Baquacil to Bleach conversion (help needed)

[revhendrix]

Hi - newbie here and help would be much appreciated. We just bought a house in the Winter with a 20,000gal IG pool (fiberglass/vinal liner) and a sand filter. We had it opened by a pool company on May 22. The pool has previously been treated with Baquacil and the pool company opened w/Baquacil prior to us having any knowledge about the stuff (never asked for our preference). After a few weeks of frustration and reading this forum, my husband and I have decided to make the switch to Chlorine!! We're in New England and the weather, being so bad of late, has helped with our decsion since we are a few weeks away from swimming with warmer water.

Background: after opening and shocking with Baquacil it was very cloudy, then the pool store had us add many chemicals to clear the water: sanitizer, clarifier, PH +, alum (to settle the dead algae), Baquacil ultra (don't know why we are very new at this). Meanwhile, we vaccumed the greenish, cloudy water and backwashed alot. We ran the filter 24/7, sometimes on skimmer, sometimes on drain. Now the water is clear and there is some areas of algae on liner and bottom that need to be vaccumed. It has always been difficult, if possible at all, to see the bottom in the deep end. Every time we vaccuum or brush this stuff it recirculates and clouds up the water and we start all over again............................

Now, water test at the pool store yesterday shows the following:

PH: 8
Baquacil level: 15
TA: 100
Ca: 200

After reading several of the conversion threads, I understand the process but have a few questions:

1. The pool store is trying to sell us a "super shock" instead of using bleach. Any good or are they just trying to sell me something I don't need?? At this point, I'm not too sure I trust these pool store companies........!!

2. When initially dumping the bleach (or super shock), do we run the filter as normal or do we run it on a different mode??

3. The sock: Is it best to use a sock on the skimmer basket when initially starting the process?? If yes, just so I understand this, do you put a nylon/panyhose around the whole basket and reinsert it?? Then rinse it off as nesessary?? How long unitl the sock is not needed??

4. Is changing the sand difficult?? Do we have to change it?? The pool company says they have a chemical to clean the sand so we do not have to change it?? Does this work?? (FYI-the sand was changed at the end of last season so I think it has very little Baquacil exposure).

5. I have a fear of fading the liner. I know I have to keep a level of 15ppm, but how far off are dangerous levels???

6. I'm headed to Leslie's to buy the FAS-DPD test kit. Is this sufficient?? No time to wait for Ben's kit.

Thanks for all of your help and suggestions in advance. I can see we'll be utilizing this website and forum the whole summer (i.e. which auto-cleaner to buy for a $700 budget? Aquabot or the Dolphin Diagnostic??)

[waste]

Hi - newbie here and help would be much appreciated. We just bought a house in the Winter with a 20,000gal IG pool (fiberglass/vinal liner) and a sand filter. We had it opened by a pool company on May 22. The pool has previously been treated with Baquacil and the pool company opened w/Baquacil prior to us having any knowledge about the stuff (never asked for our preference). After a few weeks of frustration and reading this forum, my husband and I have decided to make the switch to Chlorine!! We're in New England and the weather, being so bad of late, has helped with our decsion since we are a few weeks away from swimming with warmer water.

Background: after opening and shocking with Baquacil it was very cloudy, then the pool store had us add many chemicals to clear the water: sanitizer, clarifier, PH +, alum (to settle the dead algae), Baquacil ultra (don't know why we are very new at this). Meanwhile, we vaccumed the greenish, cloudy water and backwashed alot. We ran the filter 24/7, sometimes on skimmer, sometimes on drain. Now the water is clear and there is some areas of algae on liner and bottom that need to be vaccumed. It has always been difficult, if possible at all, to see the bottom in the deep end. Every time we vaccuum or brush this stuff it recirculates and clouds up the water and we start all over again............................

Now, water test at the pool store yesterday shows the following:

PH: 8
Baquacil level: 15
TA: 100
Ca: 200

After reading several of the conversion threads, I understand the process but have a few questions:

1. The pool store is trying to sell us a "super shock" instead of using bleach. Any good or are they just trying to sell me something I don't need?? At this point, I'm not too sure I trust these pool store companies........!!

2. When initially dumping the bleach (or super shock), do we run the filter as normal or do we run it on a different mode??

