Taking the Plunge - Baquabeast conversion starting

Hey all,
Well after weeks of dealing with milky water, and reading every post on this forum and spending several hundreds of dollars of that Baqua Junk that I fell for, my hubby and I decided to go ahead and convert.

Didn't want to lose any swim time, but this is supposed to be a cruddy week here in Jersey and the pool is a little cool for the kids, so I guess this is the perfect week to attempt this

I'm quite nervous about it, but confident that with your help, we can do this and have a sparkling pool in a few days. I hate looking at this milky water stuff.

Off to buy bleach and a test kit. I would like to order Ben's but we have to do this now and I can't wait.

Does it matter what concentration of bleach I use, whether 6 % or 12 %. I know to use the bleach calculator to get appropriate amounts, but is there a difference???

And I assume pool filter is to run 24/7

Wish me luck:)

It does not matter what concentration of bleach you use. Yes to running the pump 24/7. Be prepared for the water to turn green! But, it will be well worth it. Good luck and keep us posted how it is going.

Thanks Watermom.

I will post numbers as soon as I can.

I will go out for the bleach this evening and begin dumping tonight.

Here's another question:

Since I've only used Baquacil, I'm guessing I will not have any cya in the pool??? So I can type 15 ppm into the bleach calculator and not have a problem with too much bleach and fading my liner?

15 PPM will be fine. As soon as you dump the bleach in it will start attacking the Baquacil. It is pretty cool when you first start pouring it in when it starts changing colors. Did my conversion last year and couldn't be happier. You need to buy A LOT of bleach. I have an 18 x 36 IG pool and used around 75 jugs. You need to test and bump back to 15 PPM 3x a day and backwash often. Watch your filter pressure. It took me about 4 days to convert, and my water is simply amazingly clear now, with no algae. Good luck, and post any questions you have. Keep us updated. I posted pics of my conversion from start to finish if you want to see what you are getting ready to face. Look on the first page of this thread.

Voldaddy - your thread is one of the reasons I pushed my hubby to do the conversion.

I plan on taking lots of pictures. Although I warn you, the area around the pool is not pretty. We plan on putting a full wrap around deck up, so right now we are in the process of backfilling.

18X38 AGP 52 inch wall with a 6 1/2 foot deep end

With all the backwashing that needs to be done, did you add back any water??

Hi Lizzie...I just read your question to me over in my thread.

I did run the filter 24/7 throughout the conversion and I backwashed and cleaned out the skimmer basket everytime I added bleach (up to 6 times a day). The nylon sock over the skimmer basket saved a lot of goop going through the filter. We ended up using over 80 gal of bleach (20,000 gal IG). I found a good deal at Sam's club - 3 nice 1.4 gal jugs in sturdy box. I think it was $6 and change per case - but also convenient. The process took us 11 days...but was well worth it.

Feel free to fire more questions, and hopefully, I can help...

REV

Hey Rev - I've been reading your forum as well. Glad you're finally done. 11 days scares me a bit. My kids are going to kill me when I tell them they can't swim. But, the weather here in NJ is going to be rather crappy the next couple of days, so I figured, nows the time.

I will be putting the skimmer sock on too.

I'm home so I'll be testing and adding bleach every couple of hours. Hopefully that will speed the process along.

Wish me luck.

I can't wait really. I'm tired of looking at a cloudy pool.

It may not take your conversion 11 days. The more often you test and the more often you add bleach, the faster it will go.

OK first 6 gallons of 6% bleach are in.

What a lovely shade of green. LOL You had to see the family out there admiring this color.

My neighbors will wake up tomorrow and wonder what the heck happened.

Oh yes, tried to get the leslie's test kit, as I can't wait for Ben's but Leslie's was closed. I was only left with the HTH 6 way test from Walmart. I will go to Leslies tomorrow and purchase the right kit.

So - when I check tomorrow, it will check for TC not Free Chlorine. How do I know how much bleach to put in

Off we go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Use the bleach calc at this link, based on your gallonage and strength of bleach...

http://www.hal-pc.org/~mwsmith2/BleachCalc262.exe

Each time you test, add whatever amount it takes to get back up to 12-15 ppm.

Janet

Well we added 7 jugs of 6% at 7:30

Tested at 11:30 and the TC didn't even register .5 which we expected, after reading many of the conversion threads.

Added another 7 jugs based on the bleach calculator.

Will test again in the morning

I'm so pysched. Can't wait to see crystal clear water finally

7:00 am Results

TC 1.0
PH 7.5

Pouring rain and windy, so I was being quick and didn't test for alkalinity.

Poured another 7 Jugs of 6% per calculator.

Pump pressure increased about 4 PSI overnight
Water in pump and skimmer not orange, but same pea green color as pool.

