We bought this home at the end of the summer and to late in the season to actually open this (cess)pool. We did pull the cover off and tried to dredge some of the mess of leaves and who knows what else out of it but the smell and the cold weather did us in quickly. We decided to replace the cover and make the attempt in the spring. Well the thaw has come and it's time to break out gas masks and try to tackle this thing but we really need some advice. I don't have any test results or even a kit just yet. We've got leaf rakes and working on getting the leaves out of the water on top of the cover. Once that's relatively clear should we just let the water from the top go into the pool? It's probably cleaner then what's underneath. We have no idea if pump, filter or anything else is in tact. Where do we start? Lots of info on green pools but not much on when the pool is black from an unknown time period of neglect. Dredge pool before opening the pipes and trying the filter and pump? From what I read there isn't much point in dumping chems into the water when it's so full of biological debris and no circulation. Any advice would be appreciated! The estimated size of the pool is 45k gallons based on some calculators online. It's a vaguely kidney bean shaped pool with an at least 10-12 foot deep end. Sorry for vague info. Atm it's the best I've got. Thanks in advance!