Baquacil to Chlorine - something wrong

[mbar]

Double what Dave said. They had you raise your alkalinity to 180, and it should be between 80 - 120. Just keep adding bleach, and backwash, and vacuum to waste.

[VOLDADDY]

Check out these pictures Voldaddy posted, it will help you to see how it can be accomplished. Thanks Voldaddy for posting them!

http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthread.php?t=308

Marie,

I'm only too glad to re-post them. I love my pool now that I have converted to bleach. The pitch baquacil uses about less time maintaining your pool and more time enjoying it is a load of crap. I was constantly fighting algae and spending money to fight it. I spend about 1 hour a week on my pool now, from testing, adding bleach, and throwing in the Aquabot. If you are thinking about switching, trust me, do it. Good luck!

[SwiminNJ]

hey all,

well here is the update.

Today the pool is clear (not quite the right color yet) but looks like it is about there. I no longer have a greenish color in the water. I backwashed this morning and again this evening. Here is my question.

How will I know all of the baquacil is out?

Here are my numbers:

CL =7
PH 7.0
Alk - 170
Cal Hardness 70

CYA 36


Thanks for all of your help so far.

[mbar]

When you start to hold the chlorine, and your water is clear. You need to put some borax in to get your ph to 7.2, and add mor bleach to take it back to 18. If you have pucks in your chlorinator it is what is bringing down your ph.

[SwiminNJ]

marie,

thanks for the info. I will do that. Once the chlorine level gets that high, how long does it take to burn it off to a normal level for swimming? I am assuming that at those levels you cannot be in the water.

[mbar]

Once it holds the chlorine overnight, and you have no combined chlorine you can stop adding more, it won't take long to get back to normal levels. It is safe to swim at chlorine levels that high - you may notice your skin may be a little dryer, and you may want to wear an old swim suit, but the level of chlorine is not dangerous to swim in.

[b2001]

Your question:

How will I know all of the baquacil is out?

and your previous statement:

i backwashed the sand filter and it was dark orange when it came out.

I had to continuously - 2 to 3 times a day - wash my cartridge filter and skimmer basket sock for about 2 or so days after my water cleared and I has holding the chlorine level overnight for my conversion. They both were still getting dark orange from baquacil. So it took a little longer for the residual baquacil to clear out. They both have cleared up nicely now - so give it a couple of more days for it to get filtered out unless your backwash is looking nice and clear now ...

[SwiminNJ]

Hey All,

Thanks so much for your help. It looks like all of the baquacil is out. I added 4 more gallons of 6% bleach this morning. When I got home from work the pool was crystal clear and clean. I backwashed and it was just about crystal clear also. Here are my current numbers.

CL - 8
FC-8
CC- 0

PH 7.0
Alk 150

Cal Hardness 70

CYA - 40

What now?

Am I finished loading up with bleach? Do I let the CL levels settle before working on raising the PH?

Thanks for any help.

[mbar]

You should still add bleach, because you used up 4 gal of bleach in one day, right? Yesterday you had cl at 7, this morining you added 4 gal of bleach, and now you have cl at 8. Keep adding bleach, your water is beautiful and you want to keep it that way. Take a cl reading at night after the sun goes down, then early in the morning. You can stop adding bleach when the numbers are the same, in other words you are holding the chlorine. You can add 2 cups of borax, and wait at least 2 hours and test again. Bring your ph up to 7.2. You should be proud of yourself - you did it!! All of your other numbers are good. Your alk is a little high, but ok, and if you have any cal hypo shock you could use that to bring up your chlorine because your calcium is low - They say you don't need calcium in a fiberglass pool, but I like to keep mine around 125 because I have a heater, and some other things I've read abuot fiberglass pools.

[mjones]

What are these bags of "restart" you refer too?
My baq shock is 51, after almost a month of cl adding.