Will run out this morning buy some more bleach. I plan on checking and adding every 2 hours

This walmart kit tests CL to 5.0. is it when it goes higher that I will have to dilute or buy the new kit?? Are the CL readings I'm getting now good, since they are still low enough to register??

Thanks guys.

I'm starting to get nervous and want to make sure this is going the right way.

Hang in there, and backwash as necessary. You aren't the first person to get cold feet once the water started doing weird stuff--but the fact that your Cl keeps dropping means you're making progress. Go back and read some of the other conversion stories to remind you why you did this in the first place!! I promise you'll be glad you did.

You will have to dilute your water when testing higher than 5 with the WalMart kit, and yes the Cl readings are accurate, but keep it up there at shock level!



Janet

Thanks Aylad

Trust me, I re-read those conversion threads over and over.

With the exception of overnight last night (my last read was at 11:30) I plan on testing every 2 hours. Should I test as soon as I put the bleach in as well, to make sure I'm going up to 15 ppm?? Or is on the 2 hour mark sufficient. It's amazing that the chlorine level could drop so much in such a short period of time.

Then again, not sure what my Baq level was. I got so disgusted, that we went ahead and did it and didn't wait for a low baq level.

10 :29 am

Cl 2.0
PH 7.8

Looks like my PH is climbing a bit. Anything to be worried about???

Will be dropping 5 gallons of bleach per the calculator.

Also pump pressure went up 10 psi - so I've backwashed.

Pool is pea green and cloudy. - no clearing yet

I feel like a chemist. This is cool!!

2:00 pm

CL 1.0
PH 7.5

Off we go to the bleach calc.

Pool is still very green and can't see bottom at all anywhere.

6:00 PM

Sorry if I'm posting too much, but seeing it also helps me and I'm hoping someone will tell me this is normal.

Seems every time I check it's another 6 0r 7 jugs of 6%. I'm checking every 3 1/2 hours.

Does that make sense.

readings this time were

Cl 2.0
PH 7.5

I'm seeing lots of bubbles, so maybe thats a good sign. What I'm not seeing is lots of stuff floating. Is that a bad thing??

Boy I hope someone comes along and confirms that everything seems ok. I keep adding 6 jugs of bleach per the bleach calc and 3 hours later I'm always back down to 2.0 CL.

11:30 tonight will be the first full day of this conversion process.

Would I know if I wasn't getting to 15.0 at all??

I'm starting to get nervous

You are doing fine. Use the bleach calculator to help you determine how much bleach to add to get to 15. It will take a lot of bleach to do the conversion, but it will work. Don't give up!

Watermom = thanks for the reassurance

Was just outside. Did my testing and CL was 5.0. That's the highest it's stayed so maybe we are making progress.

Have to go out and buy some more bleach today. Been through 52 jugs already. WOW

Also, the color didn't turn so much when I added the bleach this time, so I guess that's progress.

So I think we're making progress.

It's taking only 4 jugs instead of 6 or 7 now. I'm checking every 2 hours.

Also - while the water is still a murky cloudy green, it looks like the green is separating from the water. Does that make sense???

When I look in the pool, I see some clarity and what looks like particles floating throughout.

Someone please tell me, this is normal

Keep going, you're doing fine! Just keep an eye on your filter and backwash it as necessary--once the Baq starts coming out, it may gum your filter up pretty quickly.

Janet

Thanks Janet!!

So for the last two days all the bleach I've put in has basically gone to breaking down the baq. Is that the separation I'm seeing??

I've already gone through about 69 jugs of 6% bleach.

Funny thing is I may have the guy at Aldi's convinced to switch too. LOL:D

Yup, you're breaking down the Baq so it can be filtered out and removed from the pool. You'll see that once your water starts improving, you'll have to add less and less chlorine. And when it doesn't drop overnight, you'll know you're done! (Except for changing your filter media, which you will have to do to get the rest of the Baq out of your pool)

Janet

Woo Hoo!!!!!!!!!!!

I've noticed that I've gone from dumping 7-8 jugs to 3-4. That makes me happy.

I should have really overexaggerated the estimate of how many jugs of bleach we'd need. Had I done that, I wouldn't have to listen to hubby say "I though you said 80 jugs, it's going to be double that". :mad:

Lizzie...sounds like you're doing great. I used 80 gals of bleach...each jug was 1.42 gal each. I never expected to need that much because my Baquacil levels were low at the time of conversion.

Keep up the good work and soon you'll start to see the water clearing even more.......

REV

Rev - thanks for the encouragement. I could use it. This is such a daunting and scary thing to do.

My kids are mad because they can't swim. They would have complained that the water was too cool for them, mind you. However, now that it warmed up a bit outside, the good news for them is : Not only do they get a nice sparkling crystal clear pool to swim in, but it's also now at 84 degrees.

