It's my turn to convert...

[JayC]

Good morning all -

Here's an update:

At about 6:00A today, I woke up and checked the pool. It dropped about 6 or 7 ppm FC overnight, so I dosed it with another gallon of 12.5% Cl.

My DE filter also was almost completely plugged, so I took it apart to clean it. There was a brown mud-like substance which I can assume is the used up Baq covering the grids. A few blasts with the hose knocked most of it off, so I reloaded it up with DE and put it back into service. I'm back down to 13-15psi which is where the thing usually runs at.

Pool color wise, it's starting to lighten! I can't really give you a good color reference as I'm totally color blind, and have to rely on my wife and kids to help with that. I do know that my eldest daughter can read a FC color chart now, as just she and I are awake now.

I'll recheck the pool around 8:30AM today, and post again then.

Thanks!

jay

[JayC]

1:30PM here...

I checked and added 1 gallon of 12.5% bleach at 10, 11:30 and now again at 1:30p. Each time I had a residual level of Cl around 6-9ppm.

The pool is beginning to clear now, and I can see all sorts of muck at the bottom I'll need to clean out once the water clears up totally. I have a feeling I'm almost done, which is exciting becaue I've only been at this for around 24 hours so far.

My filter now sits still at 15-18psi. and I continue to bump and swish it every 15-30 mins or so, just because I can.

Thanks!

Jay

[JayC]

My pool is now clear - and I'm holding off on more Cl until tonite. I know I need to change the DE and winterize it - but my water is clear. It's not 100%, but it's already better than the best it was on Baq!

I'll shock it to 15ppm tonite and see if it holds tomorrow!

Jay

[Watermom]

Wow! That was quick. Just goes to show what persistence can do for you.
Your statement -- "It's already better than the best it was on Baq." is amazing. And, think of the amount of money you spent on 'baquayuck' as compared to what you will spend to maintain it with BBB. Congrats!

[JayC]

Thanks Watermom! I did my research here last year while I was deciding to convert when I opened this year.

I have learned a few things, and once I'm sure I'm done, I'll certainly post what I have found. Persistance is key, but also, at least in my opinion, is prep work for the conversion.

Thanks!

jay

[Watermom]

I agree that researching things before you jump in is crucial and I'm glad you did your homework by reading here on the forum. Lots of good info here. Writing about what you learned through your conversion experience would be a great addition to this baq forum and would help other people just as some of the previous posts helped you. Again, congrats and enjoy your pool!

[JayC]

Holy cow.

So my son woke up this morning with an athsma attack at 4:30A. (That's not the holy cow part, keep reading... ) After his breathing treatment, I got him back to bed and after having the first of I can tell many cups of coffee this morning, I decided that since it just became light out, I'd test my pool.

I have a residual Cl level of as close to 12ish ppm as I can tell (daughter's eyes here - she's an early riser), which is exactly what it was last night at about 8:30pm when I added in my last shock dose. I think this means I'm actually done! I'll head to the pool store today and get another sample tested there for Alk, Calcium, Cl, and such, and then head to Walmart to get the supplies. I may even start heating my pool today so that tomorrow, when it's supposed to be about 86 degrees, we can go swimming!

As promised - here are my lesson's learned from my conversion.

I need to preface this by saying I'm NO EXPERT in this. This is just the way I went about my own conversion, and your mileage may vary. But, I followed these steps and converted an 18x38x52" pool in just over 24 hours. And my water has never looked clearer, nor cleaner.

1. Research! I must have read through every PHMB to Cl post there was on this forum (and other ones), and took notes of colors, amounts of Cl used, and anything else that I could find in the posts. I discussed all of these with my wife, especially the color changes, as I can't see colors at all.

2. Test your water before you start, use a pool store if you have to. I took 2 samples, on 2 different days to the store to find out where I was, and got an invalid reading once on the Baq level. If the level on test 2 seems to be of, ask for a restest with a different compter and lot # for the reagents. Turned out I started with a small amount of Baq in the pool, and a small amount of peroxide. I can attribute this to 2 things. I made the decision last year to convert, and closed with 'less' than the normal amount of Baq and Shock added to the pool. This gives you a starting point, and will could allow you to track progress.

3. (My own one here!!) Give the residual Baq and Shock somthing to munch on. I store my pool furnature and steps outdoors, and they were a little icky from the long NE winter. I tossed them all into the pool overnight on the night before I started after I hosed them off... Since I knew we were going to shock the crud out of the pool during the Cl conversion process, I figured I had nothing to loose. turns out, I went from Baq level of 12 down to 2 overnight. I figured if I let the Baq and shock do their job and get used up, I'd be farther forward. And I removed them all before starting the conversion.

4. Get a drop based test kit, and plan on using it ALOT. Once I started the conversion, I tested literally every hour to two hours, and kept track of my results. I went thru 12 tests the first day.

5. Shock, with Liquid Bleach, and do whatever it takes to hold the Cl at around 12ppm to 15ppm. I had found in the research that this seems to be the level that works the fastest, and doesn't damage liners. This meant adding Cl to the pool every hour to two hours in the beginning, and then adding in smaller amounts as the rest of the Baq and such got zapped.

6. Plan on multiple DE changes, and make sure you have DE around. Bumping and swishing worked in the way beginning, and towards the, but I did need to open up the filter and hose off the grids after running the filter overnight.

7. Filter continuously. This helps get the icky stuff out of the water.

8. Brush the sides, and bottom of the pool every few hours. I tended to do this about 30 mins after I added in a dose of Cl. Took me all of 10 minutes each time, and each time I stired up a lot of gunk on the bottom for the filter to get rid of.

9. Vac to waste when possible, but watch the pool level. Before conversion, I purposely overfilled the pool to almost the top of the skimmer. This allowed me to vac to waste without having to add in more water. I did have to use my mesh skimmer thingy (whatever you call it) to get debris off the top of the water until the level came down, but I was about to lower the level by vac'ing to waste anyway.

10. Be sure of your volume!!! CarlD helped me understand exactly how much water was in the pool - and yes, I actually measured depth with a tape measure. The pool store said I had close to 20k gallons, when I'm closer to 18.5K. All that does for them is make me use more chemicals. It allowed me to dose effectively, or at least moreso then if I were to just use thier numbers.

11. Be dilligent! I decided this weekend for the conversion because I knew I'd be home. And told the family that's what the deal was, so leaving yardwork every hour or so to test was acceptable. (And yes, I still got the lawn mowed and 5 yards of bark mulch moved too during the process!)

12. Keep a close eye on filter pressure! Bump and swich, or clean when you need to. And also, when you don't need to.

In total, I used 13 gallons of 12.5% bleach. That's like 26 gallons on regular bleach I believe.

If you're thinking of making the switch, all I can tell you is that if you remain vigilant, and fight the battle with all your might (evil Baq monster there!), you will win, and it won't take forever.

Thanks for reading this long post.... Now, I'm off the to Cl forum to ask how one goes about managing a Cl pool!

Jay
jayc(atsigngoeshere)rennlist(dot)net