Hello All. New to poolforum

I am new to the forum. I just purchased a home with an above ground pool. 24' Round. I know ZERO about pools and did not realize they were so expensive to maintain. I has a "professional" come and and look at my pool which was not winterized and is VERY DIRTY! He said $700 to replace the pump and clean. Holy Moly! I purchased the pump and plan to replace it myself. Next, I need to clean out the sticks, leaves and whatever else might be under the tattered and torn solar cover. I am afraid......

The pool guy said not to drain the pool because the walls may collaspe but it is SOOO dirty. I am in a quandry as I don't know what to do, per se. I intend to fish out as much debris as possible then try to use the automatic pool cleaner to do the rest once I get the pump hooked up. I was also told to put in 6 lbs of shock and let it run for 24 hours.

Any suggestions/help would be greatly appreciated. I will submit pictures later of the condition of the pool.

Hi and welcome to the Pool Forum!

Go ahead and scoop out as much as you can. Do you have a test kit? If not, go ahead and order one so you will get it asap. It is impossible to take care of a pool if you can't test it accurately. You have to be able to do it yourself without having to rely on a pool store for readings. (And, honestly, pool stores often do not test very accurately.) The only kit we recommend is the Taylor K-2006 or 2006C but you won't be able to get it locally. Check the test kit link in my signature below.

In the meantime, go to Walmart and pick up a cheap OTO/Phenol Red kit (red and yellow drops), some distilled water, a couple of boxes of 20 Mule Team Borax (laundry aisle) and several jugs of plain, unscented bleach (generic is fine).

To start with, pour two gallons of bleach into your pool through the skimmer while the pump is running. Keep your pump running 24/7.

I assume that you have a sand filter? Since your pool is filthy, your pressure will probably rise pretty quickly. Backwash any time your pressure rises 8-10 psi over your clean filter pressure.

Repost once you have the things mentioned above. Give us a pH reading but test the pH before you add the bleach. High chlorine will give falsely high pH readings.

Do a lot of reading here on the forum, especially the stickied threads at the top of each subforum. Also, read on our sister website www.poolsolutions.com.

We can help you get this cleaned up!

Thank you for your reply. I ordered the test kit you recommnded. Hopefully it will arrive soon! I have an earth filter (Hayward Model no. EC45). There is also a Nature2 VA Visions purifier attached to the system as well. I have been reading up on earth filters on this and a few other sites to figure out if I need to add something to that as well. I have yet to open it up and see what is in there. Do you still recommend I get the same items from Walmart and follow the same procedure that you suggested?

The pool guy that looked at my pool told me to put in about 6 lbs of shock once I got the pump working. I ordered a new Hayward Power Flo LX (1.5 HP - 115 Volts) pump to replace the old one that he stated was not working. I tried to take some pictures yesterday but it was so murky they didn't come out very well. I pulled several medium sized tree branches out of the pool! I will be taking the solar cover off today and will try to take another picture.

Is it too late to order a different pump? That one is too big for your pool. In the case of pool pumps, bigger is not better. If your pump is too big it simply forces debris through the media and back into the pool without really filtering the water very well.

You want to get rid of the Nature 2 unit. It adds copper to your pool. Contrary to popular belief, it is copper that stains things and turns blonde hair green and not chlorine.

What are the ingredients in the shock?

I suppose I could send the pump back and get a smaller one. The original pump that was installed was a 1 1\2 hp. I have not purchased any shock treatment yet so I don't know what the ingredients are. My goal was to start working on the pool this weekend. It was raining but I think it just stopped so I'll venture out to the store soon and pick up the items you suggested. The pool test kit is scheduled to arrive sometime today.