Opening swampy pool, high PH

[River Gronkowitz]

Just bought a house and according to the previous owner, this would be the first time in over two years the pool will be cleaned. It's an 18 x 36ft inground pool with a vinyl liner and sand filter. I've tested the PH and it's 8.2 or possibly higher. If I understand correctly, the PH should be brought up to 7.5 before adding any chlorine to begin killing the algae, but in my situation, should I lower it before I begin?
Also, the alkalinity is 60 and everything else (chlorine, cya, etc.) is pretty much 0.
Thanks,
River

[PoolDoc]

First thing is to physically remove everything you can from the bottom. You need something like this, which looks to be a Chinese knock off of a Nycon (pro-grade) leaf rake. (I'm looking for the Nycon website, but coming up dry -- I'll add it later)

Second, you need to get your pool circulating and filtering.

Third, you need to test it with a real test kit -- a locally bought OTO/phenol red kit is better than 'guess-strips'.

Once you've got all those things done, you can look at clean up. If the pH is above 8.2, it's not doing your liner much good. But, whatever damage is going to be done, probably has already occurred. However, once the pump is on, you probably should use muriatic acid (Home Depot, etc) to lower your pH to a reasonable value (<7.8). Check out this sticky, to learn how to use MA safely:http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthread.php?13111

That's probably enough for now -- let us know how things go, and what you find, and we can add next steps.

It's gonna take awhile -- getting in a hurry will not speed things up, and can lead to a huge and expen$ive mess.

[PoolDoc]

Here's the real deal, which is what I use locally: 19" Nycon leaf rake

But, I still can't find the actual name of the company, or their website. I thought it WAS "Nycon", but I haven't found it.

[ FOUND IT: http://www.nyconproducts.com ]

[River Gronkowitz]

Thanks for the help!
I picked up a leaf rake yesterday and got the junk off of the bottom, which was definitely a chore, lol.
Got the pump and filter up and running, and everything looks good there so far.

I also got a FAS-DPD kit and tested everything.

With the new kit, my readings are:
Chlorine - Free and total are both 0
PH - 7.8
TA - 70
Calcium Hardness - 20
CYA - 0

[Watermom]

What is your volume?

[River Gronkowitz]

I'm estimating about 26700