Weekend Baquacil Conversion

[gwrace1]

I don't have any experience with turning back to Baquacil with Chlorine in the pool. As you know the two chemicals are not compatible. You might consider continuing on with the Chlorine conversion and selling your Baquacil products on Ebay.

[JohnT]

Thanks for such a quick reply. I am ansy!! I don't think my husband wants to convert to cl. So, what do you do when you are half way between the conversion? I have read all posts re: the conversion, but how do you turn back? We have already bought $500 worth of baq, with no return!

Sell it on ebay.

[b2001]

If you put in your CYA prior to changing your cartridge, I wouldn't put it in the skimmer. It may accumulate in the cartridge for a few days and then you'll throw it out with the cartridge.

duraliegh, well I'm pulling my cartridge out two to three times a day now to clean - unless you're saying that it will lodge in the filter, and when I throw the filter away, I loose it. If that's the case, I can wait until I get a new filter. If I'm going to loose it when I power wash the filter, then I guess I can throw it in the pool although I didn't want it to sit on the bottom. How long does it take to dissolve?

Good Job....Clorox is good stuff, huh?

Thanks, and yes it is. My neighbor is the only person that I know that never has any problems with baquacil, and spends very little for chemicals. He is very meticulous and thorough in cleaning and maintaining his pool, and that is probably a big factor. Yet, he is impressed with my results and is considering converting later this season.

I called my baq dealer, had me test for metal, none, had me test baq level, none. So, he said I would have to use chlorinating granules to clear up mess, then start back with baq. He had me put 6 lbs of granules per day for 3 days!! 1st day: Huge difference, water green not brown, cl level low, added 6 lbs. 2nd day: little bit lighter green, added 6 lbs. 3rd day: no change, cl way over 10. He said, keep on for a couple more days, but don't add until 6 ppm. It has been 4 days, cl level still above 10. I even drained about 2 feet of water, & put about 6 inches back in.

What kind of filter do you have? I have found the that keeping my cartridge filter cleaned at least a couples times a day is an important part of cleaning up a mess. there are several in this forum that have said that the filtering is the only way to remove it - the chemicals just kill it.

You note in my previous posts in this thread, but I'll repeat - I started at a baquacil level of 50, drained my pool down to 16 inches of water, refilled, baquacil was at 10 to 15 ppm. Prior to conversion, I got as much trash out as I could. My pool turned a nasty green due to algae. I started conversion - went 4 days with the same green, nasty mess. I now have 28 beach bottles in my back yard - I feel like I'm a plastic bottle recycling center. Finally, the 5th day - bingo!!! clear pool. I'm shocking for a couple more days to get all of the baquacil residual out. Again, I stepped up my filter maintenance process the last couple of days - I can't backwash - to rmove as much stuff as I could.

I am surprised that your chlorine levels are still up unless those are slow dissolving granules. At first, my chlorine went down to zero both night and day, and now holds during the night and goes down during the day due to the sun and no cya.

I can tell you what I would do - convert to chlorine. I have never gone through a rainstorm without my baquacil pool turning heavy green the next day - and I have to dump in $45 of shock. It rains two days later and I'm at the same point again. I've gone through two rainstorms the last two nights and my chlorine based pool is as clear as can be.

Either way you go, you have to eliminate one or the other, and I've never seen anyone on this forum convert from chlorine to baquacil. If I remember, baquacil's stie has information on converting from chlorine to baquacil.

Sell it on ebay

There should be no problems there except for the baquacil shock - it is considered a hazardous chemical and shipping costs are higher in accordance. I mail ordered all of my baquacil products last year except the shock because it was cheaper locally. If you've got $500 of baquacil supplies, I'm assuming that you've got a lot of shock. That was most of my costs.

[duraleigh]

b,

duraliegh, well I'm pulling my cartridge out two to three times a day now to clean - unless you're saying that it will lodge in the filter, and when I throw the filter away, I loose it. If that's the case, I can wait until I get a new filter. If I'm going to loose it when I power wash the filter, then I guess I can throw it in the pool although I didn't want it to sit on the bottom. How long does it take to dissolve?

Yep, it probably will lodge in your filter. May take as much as a week to dissolve completely.

