Hi everyone, I got my first pool this year and started off right using the BBB method. Everything has been going great. I test daily, keep my chlorine level around 4.5ish, my pH has been stable, Alkalinity around 80, CYA 40. I haven't needed to "Shock" my pool, or haven't needed to add any acid since my pH hasn't gotten that high. My water has been crystal clear all season and I couldn't be happier.

So now that I think I'm an expert (joking), I'm going to try and help my cousin out. He's buying a foreclosed property and should be closing next week (after 8 months...finally). It's a 24 foot round, and it is as green as the Hulk according to him. I haven't seen it yet. The pool was covered, but the cover ripped last winter, so it's been exposed to the elements with no maintenance being done on it at all. Pump and filter aren't hooked up. They were put away the last time the pool was closed, but they're in the shed. I have no idea if it's a sand, DE, or cartridge filter, but I've only used a sand filter. I'm hoping they all hook up similarly, but will have to research some more once I see what I'll be working with.

First things first, should I bring chlorine level to 20ppm, and keep it there for a few days? Would it be okay to shock the pool without the equipment hooked up? From my understanding, you shouldn't filter live algae anyway, so we probably won't need to hook it all up until the algae is dead right? Will all the dead algae just sink to the bottom of the pool? Sorry, I have zero experience with dealing with algae....