First of all let me say that I dont know anything about pools and I was really happy to stumble upon this website. I just purchased a 25 year old home and it has a small above groud pool in the backyard (24 feet?). I have no idea how old the pool is or how long it has been sitting winterized. The pool itself is in kinda rough shape, it looks like the cover has been on it for some time due to the dirt and other junk laying in the water that was on the pool cover. Also there appears to be a rust hole just above the water line where it appears the liner could pooch out of if i fill it above that level. I was thinking about taking a piece of vinyl and putting it in the hole, so that the vinyl doesnt get damaged by the rust hole. Is this a good idea?

Today I finally got the courage to see what was lurking beneath the cover. When I lifted it off it appears to be in pretty good shape, it is about half full, with a little dirt on the bottom, and there were 4 dead froggies that I had to fish out, but other than that the water color is good, and i dont see any algae on the sides.

I think the previous owners used baquacil because there is a box under the deck that says baquacil on it. Since I just bought the house, funds are limited and I have a couple questions regarding the conversion process. Assuming that they did actually use baquacil, do you think a conversion will be necessary? If so where is the cheapest place to buy bleach/chemicals?

I plan on taking a few bottles of water from the pool to my local pool store to see if they can test for baquacil tomorrow. Is there anything else I should be concerned with?