Serious help needed

[Sunny32504]

I posted on this subject under construction of AG pools. Let me start by saying this forum helped me last year alot. I have an AG 24' round pool vinyl liner. In July of last year it was sparkling clear and when I got home from vacation I found a cracked filter and water spewing out the side of my filter by the port valve. Needless to say I shut the pool down and never touched it till now.Last year I had major problems with replacing the pump, multi port valve and algea and finally had it beautiful until (it) cracked So now I have about 2 1/2 feet of water in the pool and a thick coating of algea on the botton , sides and ladder with some sticks in there and some living things. (mosquito hotel) as I call it. I will be getting the new filter this week end. I am going with cartriage this time. Where do I start do I try to sweep the algea and what floats to the top scoop out as much as I can before I try filling the pool again or do I fill the pool and deal with the thick coating of algea later?
Somehow I have to get the sticks out without joining the party of critters in there. Any one with suggestions??

[Poconos]

Only thing I can recommend is an industrial strength pool net on a long pole to scoop the junk. Maybe a big fishnet? Get as much goop out as you can. I am concerned about using a cartridge filter with so much goop but I have no experience with them. Because of the possibility of plugging the filter I'd vacuum to waste as much junk as possible.
Al

[xoroniox]

My problem was really close to this so this should be about to help you out. here in south fla the last hurricane knocked down our screen enclosure over the pool and blocked off the pool needless to say we didnt touch the pool for 4months, no chemicals or water topoffs. it was down about 1/3 of the way inground pool by the way, so the first thing i did was to remove all the crap possible in the pool. i used the regular pole net with a fine mesh net (old net i had because i bought all new stuff for when the pool was clear again) and it took me 100+ nets and skims to get the junk out of the pool, many days of work. also the weight of the crap you are netting out of the pool gets really heavy and i broke my old net and pole. after i took out as much as possible, i used my old cartridge (2+ years old i bought a new one again for when it is clear) and shocked the pool with tons of bleach, i mean alot my pool was forrest green and looked like a swamp with tons of creatures and bugs growing/swimming in there. it took me 3 weeks or high dose shocks and filtering 12hours/6days a week to get it clear again. my advice to you is do NOT fill the pool up, shock the pool and then net tons of times to get all the junk you can out, keep the shock level high and filter non-stop it will get clean. i figure you might as well keep the water level low that way less bleach is needed to shock it and once it is clear again raise the level and bring in more bleach to acceptable range. also having less water is a plus when trying to net and clean out the pool with the pole/net. good luck its really hard work but the savings is great. local pool company wanted $1100 to drain, acid wash+refill, chemical startup for my 12,500gallon Inground diamondbrite pool. i did the exact same thing myself for a total of $200 including all new pole,net,broom,cartridge. hope this posts helps, took long enough to write LOL
-Arron

[CarlD]

There's a pool skimmer called a "leaf rake" that holds enormous amounts of junk and even has a squeegee at one edge to scrape on the bottom. It holds at least 10x as much as a regular skimmer and works better at the bottom of the pool.

[Sunny32504]

Thanks for the help! I have started to fill the pool because I could not filter without having it up to the skimmer. I think i am going to get in there and try to vaccum as much stuff as possible and pick up the sticks with my feet as I go along. I am going to chlornate alittle because the bugs scare me that are in there swimming around . I will keep in touch