New - Need your help w/my baquacil to chlorine conversion

Hello all - I was so excited when I found this site yesterday. This is the 4th season for our pool. We've been on Baquacil since day one. The first 2 years our pool was just fine - no problems at all w/Baquacil. Last year we battled algae and finally gave up. Our pool goes from one shade of green to another and we've tried everything recommended by Baquacil. We're finally waving the white flag and want to convert to chlorine but I don't know where to start. I read here that I need to start dumping in a lot of unscented chlorine - where do I find it? I tried to order the drop kit you've all recommended on this site but it's not available until the end of May and we want to get going on this now. Should I buy a test kit at a local pool store? Should I mix chlorine in a bucket of my pool water and see how it reacts? Where do I start?

Our pool is in-ground, pebble tec surface and about 13k gallons.

Thanks so much

hi, :) we just switched over to this bbb method. it will take a lot of chlorine(bleach) to get rid of all the baquacil. any laundry use unscented bleach will do like the generic from walmart. you should buy a cheap test kit from a local store until you are able to get a good one because you need to be able to check on your chlorine level at least twice a day while you are converting and keep your pool at shock level.the more you are able to check on it and keep the chlorine high the sooner the process should be over. i would not mix pool water and chlorine in a bucket, i would just pour chlorine in pool.:)

Cindy,

My first suggestion is to BUY A LOT OF BLEACH!!! I used around 75 bottles to do my conversion and there is NO WAY I would ever go back to Baquacil. I was like you, the first 2 years were fine. Then algae. I could not get rid of it. I spent anywhere from $200-$300/month buying canitizer, pink treat, shock, etc...and still had a pool full of algae. Plus, my water had a funny smell. Look at the pictures I posted in a thread below so you will know what you are in for. You need to go ahead and order Ben's kit, even if it takes several weeks to get it. You can use a kit from Wal-Mart until it arrives. You need to test your bleach 3x a day in the beginning. I did morning, when I got home from work, and before bed. I kept my chlorine to 15 ppm. There are a lot of detailed instructions on how to proceed, just go stock up on generic unscented bleach. You will be so very thankful in about 2 weeks and will never go back to Baquacil again. You also need to download the bleach calc that Michael has put on here. It will help you determine just the right amounts of bleach and other chemicals to use. Good Luck! Keep us posted.

OK, we've bought out Walmart of unscented bleach and have a cheapie test kit. How much blech do we put in the first time? Do we just dump it in where the water lines into the pool are so the bleach will get distributed quickly? I'm really nervous about this but the pool can't get any greener than it is right now. Again, thanks for your help!

Three gallons of 6% bleach should take you to about 14 ppm on your 13,000 gal pool. Will probably be eaten up fast so check after a few hours and add as necessary. And yes, just dump it in the skimmer. With water circulating the concentrated stuff isn't in the equipment long enough to do any damage at all. There is a calculator from mwsmith2 that you can download. Do a search for any of his posts....the link to the calculator is in his signature. Simply...1 gallon of 6% in 10,000 gal raises the chlorine level 6 PPM.
Al

Again - thank you thank you thank you so much for everyone's help! Now I have to admit to being really stupid. I thought my husband bought unscented bleach - he thought "regular" bleach meant no scent. Well, we all know regular bleach isnt unscented and I can't find it anywhere locally. I've checked my local grocery stores, Walmart and Target - any suggestions? Would a pool store carry it? Home Depot or Lowes???? Thanks again so much!!!!!

Bleach does have a smell, but that is not what we mean when we say unscented. We mean no floral scent or fresh ocean breeze scent, or cherry-flavored :eek: or whatever. Regular bleach scent is fine.