3. The sock: Is it best to use a sock on the skimmer basket when initially starting the process?? If yes, just so I understand this, do you put a nylon/panyhose around the whole basket and reinsert it?? Then rinse it off as nesessary?? How long unitl the sock is not needed??

4. Is changing the sand difficult?? Do we have to change it?? The pool company says they have a chemical to clean the sand so we do not have to change it?? Does this work?? (FYI-the sand was changed at the end of last season so I think it has very little Baquacil exposure).

5. I have a fear of fading the liner. I know I have to keep a level of 15ppm, but how far off are dangerous levels???

6. I'm headed to Leslie's to buy the FAS-DPD test kit. Is this sufficient?? No time to wait for Ben's kit.

Thanks for all of your help and suggestions in advance. I can see we'll be utilizing this website and forum the whole summer (i.e. which auto-cleaner to buy for a $700 budget? Aquabot or the Dolphin Diagnostic??)

Rev, welcome to the forum! You've chosen the right place to take control of your pool, as opposed to letting the pool dudes do it! A sand change is necessary, there is still 'baqua-crud' trapped in the sand. Baq and chlorine don't play well together, as you probably know.

As for the sock, use it until it comes out clean.
As for 'super shock' vs bleach: the difference is in the concentration. Use mwsmith2' calculator to determine how much you need.
Changing the sand is easy, I responded to a post this morning about it (you can search, or I'll spend a few hours trying to link it here)
Run the filteer as normal

Any more ?s, just ask we are happy to help you

[CAPTCHEMCL]

Hello Revhendrix,

We just completed our conversion over Memorial Day weekend so my advice will be from a satisfied newbie to a "new" newbie!
In answer to your questions, I think you will only need the Clorox (6%) but buy a lot. We have a 14000 gal IG Fiberglass and we used about 65-70 gallons. We found that by testing it every 2 hours (since we were home) and keeping the FC at 15ppm (free chlorine which you will test with the FAS-DPD kit) the conversion went extremely quickly (started on Friday night, were in the pool on Monday afternoon!) We tested and added bleach every 2 hours to keep it to 15ppm. (Make sure you continue to backwash the filter, watch the pressure, if it builds, it is getting restricted with the "gunk" from the pool. We backwashed several times per day.) When adding the bleach, be ready, the color and cloudiness will shock you the first 4 times (minimum) you put bleach in the pool. I guess you could use the shock from the pool place but it may have other ingredients or solids in it that you do not need. The bleach worked EXTREMELY WELL!!! We put the bleach in with the filter running normally, pouring it at the return to the deep end. Your goal is to keep the pool chlorine level at 15ppm till it maintains that reading overnight AND to have a CC (combined Chlorine) reading of 0. Once you achieve that, you can add your stabilizer and that is where the sock comes in. We put ours in an old white cotton sock and tied it to the "eye" that the rope between the shallow and deep end goes through. That worked just fine, took about a week to get all dissolved. As far as harming the vinyl, I have seen other threads on this site regarding that and it seems that 15ppm will not harm the vinyl (anyone can correct me here if I am wrong on that issue). Changing the sand is not difficult, but if it was changed last year, I doubt if you need it changed. You can ad a little Diatamatious (sp) Earth (DE as it is called) to your sand filter, that will help it get smaller particles out of the water.
You will not be sorry you are doing this, we have never (I repeat NEVER) had water so clean and clear!!! I cannot say enough about finding this site!
Looking at your ph, it does look a little high since other threads here have said that ph a little lower works best with the CLorox level. Ours during the conversion was about 7.2-7.5. When we started this, we knew NOTHING about what the water chemistry should be and I was extremely overwhelmed! I had Ben rush ship a kit and BOY WAS THAT WORTH IT!!! In just a few short days, I feel I learned what it takes to get the water right and how to test it to make sure it is right. I learned all the acronyms (i.e. FC, CC, TC, ALK....etc) all of which I knew none of. I was amazed how quickly I understood it all once I got the kit and started testing.

Good Luck and keep us posted. Give it a few days, it is SOOOOO worth it!

[revhendrix]

Thanks for your responses and here's an update...

We began yesterday by buying 5 cases (I know I'll need more) of 6% bleach and had a final water test done at the pool store:

Bacquacil: 10
Ph: 8.0
TA: 90
Ca: 110

We put in 5 gal of bleach at 7:30 pm and inserted a nylon sock over the skimmer basket. The water immediately turned pea green and I was excited to see it (for now)!! At 11:30 pm we checked the FC levels and they were almost nonexistant (maybe 1.5 to be generous) so I put in 4.5 gal of bleach (per the bleach calc), backwashed and rinsed the sock (there was an orange gummy substance already there).

