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Thread: Success with Baquacil so far

  1. #11
    duraleigh Guest

    Default Re: Success with Baquacil so far (EXCEPT THAT...)

    Yeah, somethings up with your water. You should not have that unpleasant experience. Go to another pool store that will give you (not test strips) good test results for FC, CC, pH, Alk. Those results posted here may give a clue. Keep reading the "baq" forum.....lot's of really happy (and richer) people there that have swithched to chlorine.

  2. #12
    CarlD's Avatar
    CarlD is offline SuperMod Emeritus Vortex Adjuster CarlD 4 stars CarlD 4 stars CarlD 4 stars CarlD 4 stars CarlD 4 stars CarlD 4 stars
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    Default Re: Success with Baquacil so far

    If you are having a burning sensation, bad taste, foaming, skin irritation, BAD throat irritation, then you are NOT having success with Bacquacil.

    Something is very, VERY wrong with your water and I would strongly advise you not to swim in your pool until it is cleared up.

    Your pH may be badly out of balance, or something is not being metabolized.

    I just got chills thinking about you swimming in it.

    Yeah, chlorine is easy. Once you have everything balanced, if you dump a gallon, more or less, depending on your pool, every other day.

    When/if we go away, I find the EASIEST instructions I can give to anyone watching my pool is to dump in 1 gallon of bleach into the skimmer every other day. I come home to a perfect pool everytime, even after two weeks. How much easier can maintenance be than that?

    (I DO tell them to turn on the hose if the water level is low, too. And I have an automatic overflow to keep it from getting too full.)
    Carl

  3. #13
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    Default Re: Success with Baquacil so far

    we also had a bad smell/taste and burning red eyes, which is another reason we switched to the BBB method. Our pool store said the same thing, the water was in balance. We never did find out what it was.

  4. #14
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    Default Re: Success with Baquacil so far

    What is the level of your peroxide (shock) to much of that is can give you those symptoms.


    Chris

  5. #15
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    Default Re: Success with Baquacil so far (but still learning!)

    So first I say that I'm having good success with Baq, except for a couple of bumps with water mold.

    Then I admit that my water - sparkling clean and beautiful as can possibly be - irritates our eyes and noses

    So I go to my normal pool store - they test the water, it is perfect. No answers, no help, no interest. I go to the OTHER pool store - Central Iowa Pool and Spa in Des Moines, they test the water, it is perfect. But they try harder - they call the manufacturer, but still no ideas. But they have three people working on this problem and they aren't going to rest until they figure this one out. I ask if others are going through shock (hydrogen peroxide) this season. She nods, and asks if I am. I tell her no, I haven't put any in this season, because I put a lot in in the fall and when the store tested the water when I opened, I didn't need to add any. As of now, I am still very good, according to ALL of the tests (two pool stores, plus two separate test kits that I own).

    Her face lights up; she tells me to add the shock anyway. I go home and add two gallons of shock. This AM, the bad taste is mostly gone and no one gets irritated eyes. Tonight, the taste is all gone - the water tastes just like my tap water, and we have only very slight irritation, which could be due to the fact that my pH is slightly to the high side.

    Lesson? If bad taste and irritated eyes, add shock immediately and IGNORE the test results. But if this is the case, then what is the value of the tests anyway???

    Which also causes me to wonder - if the tests show that there is enough but the tests are wrong - then is that possibly the reason that so many folks have problems with Baquacil? Typically, I have always keep my shock much higher than the tests call for - and typically, I don't have the problems that others report.

    I'm not a chemistry guy, but I thought I remember that when H2O2 decomposes, it breaks down essentially into water. I'm not sure what the test kits are measuring, but it appears that they are measuring some element of the shock that is essentially ineffective as an oxidizer. But is H202 still H202 if it isn't effective anymore?

