Do I drain and restart or use the old media to filter? The pool cover fell into the pool before we had a chance to drain it. It is now a sorry black mess.
16' x48" intex. Overwintered with the pill, but now...
Longer version of story -- I had lowered the water below the lowest hole in the wall, and covered, same as last year. Throughout the winter, I drained the pool cover regularly, using a cover pump. We have a leaf cover, which we shook after the leaves were done dropping and put back in the spring, to catch all the flowers and seeds. About 2 months ago, I left the cover pump running too long, and noticed that the level of the pool was lowering -- I assumed the pump put a hole in the liner and it was now drawing from the pool water itself. We did not do anything, as it was still very cold, and then the trees started dropping flowers and seeds (pool is under 3 maple trees). So today, my spouse and i gingerly tried to remove the leaf cover, so we can inspect the condition of the liner. Only, there is nothing "gingerly" about the amount of weight trapped in the mesh -- and when we hoisted it over the edge of the pool, the cover slipped in. I just had a chance to see the water below was actually clear -- but now it mixed with the cover water and has turned black.
So to the question of why did we not drain the cover first? I wanted to understand if it was drawing from the pool itself befor turning the pump on.
Now... all that is water under the bridge. Do I drain or try to clean using last year's filter media? Do I dump chlorine in it before adding water or just get the system going and go through what might be months of SLAM?

16' x48" intex. Overwintered with the pill, but now...
Longer version of story -- I had lowered the water below the lowest hole in the wall, and covered, same as last year. Throughout the winter, I drained the pool cover regularly, using a cover pump. We have a leaf cover, which we shook after the leaves were done dropping and put back in the spring, to catch all the flowers and seeds. About 2 months ago, I left the cover pump running too long, and noticed that the level of the pool was lowering -- I assumed the pump put a hole in the liner and it was now drawing from the pool water itself. We did not do anything, as it was still very cold, and then the trees started dropping flowers and seeds (pool is under 3 maple trees). So today, my spouse and i gingerly tried to remove the leaf cover, so we can inspect the condition of the liner. Only, there is nothing "gingerly" about the amount of weight trapped in the mesh -- and when we hoisted it over the edge of the pool, the cover slipped in. I just had a chance to see the water below was actually clear -- but now it mixed with the cover water and has turned black.
So to the question of why did we not drain the cover first? I wanted to understand if it was drawing from the pool itself befor turning the pump on.
Now... all that is water under the bridge. Do I drain or try to clean using last year's filter media? Do I dump chlorine in it before adding water or just get the system going and go through what might be months of SLAM?
