today the FC tested at 18.5 ppm and seems to be staying around there. The water is still cloudy and there is a white film that keeps gathering on top of the water. PH is at 7.4 and because it hasn’t leveled off yet there is no CYA right now.

Need some guidance from the experts my friends.

 

[Casey]

Keep SLAMING the pool. Wait until you are closer to done before you add the CYA because it'll stall you out. Keep cleaning your filters as you have. Brush the pool daily and keep testing so you're at SLAM levels. With no CYA, You dont have to bomb the pool with chlorine. 12ppm should be sufficient enough. It takes time, especially if you added more chemicals. That chlorine has to break all that down.

 

[mtswat]

Awesome. Thanks so much! Chlorine levels this morning were at 14ppm. Down from 18.5 yesterday but I didn’t add any additional chlorine. Will keep rocking with SLAMING to keep it between 12 and 15 and will post back this evening when I get home from work and do another FC test.

Do I keep up the SLAM until the water clears?

Thanks!

 

[Casey]

Yes! Keep SLAMING until the water clears!

 

[mtswat]

On it. Thanks so much! Not much change since yesterday. Chlorine levels dropped to 10 this morning. Added some LQ and levels are back up. Will keep fighting the biguanide fight, until we claim victory!!!

 

[mtswat]

Getting clearer everyday. Still fighting the biguanide fight!

 

[Casey]

It is definitely lighter. Keep at it.

 

[mtswat]

Still slamming! Chlorine levels are getting easier to regulate. I’m convinced that the white foam reaction on the top of the water is biguanide clarifier (aka hydrogen peroxide) at war with the chlorine. I did a biguanide test strip this morning because I was curious and I know of know other way to test those levels. The only chemical still showing above zero on the test strip is clarifier. Feel like we are coming into the hone stretch now! Hopefully. Lol.

 

[Casey]

Just use liquid chlorine.

 

[mtswat]

Baqua is gone forever! Casey thanks for all the advice! It took a couple weeks because of the baqua chemicals that had already been put in this year but we are now chlorine only. Learned a lot on the journey too. Especially how to use the TF-100 which was frightening at first but I’m very comfortable with it now. I have leveled of with FC at 6ppm , CYA at 45ppm and beautifully clear water.
The pic looks a little cloudy but we had a storm yesterday and there is a lot of debre that I just took out and need to vacuum the bottom.