At 7:30 am I checked the FC levels and they were at 6 so I put in 3 gal of bleach and again backwashed and rinsed the sock. I'll check it again in a couple of hours. Here's a few more questions:

Do I need to vacum to waste?? If so, when and how much. I really would prefer not to do this too much becuse I don't want to have to refill the pool.

Do I need to worry about the other water chemical readings?? My Ph is a bit high and I'm wondering if I ignore everything but the FC until the process is done.

I can't thank this forum enough...........and I can't wait for this to be over.

[CAPTCHEMCL]

My recommendation would be to not worry about the other chemicals till you reach the goals of 15ppm overnight with 0ppm combined chlorine. As far as sweeping to waste, I suppose you could do that but I think I would wait and let the clorox do its thing, kill off the baquasil (and anything else), let it start to settle out on the bottom then sweep to waste. Making sure you backwash your filter periodically so that it does not get overloaded with the junk it is filtering out. The rest of your readings may not change much (ours hardly changed at all from the beginning till we were done). The clorine level is the most important thing right now. Check it often during the day and keep it at 15ppm. It will burn off quickly till it eats up the baquasil. (Again, anyone reading this who knows more please correct me if I am mis-stating any information. I just completed our conversion with no problems and that is all I have to go by...that and the multitude of postings I read throughout the process!)

Again, trust me, in a few days you will not believe how beautiful the water will be!

[chemstick]

I just finished my conversion to chlorine from baquacil (we are in CT, by the way). I even started dumping in bleach with my baquacil level around 30. I began on Wed and by Friday evening the pool was crystal clear. I believe it went fast because of the "beautiful" cloudy, cold, rainy weather and I was able to keep a high level of chlorine around the clock (and don't worry about bleaching the liner at these levels). I just changed the sand and it was very gunky; you should probably go ahead and change yours anyway. I found lots of yellow stringy junk floating around and throughout. Keep the faith!!!!

[chemstick]

i forgot to add, we have a dolphin and LOVE it. got it on ebay but can't remember how much it was.

[revhendrix]

Hi - 2nd update....

Still in the process.... I'm checking the levels at least 4-6 times a day from 7:30 am to 11:30 pm. The FC levels have ranged from 6ppm to 12ppm after checking it and I've used the bleach Calc to figure out what I needed to put in for bleach to keep the levels at 15ppm.

The water has gone from merky pea green to clearish green (we can see the bottom in the shallow end).

I clear and rinse the nylon sock (on the skimmer basket), which has had orange muck on it everytime, and backwash everytime I've added bleach.

I would imagine I have a couple days left, but here are a few more questions. Thanks in advance:

1. My Ph was at 8 when I started this...when do I care about it again. Should I test the levels or wait until this is over?

2. When I backwash it's not that dirty...is this because the bacquacil is all being caught in the sock?? I really thought it would be much more dirty and cloudy. I never had the globs of orange or rust baquagunk floating..is this because I started with a low level of bacquacil (10)??

3. CYA - I know I need to do this when my conversion is over. Is the cotton sock method a good way to go and how much do I use to stablize the high levels of chlorine (20,000gal pool)?? How do I keep from adding too much stabilizer??

thanks again...REV

[eyesfinallyopened]

Rev,
I'm experiencing the same clean-looking water when I backwash, too. Very surprising. I really expected to see a lot of solids and at least the same color water as is in the pool, but maybe the water color is so bad because we're seeing the whole depth of the pool compared to the amount in the little spyglass.

I'm taking pictures as I continue the conversion and will post them when I'm done. This is soooooo time consuming, isn't it?!

--Deborah

[revhendrix]

Hi Debroah...thanks for the reply. I've been reading your thread as well. Yea, what a process!! I've been consumed with this conversion - coming home from work at lunch, leaving early...all to get a jump on my FC levels. I'm hoping this is over soon...I'm guessing at least a couple more days.

Sounds like you're well on your way to pool bliss as well!! I didn't have any of the rust water or orange floaters....Hmmmmmmm, I hope this is working.

It must be a bit tougher in AZ with combating the heat and all...good luck and keep us updated on the progress. -REV