After I thought about it for a while, I came to that same conclusion. Give me a big DUH!!!! Thanks again!!!

ok - here's an update. Saturday morning my pool was Army green. I poured in 4 bottles of 6% and the pool immediately turned popcicle green. Sunday added 3 more bottles of 6% and pool gradually because a much lighter green, almos murky white. Flushed the filters that were just full of green algae. Monday added 2 bottles in the a.m. - Tested the water and we were at 2 ppm. Added 2 more Monday evening - the water is now a very pretty lite turquoise/white. Tested this morning and from the cheapie tester I have - looks like CL is 5 ppm. For kicks I checked the ph and it's at about 7, which is good because I fought a very high ph last year because of all the algae. I can now see my top step in the shallow end and the water is clear about 2 inches below the tile. I can make out the shelf in the deep end - it's about 2 ft down, so we're definately making progress. It's hard to know how much CL to put in the pool because my tester only goes up to 5ppm. Guess I need to buy another one now that I have a little more knowledge, but would really like to wait to get the one you all talk about here. Problem is it's not available until the end of this month and I would like to get this fixed by this weekend. Any thoughts? Should I call a pool maintanence guy and have them take over? Thanks again!

It sounds like you're on the right track - if you read the other posts here, the key is just sticking with it until the end. There is a method you can use to get a better estimate of your chlorine level for now with your test kit - use a small amount (Carl recommends a shotglass) of pool water and add the same amount of distilled water then test. Multiply your result by 2 to get your Cl level. If you still max out at 5, you can go to two shots of distilled water and one shot of pool water then multiply your result times 3. It's not the most accurate measurement but should get you close enough to get you by until you get your test kit.

Hang in there!

Peter

Thanks Peter! I'll get some distilled water on my way home from work tonight. This is day 5 and I can now see my bottom step ( of 3) in the shallow end and almost all of the pool light in the deep end. Making progress!

Sounds good. If you read the other threads you'll see plenty of other people who felt the same way you do going through this. I haven't seen one yet that made it through that wasn't very happy they did it.

The only thing I have seen is that sometimes the final step requires some Polyquat algaecide (if you look in the poolsolutions site you will find information on this) especially if you have mustard algae present in the pool. Some people don't need this so just keep on with the bleach and see how it goes.

Peter

I thought I posted an update this morning - can see the bottomr step in the shallow end and the pool light in the deep end - but for some reason it didn't post. Oh well. when we came home tonight we could barely see the bottom - dog toy we had no idea was there and both drains!!!!!!!! We can clearly see the bottom - pebble tec - in about half the pool - we're certainly making progress!!

Question - I was in the pool store today ordering new filters (our our 4 years old and falling apart). I mentioned what I was doing and he questioned my ph level. I said it was about 7 - low, I know. He said that I need to get that levelized before I worry about the CL because if I don't, I'm making the CL work 10x harder than it needs to. Comments?????

Thanks!!!!

I am not an expert in any sense on biguinide to chlorine conversion but I do know something about the chemistry of sodium hypochlorite in water and I think your pool store guy has it backwards. The active oxidizing agent once the chlorine is in water is hypochlorous acid. Hypochlorite ions are also formed. At lower pH there is more hypochlorous acid and less hypochlorite ions than at a higher pH. Therefore there is more chlorine in the active oxidizing state at a lower pH. In fact at a pH of 7.2 about 80% of the chlorine is in the form of hypochlorous acid and at a ph of about 7.8 only about 20% is available as hypochlorous acid.
Bottom line....chlorine is MORE actived at a lower pH than at a higher one! Raising your pH will mean that it will not be as effective as quickly since you are trying to oxidize the biguinide that is left in your water.

You might already know this but I'll mention it just in case, since you are ordering new filters, wait until the conversion is complete before you install them.

Peter

I have been following your progress because I am having the same problem with my pool. Right now it's green after adding shock to it.

Here is what I did: I shocked it last week and the same thing happened, then the chlorine disappeared. The pool was only slightly cloudy, so I thought I was making progress. Then I added 3 bags of shock to the pool last night and now it's green and murky.

I have been brushing and vacuuming daily, because the pool has lots of fine debris in the bottom.

The pool is a 12.500 gal above ground pool. I have a pitiful test kit (ph and cl only) and I can see now that I need to buy a better test kit.

I think I will try the bleach method after I get my pH down. It is above 8.2. I just added 2 cups of muriatic acid and will test in about 2 hrs.

Any suggestions anybody?

wow, my chlroine is now higher than the test kit (bright orange). pH down to 7.2, total alk still high at 28. I have a fountain pump that I have placed in the pool to help aerate it. So now I just wait? and add more bleach after checking in 2 hours or so?:confused:
I also went out and bought a better test kit.