Baquacil to Chlorine conversion speed

We're going to switch to Chlorine from Baquacil after reading all the facts here, and after listening to friends who have pools and use chlorine.

It is Friday night. Our water is cloudy after two weeks of treatments for algae and haze. We have a 25,000 gallon chemical soup in a vinyl pool, and tired of wasting the $$ on Baquacil. The pool store employees tell us they can clear up the haze in a minute if we would switch to Chlorine.

How soon can we expect to swim again in the pool after starting the conversion?

How soon should we expect the haze to clear?

How many gallons of bleach should we have on hand? and does Walmart sell the Borax soda?

Where do we get Ben's pool testing kit for $15.00?

Thanks for all the help. I'm finally getting answers.

I've got a 14,000 gallon AG vinyl pool. I partially drained my pool to get my baquacil level down to 15 ppm before starting conversion - and I'm not necessarily recommending draining - and it took me 4 days and 30 gallons of bleach to convert to a clear pool. I ran my cartridge filter 24/7 during that period and had to continuously clean the filter - several times a day. I also use a sock on my skimmer basket and that caught a lot of the baquacil crap that precipitated out, and I had to clean the sock several times a day.

You need to keep the chlorine level as close to shock level as possible until it clears - read my "weekend baquacil conversion" post for advise that I was given. One of the posters on that thread, as well as many other posts, mwsmith2, or something like that, has a bleach and chemical calculator that you can use to determine the proper amounts to add to your pool. There's plenty of advise on other test kits to get if you can't wait for Ben's kit - you need to have some idea of where your fc is at prior to bringing it back up to shock level - with no cya, I didn't go over 15 ppm.

I think Ben's kit goes for about $65 or so - look at poolsolutions.com to order it.

It's been almost two months and my pool has been crystal clear with no hint of algae.

I've read your posts and see that it can be pretty intense to switch. others have had an easier time. we do not have any green color. the pool is cloudy so that we cannot see the bottom in the deep end.

when we start to convert can we swim in the pool? we're having a bunch of people here on Monday (<72 hours)? For now, we've shocked with the Baquacil sanitizer again to see if it clears by morning. I doubt it, but to swim in a clear pool by Monday seems unlikely.

BTW, all our other numbers are right on according to the pool store.

I don't think your pool will be ready by Monday. I helped my friend switch 2 years ago with about 37,000 gals - it took about 4 days till the water was holding any amount of chlorine. You will have to be very consistant, and you will have to backwash and vacuum to waste often. I would start the switch anyway, because the water you have now doesn't sound safe to swim in now. Good luck, you will be soooo happy you did it.

We have a 14000 gallon pool, somewhat smaller than yours. We did the conversion from start to swimming in 3 days (Friday night to Monday afternoon in the pool) HOWEVER, we monitored the clorox ppm every 1 1/2 to 2 hours and continued to add clorox to keep it at 15ppm till it held 15ppm overnight and the combined clorine was 0). Our water also had no green color but was a hazy white cloudy mess. By monday night, it was clear and we were swimming. By Tuesday afternoon we were amazed at how much clearer still it had become. That was one week ago, we have crystal (and I cannot emphasize that enough... CRYSTAL!!!) clear water now. The 15ppm would not hurt you to swim in from what I have read. At the time we first got in to swim the reading was down to about 7ppm. Backwash your filter often (we did it 6 or 8 times a day) to keep the filter clear and to avoid the pressure building. That helped a lot. We also used the brush to brush down the sides to brush off the top layer of what we believe was white mold and expose the lower layers of mold to be killed by the clorox, that helped as well.

Good Luck, you will be SO HAPPY that you have decided to do this.

Thank you for your responses. I'm just getting back on after a busy weekend of swim meets, little league, church, friends, relaxing, etc.

After reading the posts, We've decide to hold off on the conversion until after our schedule settles down. This could be the wrong decision, but since we leave for a short vacation, I want to make sure the pool is at least stable. The filter needs new sand after less than one season, but it works. I'm hoping I don't come back to a pool full of algae and cloudy.

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Originally Posted by tmbier

After reading the posts, We've decide to hold off on the conversion until after our schedule settles down. This could be the wrong decision, but since we leave for a short vacation, I want to make sure the pool is at least stable. The filter needs new sand after less than one season, but it works. I'm hoping I don't come back to a pool full of algae and cloudy.

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Something occured to me after reading that post.

I am wondering if allowing a Baquacil pool to have a green algae bloom would be a good thing before a conversion. Would the algae consume the baquacil or in some way lower the Baquacil PPM. making the conversion easier?

Not sure of the chemistry involved, but maybe someone else is.

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Originally Posted by tmbier

We're going to switch to Chlorine from Baquacil after reading all the facts here, and after listening to friends who have pools and use chlorine.

It is Friday night. Our water is cloudy after two weeks of treatments for algae and haze. We have a 25,000 gallon chemical soup in a vinyl pool, and tired of wasting the $$ on Baquacil. The pool store employees tell us they can clear up the haze in a minute if we would switch to Chlorine.

How soon can we expect to swim again in the pool after starting the conversion?
Depends on you and how much effort you want to put into it. Some poeple have converted in just a few days, some have taken weeks. It really depends on how close you are going to monitor the chlorine levels and maintain them during the process.
How soon should we expect the haze to clear?
Same answer as above
How many gallons of bleach should we have on hand? and does Walmart sell the Borax soda?
Walmart and most grocery stores sells bleach (you are going to need a LOT of it! How much depends on what the biguinide level in you pool is when you start the conversion), borax (20 mule team in the laundry aisle), baking soda ususally in the baking aisle
Where do we get Ben's pool testing kit for $15.00?
Ben's kit is a bit more expensive but is the best 'bang for your buck" in pool test kits. Here is the link
http://www.poolsolutions.com/cart/ps234.php
There are also good kits from Taylor and LaMotte. Taylor's K-2006 is a bit less expensive than Ben's but it contains a few tests that you wll never use and MUCH LESS reagents so you will be buying refill$ much sooner (The CYA test only has enough for about 5 tests in the Taylor kit)
Walmart usually sell a drop based test kit by HTH or AquaChem for about $15 dollars....best kit you can get for under $20 but it does have some limitations like not testing FC and there are some issues with the CH test.
Thanks for all the help. I'm finally getting answers.

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Hope this is helpful