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Technically, you can fill in a pool yourself—with the caveat that filling in a pool requires the ability to drain the pool properly and move a substantial amount of dirt, which aren’t beginner DIY skills. If you want to fill in a pool, you’re better off hiring a local pool removal professional.

It can take 24 to 48 hours to fill a 15,000-gallon pool with a garden hose. A hose will pump out anywhere from 4 to 12 gallons per minute, with the average hose resting somewhere between 8 to 9 gallons per minute. If you want to speed up the process, a water delivery service can fill your pool in a few hours or less.

Yes, you will need to shock your pool with high levels of chlorine or bromine when you first fill it to kill off bacteria and pathogens. You’ll need to wait for the chlorine concentration to come back down to a safe level before swimming. After that, you can test and maintain the chlorine and other levels as normal. The only exception to this is if you get pool water delivered by a professional. In that case, the water might come pretreated, so you might not need to shock it.

An easy way to know whether your sand filter has enough sand is to check how full the filter is and what the sand looks and feels like. The filter container should be two-thirds to three-quarters full of sand. Look for interior marks indicating the ideal sand level. If you put your hand into the sand, it should flow through your fingers without clumping. The filter pressure gauge is also an easy indicator—the right amount of sand leads to normal pressure, while too much or too little sand can cause high or low pressure.