Alternatives to Bleach during end of Conversion

[CarlD]

Sorry, Carl. My assumption was that people are putting energy into lowering TA when the water is clear, such as been my experience with high TA, never having experienced a cloudy pool because of it. For those with high TA whose pool clouds up, to be sure no one wants to look at or swim in a milky pool!

Well, naturally prevention is better than fixing. But if your T/A is (say) 160ppm and your calcium is 200ppm and you have a vinyl pool there is NO reason to lower your T/A.

[bcb1]

There really is no magic secret or special formula to doing the baquacil conversion. Just patience, lots of chlorine, and lots of backwashing your filter.

For some folks with pretty low levels of baquacil to begin with, the conversion only takes a couple days and is very easy. Mine was like this, so I really lucked out. I hit it with about 5 pounds of Cal Hypo the first night, backwashed my sand filter a few times the next day, hit it again with a few more pounds of cal hypo the next day, and by the 2nd evening the water was virtually clear. 3rd day it was totally clear.

That being said, it's not unusual for a baquacil conversion to take several days or even a week until the water is clear. Don't give up, just stick to the basics: keep your chlorine level up to 10-15ppm during the entire process. Backwash your filter often. And as soon as the water is clear - or even close to being clear, CHANGE YOUR SAND, if you have a sand filter.

[chem geek]

Carl,

One minor comment regarding a high TA. You are right that there is no reason to lower a high TA if the CH is reasonably low in a vinyl pool in terms of calcium carbonate saturation (i.e. the saturation index), but there might be a reason to lower it if the pool is experiencing a rising pH problem requiring frequent additions of acid. Lowering the TA will help in that case. This is especially true for pools with more aeration (fountains, waterfalls, spillovers or an SWG).

Richard

[CarlD]

Carl,

One minor comment regarding a high TA. You are right that there is no reason to lower a high TA if the CH is reasonably low in a vinyl pool in terms of calcium carbonate saturation (i.e. the saturation index), but there might be a reason to lower it if the pool is experiencing a rising pH problem requiring frequent additions of acid. Lowering the TA will help in that case. This is especially true for pools with more aeration (fountains, waterfalls, spillovers or an SWG).

Richard

Absolutely, Richard.
You are correct in both points:

1) If pH is constantly rising, then lower T/A to the 80-90 range to see if that stops it.

2) If pH is NOT a problem, then vinyl pools can safely allow T/A up to 180ppm (200ppm is the actually theoretical limit, but 180 gives you a buffer zone).

[chem geek]

Carl,

Please see this thread/post for a geeky question regarding the above discussion.

Richard