How to clean an above ground pool after 2 seasons of non use

[12ofus]

We have a 27' above ground pool. After being away for 2 years on a military tour, we're coming home to find our pool in an awful shape. It hasn't been cleaned or treated for two seasons. It had about 3 1/2 feet of brown, nasty water in it and tons of leaves and sticks. We've gotten most of the debris out , and we were going to pump out the water with a submersible pump, drain it nearly empty and then clean the liner before refilling it. After reading a few posts, I realize that may damage the liner. I'm sure there are others out there who have faced this problem and dealt with it successfully. I would appreciate any advice on how to proceed from here.

[Watermom]

After you scoop out as much debris as you can, fill it up and hook up the equipment and start filtering. If you don't have a kit, get one asap so it will make it easier to clear it up. The one we recommend is the Taylor K2006 or 2006C that you can get through the test kit link in my signature below. (Takes you to Amazon.)

In the meantime, go to Walmart and buy a bunch of jugs of their generic 8.25% bleach, several boxes of 20 Mule Team Borax and a cheap OTO kit (yellow and red drops). Test the pH and report it here.

Add 3 jugs of the bleach slowly into the skimmer this evening while the pump is running. Keep your pump running 24/7 and clean your filter as needed. Keep adding bleach and keep the chlorine test in the very dark yellow range. (You may need to test and add bleach morning and evening for a few days.) The OTO kit will help until you can get the good kit ordered and delivered which if you can, order it soon. It will make your clean up much easier!

[PoolDoc]

. . . membership upgraded.

The cautions about draining pools are MOSTLY for inground fiberglass and especially, inground vinyl pools. Most AG pools can be drained to within 6" of the bottom without problems. With IG vinyl, you can lose your liner if you drain, because it's suction fitted into place. With AG pools the risk is the walls will topple, without water pushing them out.


- moved thread to correct location.

[12ofus]

Okay- I think we've gotten the algae killed. It took about 10 gallons of bleach to get it to this milky, slightly green color. The first 6 gallons only helped for a short time and the pool turned deep, deep green again. I got aggressive and added more. My test strips and bottles are showing high chlorine and bromine. The ph is good, though. The were a lot of little specks of critters floating in the floating in the sample jar, but those are gone, too. I appreciate the help. I'm not stupid, but I'm used to taking a sample to the pool store and having them analyze it and sell me chemicals for three times the walmart price. I'd like to learn how to do this myself.

[Watermom]

Continue to keep the chlorine high and run your pump 24/7 while you are trying to clear it. It takes awhile for the filter to do its job.

You can definitely learn to do this on your own. Most importantly, get the kit I suggested in my previous post. Do a lot of reading here on the forum, especially the stickied threads at the top of the subsections. Also, read on our sister website www.poolsolutions.com. It's not as complicated as you might think. We'll be here to help with any questions!

By the way, you can ignore the bromine side of your tester. You have a chlorine pool.

[PoolDoc]

Okay- I think we've gotten the algae killed. It took about 10 gallons of bleach to get it to this milky, slightly green color.

"milky, slightly green color" = dying, not dead algae. Maintain a DARK yellow test result with OTO drops until pool is cloudy gray or blue, with no green.

[12ofus]

Do I need to backwash often? What do I do when the water is cloudy blue or gray?

[PoolDoc]

Like always: backwash on a pressure increase. For most filters 3 - 6 psi increase works out well.

[Watermom]

Yes, backwash whenever the filter pressure increases by 8-10psi over clean filter pressure. And, when you get to the point where you have cloudy blue or gray (dead algae), you continue to keep high chlorine levels and run the pump 24/7.

[12ofus]

My water is now just cloudy and slightly bluish gray. You can see your foot on the bottom through the cloudiness. Our ph level is starting to drop slightly. What can we do to clear the water? The pressure gauge is broken on our pump, so it always reads "0". We have been backwashing whenever the water coming back into the pool isn't as forceful.