Pinky Posted June 11, 2010 Report Share Posted June 11, 2010 Hello! I'm so happy I found this place. I really need help. Heres my story: I have an above ground, sand filter running 12 hours a day, 30ft round pool, 4 feet deep. (23000 gal) It is 7 years old. I have always used baquacil up until this year. I wanted to switch to Chlorine when I opened the pool this year. I opened the pool three weeks ago. The water was clear and clean when the cover came off. I filled it the rest of the way with city water. (since it was only half full over the winter.) I added no chemicals. Took a sample to the pool store and explained I wanted to switch to Chlorine now. Water was tested and I was told to shock with non chlorine shock first. I did that. I then added chemicals to bring everything in line. However I still have no FC at all. I was told to with Calcium Hypochlorite 2 pounds granules. Still no reading on FC Three days later I was told to shock with three pounds of 78% Calcium Hypochlorite to super shock the pool. Today....still no FC Water was tested this morning, here are the results: FC 0.0 TC 0.7 CC 0.7 Alkalinity 75 ph 7.3 Calcium Hardness 191 Cyanuric Acid 32 Copper 0 Iron 0 Saturation index -0.63 The pool store told me I needed to reach a breakpoint, since something was eating up my chlorine. I was told to add EIGHT pounds of Calcium Hypochlorite 78%. I did that by adding 4 pounds and waiting one hour and adding another 4 pounds. I did all this and two hours later and now my pool is GREEN! Through all this the water had always been crystal clear until I dumped all this shock in. Did I just really make things worse? What should I do? Thanks for any help you can offer. I am totally lost. How do I know if I reached the breakpoint? Should the water be green right now? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pinky Posted June 11, 2010 Author Report Share Posted June 11, 2010 4 hours after and now the pressure is way up on the filter. It is barly moving the water. I am not sure if I should backwash or not.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quantumchromodynamics Posted June 12, 2010 Report Share Posted June 12, 2010 The Baquacil is what is eating up your chlorine. The Baquacil takes a lot of chlorine to get it fully out of the pool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
polyvue Posted June 12, 2010 Report Share Posted June 12, 2010 See the following forum thread for assistance in converting a Baquacil pool to chlorine: http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/forumdisplay.php?f=137 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pinky Posted June 12, 2010 Author Report Share Posted June 12, 2010 Thank you, I read a few of the threads that might pertan to me. I am guessing that my green water is ok for now. I guess thats to be expexted, right? I just did a test strip and got 0 on the Clorine level. I am not sure if that is what I want. I did back wash just enough to bring the pressure back. The water is still green and I have no chlorine level yet. Am I on the right track. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chem geek Posted June 12, 2010 Report Share Posted June 12, 2010 Yes, you keep adding chlorine regularly until you start to register a Free Chlorine (FC) reading. It will be very colorful during the conversion process. Though every conversion is a little different, take a look at the pictures in this thread to see that it gets brown and then green before it turns blue. It may even go through a cloudy blue and then change color again before turning blue again. You should use primarily chlorinating liquid or 6% unscented bleach. Unless you know your Calcium Hardness (CH) level and know that it is low, I wouldn't use Cal-Hypo. I would not use Trichlor nor Dichlor as they increase CYA which you don't want yet -- the conversion goes faster if there is no CYA in the water, at least until chlorine starts to show up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pinky Posted June 12, 2010 Author Report Share Posted June 12, 2010 The Calcium in the pool was 191 on the last test. The pool is still green this morning. It looks bad. I can't see the photos. All I get is "You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post." You think I should add more Chlorine? I have already added eight pounds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pinky Posted June 12, 2010 Author Report Share Posted June 12, 2010 The pool is a clear green now. I can see the bottom and there is alot of what looks like yellow or tannish clumps on the floor of the pool. When I brush it they just turn to clouds. What is that? Is this normal? No FC showing up on the test strip yet. What should I do next? Add more or just leave it filter? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulR Posted June 12, 2010 Report Share Posted June 12, 2010 Conversion stories I've read suggest that it can take tens of gallons of bleach to wipe out the baqua. You want it to the point where the water is clear and FC can hold at, say, 10ppm overnight. AFTER you reach that point, and you are holding reasonable chlorine levels,... you should replace the sand in your filter. DO NOT DO THIS STEP EARLY. There will be residual bacquagoo in the sand, and it's best to dump it and start fresh. Sand is not particularly expensive, fortunately. --paulr Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pinky Posted June 13, 2010 Author Report Share Posted June 13, 2010 I will be replacing the sand when this is all done. I alrerady have the bags in the shed waiting. Today the pool look sort of a clear light greenish-yellow. So from the photos i have looked at, I am hoping I am still on the right track. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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