New owner installing used AG pool; walls up about to tackle liner

ok on the 24 ft round 52 inch deep pool my sons friend gave us, my new liner came by fed ex, we have the rails and walls up, the bottom in, leveled, tommorrow we are about to tackle the liner....we got the overlap kind, ANY TIPS would be appreciated! I need to know also about hooking up the pump and skimmer, we really wanted to do it with pvc, but not sure what we need, I also have bought filter sand to replace the sand in my filter (I don't want headaches from what the guy before me might have had in his pool filtered thru his sand) not sure how to replace sand, no directions or paperwork came with pool. It has a Pentair 1 1/2 hp pump (its only 3 months old) he forgot to unhook and drain last winter and it busted, he bought new one, ran it for a month and decded to take pool down and get an in ground pool put in. (Lucky me) we have well water, I ordered the ultimate start up kit from In The Swim, cause it has some metal free stuff in it that makes well water ok, when I start adding water when do I put chemicals in, its gonna take about 2-3 days to fill pool, don't want to get algae first thing,,,so do I add chemicals before it gets to skimmer level? I have NEVER had a pool and am pool stupid, but want to do this right!!! Please any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! My husband is ready to kill me!!:LOL!!

Hi Ksand;

Yeah, a new pool is overwhelming at first -- pretty much everybody experiences that, either like you are OR when it turns swamp green a week after filling!

Ok. Here are some suggestions for a start:

#1 - Find out if your water has iron or manganese in it. One way is to cut the top off a milk jug, clean it, fill it with well water, add a teaspoon of baking soda, and a teaspoon of bleach, mix . . . and then let it sit overnight. Looking at the water the next morning (or the gunk on the bottom of the jug should give you a clue.

BE SURE TO USE THE WATER YOU WILL FILL WITH! If you have a softener for the house, but will fill the pool with unsoftened water, you need to sample unsoftened water. (A softener removed iron and manganese before it removes calcium.) If you do plan to use softened water, find out what your unit's "break-through" point is, and plan to regenerate often during filling.

#2 - Get a Taylor FAS-DPD kit (Amazon links below -- purchase when "Amato Ind" is the seller). It makes it SO much easier to fix problems and avoid getting "pool-stored".

#3 - Take photos of your pump, filter, and any other gear and send them to poolforum AT gmail DOT com. I'll post them, and they will help people help you.

to get sand out of filter without damaging the plastic frigile pipes use a shop vac with a garden hose. You will have to dump the shop vac a few times but it is better than tipping the whole filter upside down, damaging it.