About 5 years ago I purchased a foreclosure home that had a pool. I knew (still don't know much) about pools and have been battling with this thing for years. I learned enough to clean up the swamp after moving in and have been able to get it balanced for summer usage, but it's still been a major drain on resources fighting to keep algae out etc.

All that to say, the previous owner did not take good care of it and there are now some sort of stains that have made the pool look, well, terrible, even when it's clean.

I'm wondering if this is black algae, or my plaster is just totally shot (it's old gunite/plaster from the 70's) or a mix of both? I've emailed pictures to poolforum@gmail.com since I don't have a great way of uploading.

Essentially, I want to know if there's anyway to get this thing looking sharp short of draining it and having the plaster totally re-worked (I've read estimates from people saying average cost is 12-25k for that...yikes)

Thanks for any advice/help!