Baquacil to Chlorine Conversion

[godstreasures1]

I used Baquacil last year in my 24x52 above ground pool. This year I am switching to chlorine. I used nothing to winterize the pool just shut it down. Today I got my shock in from In the Swim. I tested the water with the test I recieved today and this is the numbers.

Total Hardness: 1000
Total Chlorine: 0.5
Free Chlorine: .05
Ph. 6.8
Alk. 80 Acid 0

I added 1 super shock and 2 pounds of ph increaser today. The in the swim website suggested. My pool was swamp green now it is a greenish brown with a white residue on the top. Is this normal and what do I do next?

[huenix]

I wish I still had the instructions from the old website, but here it is off the top of my head..

1) Go get many many many gallons of plain unscented bleach. I have a 18' round and I used 30 gallons to get rid of baquacrap.
2) Go get bleachcalc. You will need it.
3) Get your PH back to where it belongs first... I realize it may be too late for that, but do it anyway.
4) Your total hardness is kinda high. I think the only thing for that is drain and refill some water, but I am not an expert.
5) Add enough bleach to bring your CL up to 15 ppm. You will have to have a drops based test kit to do this.
6) Check your pool at least 3x a day and add bleach to 15 ppm. I remember being shocked that each time I checked the CL level was under 1. This process just gobbles up the CL.
7) Run the filter continuously. Watch the pressure and backwash as necessary. I think I had to backwash every time I added bleach for the first three days.
8) After a few days and many gallons of bleach, you will start to see a white/brown residue on the floor and walls. Vacuum this to waste. The more you can vacuum out, the less will clog the filter.
9) When your pool clears up, and you can hold 3-6 ppm CL overnight, start adding CYA and fix the other things like Ph.

My image gallery is all sorts of messed up, but you can get a grasp of before and after... http://www.huenix.com/index.php?option=com_zoom&Itemid=36&catid=1&PageNo=1 for the images.

[godstreasures1]

I just bought a bulk of chlorine tabs shock and ph up and down from in the swim. Can you help me with my conversion using these products? I just checked the color of my pool and it is light green already.

[aylad]

You really need to stop using the super shock, which is contributing to the high hardness, and start using bleach instead. With hardness that high, once you get the conversion finished, you're still probably going to have problems with scaling and milky water. And heunix is right--draining and refilling is going to be necessary to lower the hardness. Depending on how expensive water is in your area, I would strongly consider doing the partial drain/refill thing NOW, which will also help lower the bleach requirements during your conversion process.

janet

[mwsmith2]

And to follow on to Janet's comments, if you aren't going to do a partial drain and refill, you need to fix your pH NOW. Since your pH is at the bottom of the range, you don't have any idea how low it really is. This is a corrosive condition which can damage your equipment. Also, with your Ca level so sky high, when you start moving your pH up, you are probably going to get a snowstorm of Ca precipitating out of solution. So:

1. Fix pH
2. Keep your Cl levels up with bleach (and bleach ONLY) until the water clears, and holds Cl overnight.
3. Post your test results here

Michael

[godstreasures1]

I am using the cal-hypochlorinate shock. Does this make a difference? I was not sure. Also, what do you mean by snow storm? I am not real pool smart, sorry.

[JohnT]

I am using the cal-hypochlorinate shock. Does this make a difference? I was not sure. Also, what do you mean by snow storm? I am not real pool smart, sorry.

You already have a very high level of hardness, and the cal-hypo shock adds more. When you adjust the pH, some of this material may precipitate out as a white solid that settles to the bottom of the pool.

[godstreasures1]

ok thanks so much. I will take your advice.

[huenix]

I'll echo again for clarity... If this were -my- pool, here is what I would do. And this may be a very expensive route for you, but it is prolly the cheapest route long term. If you want to try to fix it in place...

1) Fix the Ph. Get the Ph up to 7.5 and let it sit there for a couple of days. Use borax. And ONLY borax, till you get your TA up to 120 or so. This will cause the massive quantities of calcium in your water to clump together and fall out on the bottom.
2) Once the Ph is above 7.5 and TA is 120, you can use Baking Soda to try to increase Ph to 7.8 or so in order to precipitate more calcium. In either case, vacuum all the precipitated calcium (It really does look like snowflakes in the pool) to waste.

Run tests again and post numbers. You really dont want to be changing everything at once. If, after doing the above, you still have more than 500 ppm hardness, you are best advised to drain 50% and refill. If this is a vinyl liner pool, and I think it is, the cost of replacing a damaged pump from scaling is probably more than the cost of water.

You will notice a theme here.. :) Stop putting cal hypo in your pool. Stop buying cal hypo. Use bleach, borax and baking soda. Ben has a wonderful set of tips on http://www.poolsolutions.com that cover this better than I ever could, but the best reason is that its so very much cheaper.

I was in the same boat as you last year, and now I understand my pool a hundred times more, and spend a tenth the time working on it.

Feel free to ask questions, too. We are all here to help.

[aylad]

You need to use Borax to raise your pH, and baking soda to raise your TA, not the other way around.

Janet

[huenix]

You need to use Borax to raise your pH, and baking soda to raise your TA, not the other way around.

Janet

Wow, I was out of it last night... Good catch.