  6. #16
    waterbear's Avatar
    waterbear is offline Lifetime Member Sniggle Mechanic waterbear 4 stars waterbear 4 stars waterbear 4 stars waterbear 4 stars
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    Default Re: Success with Baquacil so far

    First I want to say that I am only a little familiar with biguanide chemistry but I suspect a few things...Have you been putting in the algaecide? Linerar quats are the only kind of algaecide that can be used with biguanide and they can cause all the symptoms that you describe. Linear quats are also destroyed by oxidizers, whether chlorine, MPS, H2O2, or sodium percarbonate. H2O2 does decompose to water and oxygen but you have to realize that you are dosing your pool wil H2O2 that is as concentrated as the stuff used for rocket fuel! I don't know how your pool store is testing for it but if they are using a drop based kit for H2O2 such as one from Taylor (K-1725) then the results should be accurate. If they are not then who knows what they are measuring!
    Retired pool store and commercial pool maintenance guy.

  7. #17
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    Default Re: Success with Baquacil so far (hydrogen peroxide tests)

    Quote Originally Posted by waterbear
    ...Have you been putting in the algaecide?

    ...I don't know how your pool store is testing for it but if they are using a drop based kit for H2O2 such as one from Taylor (K-1725) then the results should be accurate.
    I put the algaecide in each week as normal.

    I don't know what each of the pool stores uses for test kits, but here are the shock level results from all 4 of the tests:
    - My LaMott test kit: 150 (drops-based)
    - My Taylor test kit: 35 (drops-based)
    - First pool store: 127
    - second pool store: 45

    There seems to be two different methods for calculating hydrogen peroxide shock level. Still, all tests agreed that the shock level was adequate.

  8. #18
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    Default Re: Success with Baquacil so far

    "DO have an interesting issue though, that I've not been able to figure out - but I assume these symptoms are related.

    1. We have a strange metallic / somewhat bitter / slightly nasty taste in the water.
    2. All of our eyes are irritated after 15-30 minutes of swimming in the water (blood-shot eyes, stinging sensation).
    3. Our throats and sinuses are irritated if we accidentally inhale choke on the water. Also, I smell the strange smell /taste of the water in my nose and sinuses for several hours after I swim. Last night, I got water up my nose; the burning in my throat and sinuses was so unpleasant, I almost quit right then and there, except that I was too miserable to do anything for several minutes."

    Hi Baq-n-ia,

    We've been running baqacil for 3 years now and for the most part its been staying clear also but we also get the same symptoms, bad taste, eye irritation after 1/2 hour. Our pool is an 18' round with a dome cover so it says pretty clean as far as debris goes. I've only been adding the 1/2 gallon sanitizer and algistat when the water starts getting some algae forming as I thought the taste was from too much of this stuff. Also adding the gallon of oxidizer about once a month. I confess I don't maintain it much. The chemical test strips are very inaccurate as they have a limited shelf live and the local pool's test results vary way too much for me to have any confidence in their results.

    I read in your later posts about adding shock which cleared up the taste and burning eyes. This was the issue that brought me here as I was consideriing switching to chlorine. Can you tell me what the name of it is and where it can be purchased?

    Btw - I haven't changed my sand at all but did run a bottle of sand cleaner through the filter a year or two ago. Also, when the pool gets hazy, a capful of flucculant helps bind the smaller particles so the filter can remove it.

    Patrick

  9. #19
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    Default Re: Success with Baquacil so far

    Interesting how the pool stores all claim what a rough summer it's been.

    I use SoftSwim and the amount of money I've spent on C, the hydrogen peroxide, has been craxy. For a 15000 gallon pool, they tell you about 2 gallons a month and I've been pouring in 2 gallons a week.

    The store was out this weekend and one of the boys came out of the pool with such red eyes, I felt bad for him. I drove almost 50 miles to get some more to add before the weekend was out.

    With a month and a half left in the season, I'm just going to ride it out and think about making a switch for next season.

    They said it was a little more expensive, but this is crazy.

  10. #20
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    Default Re: Success with Baquacil so far (EXCEPT THAT...)

    I think the ordor/taste/faom issue is likely due to too much algecide. I notice the same things right after adding the algecides (standard and performance). Since the agecide is added on a weekly basis, the levels may be building up too high.

    I noticed that when I kept my H2O2 levels high I could not maintain a good sanatizer level without great expense. I believe the H2O2 decomposes the sanatizer.

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