Visiting a friend in France and hes asked me to help. His pool is approximately 15, maybe 20 years old, he's not sure. He has lived here for 8 years though and so far as he knows there has been no maintenance carried out since his tenure. The sand has never been changed (im a bit worried about doing that) although i do have patients and wont be vacuuming out the old if necessary, I'll do it by hand. He now has algae in his pool. I have nothing here apart from pastilles, and some shock tabs.. and a 5 ltr container of chlorine I guess. anyway, im off to the pool shop tomorrow. My question is, is there anything i should prioritise when trying to move forward with this problem? Do I need to buy test equipment first? is there anything i should look out for in a poorly maintained pool? Apart from algae I reckon its pretty clean, nothing of any substance but when I vacuum it doesn't take long for me to see the algae recycling. I'm sorry its short notice and I'm going to have a good read this evening. Just trying to help a friend and have to be back in the uk Friday. dont speak much French but I can get past that.. Just a few pointers or links to posts I might read here. Cheers Guys. .V,