Help.....Im in conversion confusion

[chlorinebound]

been keepin means I have kept my chlorine up all day. My wife seems to think my slang is childish.......Oh well ,I did not think it was too bad......mesosorry

[pulmom7]

Hey guys!
I have read off and on all day. Posted on another topic about conversion and watermom responded so quickly. SO thankful for that! I want to convert... the pool, after adding baqua clarifier last night is a clear green. No kidding. The Ph is slightly low, but I have added increaser. All other levels test fine. I must admit, I got in and floated...high in the 90's today! Couldn't help myself

I am trying to hold out until opening next spring to convert. I cannot find any information anywhere about what I should do next with Baquacil. I still have clarifier, etc....but the guy around here that sells it doesn't have a clue.

Part of me wants to go grab as many cases of chlorine from Sam's as possible and go for it, but my hubby is not sure that is the way for us to go so late in the season. School starts in two weeks, so swimming season will mostly be weekends for the next 4 weeks or so before closing. We want to squeeze out what we can, even if green...if it is at least ok to be in....

Just not sure what is best............conversion time or wait?
Many thanks! And good luck to chlorine bound!

[chlorinebound]

Woke up and went to see pool. test. and its still ugly???????I tested water and Chlorine is up PH is down....I am getting very discouraged I am going to send wife to pool store to see TROLL for a complete reading.....I have to work.Did you tell me not to mess with PH yet????Untill its clear.

[CarlD]

As long as pH is above 7.0, don't worry. Otherwise, add 20 Mule Team Borax to raise it. I suspect you need to keep your pool solidly at 15ppm, and not let it drop to 10.

Your troll may sell 5 gallon carboys of 12.5% liquid chlorine. If you get one, you'll need to give him a deposit on the carboy, and buy a spigot for it while you are at it. This will allow you to add the equiv of 10 gallons of 6% bleach, and you bring the container back for an exchange.

[chlorinebound]

How much borax? TROLL doesnt sell Liquid...I have been using ultra from Wal Mart...Does alkalinity do anything at this stage....should I have a certain level????Thanks

[duraleigh]

Chlorine,

I'm pretty sure I read something Ben posted on the old forum years ago. I can only paraphrase but it went something like this:

"Remember, the condition you are trying to correct took months, sometimes years, of misinformation or neglect to get where you are. It is unrealistic to expect to resolve that condition in 24-48 hours. The methods used on this forum WILL (normally) correct your pool but you must be willing to adhere to the principles involved and exhibit a great deal of patience (POP)"

That advice is viable for literally ever single person who posts here with water issues. Keep the faith, Stay the course, Test and dose accurately (I cannot stress that enough) and your pool will clear......not as fast as you want, but as fast as it can be done.

Pooldoc, if I have only imagined that past advice, my apologies. It's something that has stuck in my brain for years and I may have totally lost track of it's origin.

[duraleigh]

Just saw your last post. Focus on chlorine. your Alk is fine. leave the borax alone for now. Read the stickys at the top of each forum. download bleachcalc.

[KatieD]

Hello Friends!

I'm a newbie who found this forum by searching on my many Baquacil problems. Due to an out of control yellow algae outbreak we're converting to chlorine using instructions from our pool company. I can already hear the groans, having been reading here for awhile now!

I have a few questions, if anyone would be kind and patient enough to go over this same ground yet again!

Ok, my pool is 25,000 in-ground vinyl. We just traded out Zeobrite for sand in our Hayward filter in hopes that the change would help with the algae problem, which it didn't, so now we're converting.

The pool company sold us a product called GLB X-change, which we broadcast into the pool and we're now on our second 3" chlorine tablet. We began this on Friday PM.

There is very little noticable change. The water was already a neon green due to the algae build-up. It's gotten a tiny bit lighter, but barely. We cannot see the bottom on the deep end and the water is fairly cloudy. The algae is still flourishing. We've been sweeping every day, and the algae is right back again.

There is no noticable change in filter pressure, although we are backwashing once a day anyway.

We haven't had the water tested again, but a baquacil test strip shows our sanitizer level to be very low, ph about 7.5 and alkalinity about 120. I know these strips to be unreliable, however. Pool company wants to test once this second tablet is dissolved, which will be tomorrow it seems.

Naturally, having read these forums, I'd like to go with bleach at this point. I'm getting the sense that we'll be at this forever if we continue with the pool co program. I'm sure though, that they won't do our water testing for us once they know we're going this on our own. I have ordered a chlorine test kit from pool solutions, but I probably need something more comprehensive, if I'm reading correctly. I'm not sure when that will arrive, I ordered on Saturday.

OK, here are my specific questions:

What pool test equipment should we have before beginning to add bleach?

Will the bleach get rid of the algae, or are we going to have to deal with that separately?

Will we need to replace the sand in our filter once the conversion is complete? The sand is right now less than one week old.

Is it safe to go in the pool during the conversion?

Thanks so much to anyone who can answer these questions!

[duraleigh]

Katie,

Switching to bleach (chlorine) will cure all your troubles at once. Yes, you'll need to change the sand again.

Email pooldoc right away and ask him to change your order to the PS234 kit....it's all you ever need for years to come.

You can probably swim in the pool during conversion if you want. It's liable to be all sorts of nasty colors for a few days and the cl level will be pretty high....I don't think I'd want to.

Read all the sticky's at the top of each forum.....that'll answer a bunch of questions for you.

Start your own thread with your next set of questions....you'll get much better response.

[KatieD]

Thanks for the feedback Dave, and I will start another thread as suggested.