Jump to content

Baqua To Chlorine Or Bromine?


Recommended Posts

For the pool chlorine probably makes more sense. For the spa, it depends on your usage. If you use the spa every day or two then chlorine isn't too difficult as you add it after each soak, but if you don't use the spa that much then bromine can be easier since you can use bromine tabs to maintain a bromine level in between soaks or if you have an ozonator then it can create bromine from a bromide bank.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks chem geek, for your reply. I thought spa and pool had to be on the same sanitizer ( we use the spa extensively year round, especially in early summer when the pool is still cold ) Spa is presently on bromine, but I bought a second filter in case we need to switch it to chlorine for pool season)

I am not looking forward to the conversion of the pool, but as soon as I know what I'll be converting TO, that's my next question!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If the spa is attached to the pool and shares the same water, then yes they need to use the same disinfectant, but it sounds like your spa is separate so the two can use different disinfectants. Just rinse off your swimsuit if you use a Baquacil pool since it will react with chlorine/bromine producing colored by-products. Or use different swimsuits for your pool and your spa until you switch away from Baquacil.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

The Taylor K-2006 is the kit to get. You can use chlorinating liquid or unscented bleach (usually 8.25% concentration these days) can be used. The conversion will be very colorful. See Convert Your Baqua Pool to Chlorine for more info. You change the sand after the conversion is complete.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

I will need to add a foot of water before connecting the skimmer-should I do the conversion before adding the water? I have a robotic cleaner I can use to circulate and clean the water. Seems crazy to contaminate fresh water with baqua if its not necessary

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Mmmm. Well I don't think the robotic cleaner is going to circulate the water that well. It actually is not a bad thing to replace by dilution some of the water in the pool. I don't mean just adding water, but also removing more of it -- that is exchange it. If water is fairly inexpensive for you, then that will be lower cost than using tons of chlorine to get rid of the Baquacil/biguanide/PHMB. You could fill from one end at the top and drain from the other at the bottom (or vice versa). Then you would add chlorine and do the procedure as normal, but it will take a lot less chlorine to do the conversion. It's up to you, but I would fill the pool to have the main pump circulate the water. You really need to circulate well to get the chemicals to mix, react, and the Baquagoo to get filtered out.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

took a water sample to be tested for Baqua to see how much was left after winter-1ppm

balanced PH, TA and CH, started to add bleach

tested for FC yesterday 10

this am 1

added more bleach

circulating, backwashing and robot cleaning constantly

water looks like milk

will this go away?

How often should I be adding bleach?

should I use a stronger chlorine product?

how long will it take for the wtaer to clear of do I need a different product for this?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Chlorine will eventually oxidize the Baqua and it may turn colorful, not just milky. It should filter out, but your cartridges may be a mess and may need to be replaced (you can try cleaning them, but with a lot of Baquagoo they may be very hard to clean -- fortunately with only 1 ppm Baqua you may be OK).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ok, I spent last week adding bleach, scrubbing and circulating, and the water is crystal clear ( yay!).

I finally added 2 gals of 12% bleach last night because I had not been able to get an FC reading.

The reading was 15ppm after an hour of circulating, 7ppm this morning and after 6 hours in the bright sun, back to zero. PH is fine.

Can you advise what I should do next? Should I keep adding 12% until it holds, or is to natural for it to dissipate after a day in the sun?

Also, I 've read a lot about CYA, and would prefer not to have to deal with it ( by using tabs) . Can I exist with using only 12% bleach all summer? I can get it for $3 a gallon locally.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You need some CYA in the water or else you'll lose roughly half the FC every hour in full noontime sun. You can buy pure Cyanuric Acid from the pool store which is the way to get the CYA into the pool faster. Using tabs will also add CYA but more slowly. Dichlor will get it in faster along with chlorine, but only at a rate where for every 10 ppm FC you add 9 ppm CYA. Up to you. Most people use pure CYA for pools. I add mine by putting it into a T-shirt into the skimmer basket, but I have a bypass to the skimmer and floor drains so there is no risk of breaking the skimmer by starving the pump of suction.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Add some bleach to keep some chlorine in the pool, but add the CYA as soon as you can get it.

10 ppm CYA in 10,000 gallons takes 13.35 ounces weight of CYA so scale up accordingly. If your pool does not get very much sunlight, so is mostly shaded, then 30 ppm CYA may be enough; otherwise 50 ppm is a common middle target. You'd only go higher than that if your pool was in full sun in a southern climate (and you'd never go above 80 ppm and that's mostly just for saltwater chlorine generator pools).

To prevent green and black algae growth, you need to maintain at least a minimum FC that is 7.5% of the CYA level (once you have CYA in the water).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have added CYA and have maintained 50ppm for several days, but I can't get the chlorine level above 2.5 and it won't even stay there for 24 hours.

This am it was down to 1.5. PH and TA are fine

Should I keep adding 12%? or is 1-2.5% an OK range.

The pool is in full sun, but I am the only person who swims in it regularly, so bather load is low ( unless we have guests)

Thanks again for your help

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Something is still consuming your chlorine -- either leftover Baqua or perhaps algae growth. If you measure how much you are losing overnight that will tell you that it isn't from sunlight. You should lower your pool pH to around 7.2 and shock your pool by adding enough chlorine (chlorinating liquid or bleach) to raise it to 20 ppm FC (40% of your CYA level) and maintain that level until the overnight chlorine loss is <= 1 ppm FC. After you were done with your Baqua conversion, did you replace your filter media? Usually you can't clean out the Baquagoo from the filter, but you didn't have much Baqua left so I'm not sure.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Unfortunately, your content contains terms that we do not allow. Please edit your content to remove the highlighted words below.
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...