Please help. Haven't opened pool in 3 1/2 years. Never had a pool! Severe help needed

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To fill feed line of pump from the skimmers open the top cover of the pump so you can see skimmer basket, the PVC pipe coming into the front of pump and going to the T with a valve on either side of the T I believe goes to the Skimmers (again I have not Identified your bottom drain). To verify you could take a shop vac and make it blow the air and put it into the line open 1 of the valves and go to skimmers one should be blowing bubbles. Then close that valve and open the other the other skimmer should be blowing bubble if you get a good seal where you are inputting air water will actually blow out of the pipe and into the air and could probably see it real easy. If one of those lines blows bubbles from the deepest end of pool it is probably bottom drain. If you have "gizmos" in the skimmers or a blockage of course you will not get air down and will have blowback and must address the blockage. The "Gizmos" unscrew. Still looking to see if bottom drain is dedicated to one of the valves and both skimmers on the other or if bottom drain is incorporated in a skimmer. If you do this, I would also undo the fernco in the return line (marked by red valve) and blow air into it to see where you get bubbles in the pool. These will be return lines. If you get blowback and no bubbles the returns are plugged with a rubber stopper you need to find them and remove the stoppers. Also, your Sand filter drain is around the bottom and it is marked on the schematic sticker and the cap that screws onto this drain was sitting next to the sight glass in the picture. After you verify plumbing fill the pump basket area with water as much as you can and put the cap on, there will be a little air but will come out in a few seconds of turning on the pump, if not shut down pump and let us know.
 
A couple of other thoughts: Before you turn on pump, the Variflow valve needs to be set on Filter, I believe it is on winterize at present. If you do not you will get a lot of water coming out the backwash port (the port with the gray barbed exiting about 4") Also you will need a backwash hose witch is again a $20 item or when you backwash the whole area around the pump will get a bath. If it is set to filter and some water comes out backwash port it is indicative of a bad spider gasket. I also read somewhere to only turn the vari-flow vale clockwise to prevent damage of the spider gasket but I do not know if it is true, it does make sense to me, but I do it anyway till I find out it is false.

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Good job Zappafan, you caught that while I was typing, and I type slowly.
 
Pressure wash the deck to keep more debris from entering pool.
When adding Shock or high levels of chlorine - brush the pool to get the algie/ debris off the sides and bottom.
I would recommend a stainless steel brush to help remove the black dirt/ stains as well as loosen any materials on the plaster.

Keep brushing, shocking and clean your filter often... it WILL CLEAN UP.

Looks like a really nice pool.
 

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Go ahead and test the pump ya need to know if it is going to work if your confident in the electrical. Don't start adding stuff until you know your equipment is going to run. Definitely get everything cleaned up before you start, once you start you'll need to stay after it. Did you fix the brick coping?
 
Ok well didn't get nearly as much accomplished as Id hoped. Did not start the pump or fix the coping. Too many things going on at home to be productive. The area is cleaned up though, found a backwash hose but think I need an attachment. All plugs are in for the pump as far as I know, and I found all the skimmer baskets as well. Also found what looks like some kind of vacuum with wheels attached to a hose so hopefully that will be of help in the future but I have no clue how to work it or where to hook it up. Sometime tomorrow or Tuesday I will either start with coping first or give the pump a try to make sure everything is good. Anxiously awaiting that tf-100 to arrive and praying the pump and filter are good to go. Is the slow flow of water to the pump normal or should it be coming in faster? And was that water from the skimmer in the pool or regular access water?
 
QUOTE (Is the slow flow of water to the pump normal or should it be coming in faster? And was that water from the skimmer in the pool or regular access?)

There really shouldn't be any water going to the pump if it is off unless it is below the water line of the pool. Anyway there is always stuff keeping us from the task at hand do what you can and keep on keeping on. Yes sound like you found your vacuum, there should be a plastic frisbee looking thing with a hole in the middle designed to go into the skimmer and cover/seal over the basket. The hose attaches to the hole in it.
 
Your Kit should be there by Wed, I ordered more reagent for testing chlorine Friday afternoon and got an email saying to be delivered Tue, I usually get things in 2 business days even though I choose free delivery which is slowest and I live in NJ so you should be close to same region and time frame. I would try pump now that you are pretty sure you know your system in case you need to trouble shoot some more. Just be sure the valves are on and and Vari flow set to filter. Pressure will probably be around 15 if it gets to 30 turn off and verify flow to returns. And I would not put any Chemicals in yet, but that is my opinion and many who are eager, put in half a gal or gal depending on size of pool and use brushing method to get started, this is not wrong, I just personally do not think it worth the time and effort or that it speeds the process that significantly. If Your CYA is too low the sun will burn chlorine off real quick and too high is a whole different problem. So if it were me, I would verify circulation, filtration and get familiar with system. Fix bricks and spend any extra time reading Pool School especially testing procedures and SLAM procedures (note it is very different than shocking). By the way when it WAS me, I wasted the time and money and and started dumping things in pool, some of which actually slowed me down. Dave (Duraleigh), I believe, gave the advice to not put anything in your pool unless you know what it is and what it is going to do to your pool. Once you get the kit and test you know what you are doing AND IT WORKS. Best of luck and will keep following and trying to help as much as I can.
 
Been trying to read up on pool school and it says algae going into filter will increase pressure and cause constant cleaning of the filter. Should I only put the pump on for a little just to make sure it works and then turn it off or let it run for a while?
 
Sand filter easy to clean just backwash. it will take a few hours before you need to backwash and that is if really bad so I would filter now to be sure your filter is good, when you vacuum I would vacuum to waste until you get it cleaned up pretty well. We may have a few issues to troubleshoot so lets find out now by using it the way you normally would. There are good youtube videos on how to vacuum.
 

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