Opening pool early and possible leak

[fiveUNDERfive]

Hi all,
Thanks to shameless lurking and lots of reading here last year, we managed our AG pool rather well with your BBB method and just opened to crystal clear water. Here in upstate NY, it's unlikely we will actually be swimming for another mOnth though. But I wanted to avoid algae so we went ahead and uncovered. Our biggest concern is the water level. It was down to about 18 in so I'm assuming we have a leak somewhere - perhaps in the liner where the ladder steps were?? So my first question - how do I go about finding the leak? I've started filling the pool. It's up to about 1.5 ft from the top so still not enough to run the filter. But we are on a well and it is suppose to rain the next 5 days so I figured I'd let mother nature help. My second question - what do I need to do tO keep my water clear? I need new reagents so I can test but since I can't run the filter yet, I can't really add chemicals. And since we won't be swimming for a while I don't want to be too aggressive. Once the water level is up, how often should I run the filter? We ran it 24/7 last yr which killed our electric bill, so since we aren't even in it yet, I don't want to do that. Any other advice?
Thanks!

[BigDave]

I can't help with finding the leak but it may be somewhere near the 18" line where it stopped leaking.
I would chlorinate with bleach and use a brush or paddle to be sure the pool gets well mixed after adding the bleach until you can get the equipment running again. Keep an eye on pH as well.

[PoolDoc]

Soft side pool: fill 6" and go around the outside looking for the leak.

Hard side pool: fill 3", let it leak down, and go around the INSIDE of the pool looking for a leak.

[fiveUNDERfive]

Its a hard side and my husband went ahead and filled it. UGH! He was hoping it wasn't a leak (gallons of water just evaporated??). It filled quickly and seemed to hold initially so we hooked up the pump and started adding chlorine. Of course, in the interim few days, my crystal clear water has turned to green . I spent the morning upping the pH with borax and adding more bleach and trying to vacuum (can't get suction in the darn hose). GRR. Starting to hate this pool. I managed the "chemicals" quite well last year (our first time with a pool - moved in late in the summer) but hubby managed the equipment. I noticed the water level has dropped a few inches and I am not sure if it is "leaking" out the yet-as-to-be-undetermined hole, or if I just lost it all while I had it on "waste" trying to vacuum. Should I stop adding stuff and just let it leak back out so we can find/fix the hole? I hate to watch it turn green and swampy but it seems crazy to keep adding stuff if I am going to ultimately have to drain. SIGH.

[PoolDoc]

Do NOT let it turn into a swamp, no matter what your plans are. It's WAY too much work to clean a swamp!

Add 3 gallons of plain 6% household bleach, per 10,000 gallons of water. Continue with 3 gallon doses every 12 hours till the algae has changed from green to brown or cloudy blue. Do you have a testkit? If not, read the testkit page in my signature. (Strips do NOT count!!)

[fiveUNDERfive]

I have a drop kit from Walmart for now. No strips. Chlorine is way above what my kit can test. Looks like I overshot on the borax too tho not sure how. It was barely registering this am before adding borax (barely red tint) and now it looks close to 8!? I tried to order the Taylor kit last yr but kept getting an email that it was back ordered and finally went with this cheaper ($29?) alternative from Wally. Is there Anything midrange price wise I could find locally? I'm torn about spending too much money if we are going to have to replace the liner. We are currently in need of about $30k to fix our septic and I have a feeling hubby would rather scrap the pool than pay $$ to fix it (much to the dismay of our 6kids and moi)

The "algae" isnt green like u would think of algae. ITs more like a fine brown film on the bottom that stirred uP when I tried to vacuum. I already added two gals of 6% bleach this am bc I put two trichlor pucks in last night. Tho they are leftover from previous owner so prolly 2-3 yrs old? I also added about 1/2 lb of borax first thing this am.