I can't believe it

I'm starting to see the bottom of the pool. It's still looking green, especially in the center, but it's gone from the mucky green pea soup to that lime green gatorade.

the only thing that worries me is that the pressure on my pump really hasn't risen much this whole time. I've backwashed it when needed, but I got the impression the pump was constantly going to be rising.

Is something wrong there?

woo hoo!!
Pool is looking very much clearer. I can see the bottom most of the way around. Can't see the deep end, but I guess we'll get there.

The kids are pretty anxious about when they can swim again. This is killing them.

It still has a green tint to it. Looking like that lime gatorade.

Please oh Please, don't let it be too much longer. We're going on day 4, so I guess I shouldn't complain, but try telling that to a 7 and 5 year old.

Lizzie,

Hang in there, you will have a pristine pool in no time. Keep hammering the bleach to get it to 15 ppm, Look at the bottom of your pool. Is there any gunk there? If so, vac to waste. All it is doing is consuming bleach. Keep backwashing the filter too. I would backwash even when I thought I didn't need to and the water was still green when it came out. You are in the home stretch, keep us updated. It seemed like once mine started clearing it was crystal clear in 2 days. Good luck!

There is some stuff settled at the bottom. I hear that term alot. Vaccuum to waste. I've never done that. How do you do it??? Stupid question, I know. LOL

Thanks

Switch the handle to waste and when you vac water will shoot out the backwash hose bypassing the filter.

Thanks Bowlin!!

OH HAPPY DAY!!!!!!!!

6:30 am today July 2, 2006

Went out to check my pool and the water is pristine!!!!!!!!! Clear!!!!!!!! and Sparkling!!!!!!!!!!!

Green tint is gone!!!!!!!!

Chlorine held at 15 overnight

I think I'm going to cry tears of happiness.

Hubby is vacuuming some gunk on the bottom. It looks just beautiful.
My pool hasn't looked this great since the 2nd week we went onto Baquacrap.

Thank you so much to all of you. This website is a wealth of information and everyone is so helpful.

CL 15.0
PH 7.2
Alk 120
Calcium Hardness First color never reacted to red, So does that mean I have none

CYA - dot never disappeared.

Is it time to add stabilizer??? What do I get??
Can my boys swim???? I hope so since it's going to be 93 degrees for the next couple of days

I will post pics when I figure out how to on here!!

Congratulations! Aren't you glad you did it? Try the calcium hardness test again. If the first color never reacted to red, it probably means your water is very hard.

Not quite ready to add cya yet. First you need to change the sand in your filter as that baquajunk really gums it up. After that, then you can add cya (stabilizer). You can usually buy it at Walmart, Lowe's or Home Depot. If not, get it from a pool store. It may be called stabilizer or conditioner. If the ingredients say cyanuric or isocyanuric acid, it is what you want. Add enough per label directions to get to an initial reading of about 30. Add it directly to the skimmer while the pump is running, and then don't retest for it, add more or backwash your filter for a week to give it enough time to dissolve completely. (Don't broadcast it across the pool like some directions tell you to.)

Most importantly, YES TO SWIMMING! But, wear old suits. Cl of 15 with no cya may do some fading of swimsuits. Let your cl drift down and for now maintain it between 3-5. You may find that until your cya dissolves, that you have to test and add bleach morning and evening to keep cl in there. After it starts to dissolve, you should be able to just test and dose it in the evenings. Keep an eye on your ph. It is OK at 7.2 but if it goes any lower, you'll need to add some Borax and bring it back up to 7.4 -7.6

Have fun. Post some pics for us to see.

Watermom - Thanks so much!! I was so excited to see your reply.

OK so will wait for the stabilizer until the sand change. I think hubby is planning on that for tomorrow.

Is the stabilizer liquid or powder? I'm confused. You also said to add it directly to the skimmer. I've read about putting it in a sock and putting that in the skimmer. Which is the best way to go?? Also, is it a white sport sock??

One more question:

I've been running my filter 24/7 over the 4 days the conversion took. Do I need to continue that, or can I drop the hours down. Also, what do you recommend as optimal filtering.

We have a Jacuzzi 2 HP Zeosand filter

CYA is a powder. I always add mine directly to the skimmer, others put it in a sock and hang it in front of a return jet. Either way is fine. A white sport sock will work if you decide to do it that way. You can probably drop your filtering back to 10-12 hours per day.

Lizzie- congrats on the beautiful pool! You will be forever grateful that you switched from Baquacil. It is so simple to maintain a pristine pool with the BBB method. Like Watermom said, change your sand. It will be pretty nasty. I put my CYA in an old pair of my wifes hose and tie it to the ladder in the deep end of the pool, right beside a jet. This way, I know how much has dissolved and how much is left. All of the information needed is on the bleach calc. Now go enjoy the fruits of your labor!


P.S. Is it not AMAZING how much clearer your water is?? I can see my bottom drain plain as day. On Baquacil, there was a foggy looking haze in the water, and the water smelled funny.