New Pool Owner: Starting from Swamp

[VinnyC]

Good day everyone. I am newly registered to the site and am looking forward to sharing information and asking questions.
I have been reading the advice on here for a while now and finally decided to register.
As my title indicates, I opened my pool to find a swamp. Bought the house with a pool that had been closed for, at least, two seasons. I had plumbing leaks, to include a ruptured pool inlet pipe, plenty of the floating green vegetation and some creepy crawlies.
To date, I have fixed the plumbing, skimmed the surface, balanced my pH, shocked, clarified, and added algecide to my pool. My pump has been running nonstop for the last several days. I have even back washed it. We are seeing almost no green, but lots of foam from the algecide.
Right now, I am simply allowing all the chemicals to normalize a bit before performing all the tests over again and going from there.
Oh, and I am looking for a good quality (and value) vinyl safe pool brush and vacuum. Any suggestions are appreciated.

Thank you and I look forward to speaking with you all.

 

[JVTrain]

Welcome to TFP!

You've come to the right place. First things first. Do you have a test kit? Is it on the recommended list? Pool School - Test Kits Compared If not, the TF-100 is the best for residential pool owners, K-2006 is good as well. Once you get a test kit, post your test results and we can help you from there.

I recently replaced my vinyl pool brush with this one off of amazon: Amazon.com : Stanley 20872 18 Garden It seems to work well although I wish the bristles were a little less flexible as they bend to much when I apply pressure. But overall, pretty good. I used to have one like this: Amazon.com : Blue Devil B3518 Wall Brush Deluxe, 18-Inch : Patio, Lawn Garden but the bristles started to fall out and end up in my filter/skimmer/pump basket after brushing.

I'm assuming you're talking about a manual vacuum head. Any of these will do the trick: Amazon.com: vinyl pool vacuum head: Patio, Lawn Garden Pick a shape that you think will work well in your pool corners on the bottom and give it a whirl.

 

[VinnyC]

Hi JVTrain. Thank you for your response and suggestions. I do have a test kit. Its the Taylor Complete High K-2005.
Also, I figured I would post my current pool status in the Getting Started section, rather than the Introduction section. Here is the link, if you wouldn't mind weighing in over there.
Starting from Swamp