My 4th year DIY opening, a new hurdle this year, some questions

[EJ257Turbo]

Hi all, I wanted to get advice on which order to do things to get my pool going this year. I've opened/closed in the past by myself with great success thanks to TFP. Anyway, over the winter I noticed that my safety mesh cover was sagging a lot and discovered that my water level had gone down big time. It wasn't until I took off the cover that I discovered that the water level had settled to just below the top of the pool light in the deep end. Because of this, I'm almost certain I have a leak in the pool light housing, conduit, whatever you call it. The water in the pool was dirty to begin with and gets dirtier by the day with the cover now off. I lowered the water level so that I can have better access to the light housing. First order of business is to fix the leak, but then I'm not sure what to do next.

Do I try to clean the existing water in the pool first before I fill the pool? I can't really use the pool pump to vacuum since the water is so low. I'm guessing I should rake out whatever I can with my net...

or....

Do I just top off the dirty pool water with more water and then clean (vacuum), balance, SLAM, etc?

Here is a photo of what I have to deal with:

 

[samt]

Your skimmers and filter won't work with the water that low. I would fix the leak, use leaf net to get the big stuff out and refill. Then you can vacuum to get other debris out, then slam / adjust the water like you always do. Get out all the debris so the chlorine/bleach is more effective.

 

[EJ257Turbo]

Thanks. That's pretty much what I thought. Hope to provide some before and after shots once everything is in order.