Baquacil to Chlorine conversion speed

[mbar]

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.

[CAPTCHEMCL]

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.

[tmbier]

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.

[haze_1956]

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.

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.