It's my turn to convert...

[JayC]

Hello all! I've been mainly a lurker here reading the trials and tribulations of everyone else, but I decided to make the switch to Chlorine from Baquacil and began the process yest...

My pool: 18x38 above ground, 52" deep with a DE filter, on Baquacil for 5 or 6 years. First year or two went very well, and then all heck broke loose with blooms of mustard yearly, not to mention a large chunk of my paycheck leaving quickly to fight it with more shock and sanitizer.

My pool store has always been moderatly helpful at times, though at other times downright mean, and running the above pool with Baquacil has always cost me an arm and a leg and I constantly fight cloudy water and blooms in July/August. It's time.

The gents at the pool store, when I told them last night I was about to convert, tested my water for me and my results are:

Baq - 12
pH - 7.0
Baq Oxidizer - 7

(I know the rest doesn't matter just yet...)

My question is that they told me to add into my pool 8 pounds of Target Shock and Swim, and let that circulate for 24-48 hours and retest after that which will, in their words, get rid of the leftover Baq before I start shocking 2 times a day with a gallon and a third of shock (12.5% Cl).

Does anyone have any thoughts or experience on this? With the long weekend coming up and hopefully me being about to leave work a little early, I can do whatever I need to the pool easily for almost 3-4 days straight. And I have no issues waking up in the middle of the night to check a FC level too. I'm so done with Baquacil, it's not even funny.

Also, the they tell me my pool has 20,000 gallons. If I use BleachCalc (and thanks to whomever wrote it!) it tells me I have just shy over 17.5 gallons.

18x38x52" deep oval.

I dunno..... The volume is essential to calculating how much Cl to add in, no? I prefer to trust the math, rather than the store...

Thanks in advance for any help, tips, and such! I look forward to a clear pool this year, for the first time years!

Jay

[CarlD]

Volume: You have an 18'x38' pool 52" high--I'm guessing the water is 4' deep--4" from the edge to the water.

An oval is really a rectangle and a circle, but the circle's split in half and at each end of the rectangle. You KNOW it's an 18' diameter circle because that's the width of the pool.
Subtract 9' feet from each end (18' overall) and the you are left with a rectangle in the middle that 20' long (38-18) and 18 feet wide.

Area of a circle: Pi*r squared. R is 9' Pi is 3.1416. so... 81*3.1416 = 254 square feet.

Area of a rectangle L*W or 20*18=360 square feet.


Volume: (254 + 360) * 4 = 2456 cubic feet.

One cubic foot = 7.48 gallons so....2456*7.48 =18,371 gallons .

Figure this could be anything between 18,000 and 18,500 depending on EXACTLY how high the water is, and how precisely an 18*38 oval it is.

Using either 18000 or 18500 for your chlorine calculations isn't going to make any difference at all so use whichever you prefer.

[JayC]

Carl - now see, this is why I come here rather than the pool store. I always get a 'trust me' there, and they don't back it up with data.

Many thanks for taking the time!

jay

[Watermom]

Don't know what is in Target Shock and Swim, but I would bet that it is probably costly. At any rate, you don't have to have it. Most people just start there conversion with dumping bleach in and then they are on their way. Be prepared. It will turn all kinds of lovely shades of green along the way, but you'll get there. The more often you dose it with bleach, the faster your conversion will go. Read through the other threads in this forum about other people's experiences with their conversions. Good luck. You'll be glad you switched!

[JayC]

A small update - I've decided to go ahead and start the shock process, in a few minutes actually. So here goes nothing!

But, an interesting occurance. I went back over to the Pool Store, and had my water tested one more time, more to see what they'd say then anything else.

According to them:

Baq: 32
pH: 6.9
Baq Oxi: 12

When I asked them how that was possible, as it was 12, 7.0 and 7 yest, the student behind the counter said he'd try another computer and lot of test kits. Once he did that, my Baq level read at a 2. The dip strips I have here that I'm about to toss said I'm extremely low too on the dreaded Baq, so my hopes are that I'm not too far away from a clear pool running on Cl.

I'm about to add 2.2 gallons of super shock (12.5%) to the pool, and hopefully start seeing pretty colors. (18500 gallons to 15ppm per bleachcalc).

Wish me luck!

Jay

[CarlD]

Good Luck!

For you, figuring the gallons had only ONE thing you didn't know from Middle School geometry--7.48 gallons per cubic foot. And I'll bet you didn't even realize you knew it all the time!

I have never done a Baq conversion. I gather it's pretty scary and you are going to use ALOT of LC on the way...but once you are there, you'll never look back.

BTW, if you have a sand filter,when your conversion is complete, dump and replace your sand. It's one of the very, very VERY few times we recommend that.

I don't know if you can clean a cartridge after a convert or if you must replace it (OUCH!--sand is CHEAP, so replacement doesn't hurt)

But of course you should be able to clean a DE filter's screens and/or fingers.

[JayC]

Ok... I have a feeling I'm going to post often here.

About 4 hours into the conversion at this point, and I've been bumping the DE filter every 15 minutes or so. Flow isn't too low, but I figure it can't hurt knowing I need to change the DE anyway after I'm done.

I've used a little less than 4 gallons of 12.5% bleach at this point, and am about to go check the level again and add in more if I need to. I figure check every 2 hours or so while I'm awake, and see how that works for me.

Pool color wise - my wife says it's a light mountain dew color sorta. Not as bright a greenish as before, and I can actually see clear water next to the sides of the pool.

Thanks!

jay

[Watermom]

If you keep at it, in no time you'll have clear water.

[JayC]

Residual CL this time!!! I got a reading of 6ppm. I added 1.3 gallons of bleach.

[JayC]

Ok, so progress is happening...

Took my last reading tonite, which would be the 6th reading and Cl addition tonite. I got between 2-3ppm Free Cl which I have to multiply x 3 as I'm using 2 shot glasses distilled h2o with 1 shot glass pool water, so I added into the pool one more gal of 12.5%.

Hard to tell color of the water when it's pitch black in the backyard, but I've gone through 8 gallons of 12.5% bleach now. I also bumped my DE filter, which is now at 23psi (meaning it's a tad higher than normal and I'll clean it out tomorrow AM).

We have no plans tomorrow other than yardwork (bark mulch is arriving at some point!) and I have to mow the lawn. Other than that, every 2 hours I'll be testing and adding Cl when needed.

Am I right that I'm looking for clear water, and no more green color when I shock it? And then I'm looking for it to hold the FC levels overnight?

I'm still less funds into the conversion than I would have been starting up the pool on Baq, so I'm still thrilled and excited. Of course, they're now predicting 86 degree weather on Monday here in southern NH, I figure there's a small (very small) chance we might be able to take a dip.

Am I also correct - I need less than 10ppm before I let the wife and kids in there, once it's nice and crystal clear and a Cl pool?

Thanks again!

Jay