Converting Baquacil to Chlorine

[tgilbert]

I have been fighting the evils of cloudy water in a Baquacil pool (24 ft. abg - 14,400 ga.) for three years and I have finally given in to attempting the conversion to a proven Chlorine pool.

I discovered this forum a couple of days ago and discovered that I am far from alone in the Baquacil woes. Reading through the post I decided that the conversion didn't look that difficult...but that I would have to be patient and wait for the water to slowly clear.

I just want to be sure that I am doing things right and in the right order. Yesterday I started adding 6% Bleach to the pool. The pool was a cloudy (gray/white) color when I began. Upon addition of the first 1.5 gallons of bleach the water did turn a dull rust or orange color and then slowly returned to the gray/white color. I have since added the same 1.5 gallon quantities twice about 12 hours in between.

How long should I expect it to take, or how may doses of bleach, before I see the water clearing? I there anything else that I should be adding to the water in the meantime that might aid the conversion?

[Poconos]

Welcome to the forum.
I moved you thread to the Baquacil forum where it will get more attention. You are on the right track. Keep adding bleach and keep the FC up to 15 I believe. You'll have to check several times a day as the chlorine will get eaten up. You didn't mention what kind of filter you have. If sand you'll have to replace the sand when the conversion is complete. Other filters??? I have no idea what to do. Someone else can chime in here.
Good Luck.
Al

[tgilbert]

Thanks for the reply. It is a sand filter and I saw numerous entries saying to change the sand but to wait until the conversion is complete. I've already purchased the sand and I am waiting for the water to clear. Any ideas how much bleach I may go through? Just curious as to whether I should go ahead and buy more.

[Poconos]

Sorry, have no idea how much bleach you'll use. You may check a pool store for higher concentratons that they sell in refillable 5 or 10 gal containers. Trick is to keep the chlorine levels high and not let it drop.
Al

[prh129]

Look for any post from mwsmith2 and you will find a BleachCalc program in his signature that you can use to figure out how much bleach you will need to raise your chlorine level. This will at least give you a ballpark estimate for how much bleach you will be using in a day. From other posts is looks like the process will take at least several days. You will also need a test kit (drops-based preferred) so that you will know your FC level. Once you put your pool info (size etc) into the program, it will tell you how much bleach is needed to raise the raise by a certain amount.

Good luck!

Peter

[tgilbert]

Thanks.....I downloaded the Bleach Calculator and it tells me that I need a little less than 4 gallons. Is the a "per day" estimate?

[aylad]

For the first few days, it's a "per addition" estimate (you really need to test and add more 2-3 times daily until you can start holding a chlorine residual), but after your pool starts holding chlorine, the demand will decrease.

Janet

[tgilbert]

At what point is it safe (recommended) to start adding Chlorine tabs to the pool?

I'm just starting Day 3 of the conversion and there is less reaction or color change at the addition of bleach to the pool but the color is still a dull rust -orange. I just checked the reading and I'm getting:

Total Hardness 150
Total Chlorine .05
FC .05
pH 7.0
Alkalinity 120
CYA 20

This is before the addition of bleach this morning. Looks like I'm off to Walmart for more bleach.

[Watermom]

Just use bleach during the conversion. And then even after, you can just use bleach for your source of chlorine and not even use the pucks if you want. That is what many of us do, me included. Bleach works well and doesn't add a bunch of unwanted stuff to the water.

Keep an eye on your ph. Don't want it to drop below 7.0 or your water becomes acidic and can damage your pool.

During your conversion, the more often you test your water and add more bleach to get back to shock levels, the faster your conversion will go.

[tgilbert]

Ideally...what ppm should I try to maintain?