[mjones]

Ok, I have talked my husband into converting to cl!! Now, I need help!! Are y'all using just regular bleach like from Wal-Mart? If so, how many gallons do I need to put in at a time? Also, my free cl is over the 10 on my strip. Total hardness 0-100, total cl +10, ph 6.8, alk 120. I put more algaecide in pool yesterday. I have a sand filter. I don't think that the gauge is working because when pump is off, it is still on 30-35. When on it is 50-55, & when backwashing it is 40-45. I have been using chlorinating granules that are 56% cl. I have put a total of 15-2 lb bottles in since last Friday. I am excited & scared about this conversion. I really need reassurance. My husband thinks that I am going to ruin our liner that we just spent $2300 on last summer. The people that put it in told us that if we mixed cl & baq, it would ruin it, & that cl would fade it! Anyway, should I go buy a bunch of bleach today? It has been a week since 1st shock with cl, but I haven't been keeping it really high like I have been reading about, since it has been at 10 or better all week. Also, what is cya? And, my filter has a cl feeder on it. How do I use that and how much cl should I need for summer? Do I need to buy a 5 gallon bucket of tablets($96 @ lowe's)?
Thank you all sooo much for all the great help!!

[Guppy]

My pool was the same size w/ vinyl liner at my conversion four years ago as your pool. During conversion I used no algicide or CYA, just 4 gallons of 10% pool bleach per night for four nights. I let the pump on throughout. I'm not 100% positive, but I think your not shocking your pool with enough chlorine. I did not see any fading with my liner at that high level of chlorine, but yours may be different. Since conversion, this site (Ben) has saved me hundreds of dollars in pool chemicals. My pool has been crystal clear following Ben's protocol.

Guppy

[bcb1]

You're not going to ruin your liner (unless you use waaaaay to much chlrorine, like in the 20ppm++ range).

We converted to chlorine from Baquacil in 2004. I had just found this message board at that time. There really is no perfect science when converting to chlorine. It was way easier than I thought it would be. I thought we might end up with a yellowish/green mess for an entire summer. I was pleasantly surprised that the entire conversion only took about 3 days, and it was very easy.

Friday night: We dumped in about 6 or 7 large cups (like the old laundry scoops you used to get with big boxes of laundry detergent) - of Cal Hypo shock. Immediately, the pool turned a weird looking yellowish color. Then we put about 5 tablets of Trichlor pucks in the skimmer basket and we put 5 pounds of CYA (stabilizer) in a ladies nylon hose and tied it to the inground ladder. Stabilizer dissolves very slowly, over the course of several days.

Saturday: Dumped another several scoops of cal hypo shock in the pool during the afternoon. Backwashed the filter once in the morning and again later in the evening. The water was already starting to turn more of a light greenish color - I'd call it a "clear green". Saturday afternoon we dumped the sand in the filter and replaced it with new sand, which took a couple hours.

Sunday: Surprise! The water was virtually clear! I couldn't believe it cleared up so fast. I backwashed the filter again, and added a couple more scoops of Cal Hypo shock.

So for us....in about 48 hours, our water was nearly perfect. I realize that for other folks it has taken several days longer...so I'm not sure why ours went so easy.

That was back in July 2004.....so here is an update:

Spring 2005: Opened the pool to a yucky brown color. We had installed a sewer line and a sidewalk near the pool, and evidently all the dust and dirt in the air settled on our mesh cover...and filtered down into our pool water. Yuck. But, it only took about 5 days, a few pounds of shock, and quite a few gallons of bleach, and a quart of polyquat algaecide to completely clear up. The rest of the year was very easy - we always had 100% clear water, no algae or other problems.

Spring 2006: This year, our water was completely clear when we opened the pool last weekend. No construction during the fall or spring months, so therefore there was no dirt or dust in the air to get into the pool.

Overall....chlorine is ten times better than our experience with Baquagunk. And it's cheap too! I spend ~maybe~ $150 in chemicals for an entire year. That includes a couple quarts of polyquat algaecide, about 30-40 jugs of 6% bleach, and a bucket of trichlor pucks.

Good luck with your conversion...and don't be scared! It's not as bad as you think.

[mjones]

OK, I just put 8 lbs of shock in pool(bottle says 56% available cl). It already looked a tad bit lighter shade of green, but that could be because we added more water. I am not sure about the CL level. I have tried strips & oto. Strips say hardness about 100, total cl 5 ish, f cl way over 10, ph 6.2-6.8, alk 80-120. I can't understand the oto. tried the diluting thing, oto said +3 cl? I don't know.. I am confused & to the point that I just want to keep putting cl in every 8 hours or so. Hoping it will clear up soon.
I bought 4 gallons of plain ole bleach, 1 1/2 gal of clorox "outdoor"?, says it makes up to 30 gallons?? and the 8 lb bottle of shock. The bottle of shock said not to mix with cal hypo?? what does that mean?

[mbar]

Your ph is really low, I would add a box of borax asap, test after 2 hours, and add more if needed. You don't want your ph below 7, that could damage your liner. Chlorine is more potent when the ph is low, but you shouldn't let it get lower than 7.2 on your test, because the ph may be even lower than the test shows sometimes.

[mjones]

Not much difference this morning. I just added 4 gallons of 6% bleach. I was wondering if I need to go ahead & change my sand, because of psi so high, & skimmer isn't sucking very hard.