Old pool in new to us home, with broken skimmer

Hi. We bought a house built in 1979 with an IG 12,000 gal vinyl pool. The house had been on the market for about 3 years. Prior to buying it we had someone from an area pool service come out and start up the pump give us and the bank an idea of what kind of shape the pool was in. Apparently during re-winterizing of the pool he broke off the skimmer. We are currently in the process of opening the pool after my partner designed a skimmer to replace what we think was there. I have ordered the test kit and we have been filtering the water and adding bleach for a couple of days. I would add a couple of pictures and show how we have progressed from brown algae infested water to it's current hazy green color but do not see any options for doing that.

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1. You should be able to post pictures using imgur.com. To get the full embed link you have to view the pics full size in Imgur, then right-click to capture the direct link. If they don't work, I'll grab them when I moderate your post in.

2. Once you get GOOD pics, you may want to cross-post TroubleFreePool and PoolSpaForum. None of the pool forums have many active posters actually in the pool biz . . . especially this time of year. And DIY advice is likely to be low in quality. Do add a note about cross-posting and indicate you'll close out the other threads once one goes usefully active.

3. Unless you are planning on hiring a contractor, explain your DIY capabilities. For example, some tells you to cut out the deck to access the skimmer . . . and you have no idea how to do such a thing, everyone has wasted time.

4. NO idea at all what you mean by "broke off a skimmer" in an IG pool . . .