I never tried looking at a small sample, just judged by the amount of precipitate obviously accumulating on the bottom of the pool. It could be floc, algae, or both. Especially in corners and a few other spots where it seems to pile up more than others. But I would say that if it is noticeable in the sample, the same would be true in the pool, and more vacuuming will be needed. The floc is slightly heavier than water, so it will settle out in time, even with the pool running. It just takes longer as some diminishing part of it is kept in suspension. I'm a bit new at adopting the TFP methodology, so am hesitant to advise on Cl levels, system run time, etc. The overnight test (
Perform the Overnight FC Loss Test (OCLT)) should give you a clear idea of when you have killed all the algae and can cut back your Cl additions to normal levels. Dead algae sinks to the bottom (slowly). You may want to consider just running your system long enough to mix in any new chlorine additions (a couple of hours), with the rest being off time to promote more settling. Test a couple of times a day, to make sure you aren't getting dips in the Cl levels due to sun, rain, etc. that could allow algae to come back. It will not be a quick process, but keeping up on it will eventually clear your pool. I usually tried to vac prior to times I knew others wanted to use it. Just so they wouldn't resuspend stuff on the bottom. If the water was somewhat cloudy, so be it - they wouldn't be adding to the issue.
So, in sum - the SLAM and OCLT are important to make sure you don't have on-going cloudiness due to live algae. Closely followed by periodic vac to waste of whatever builds up on the bottom.
I just ran across this article about the phosphate remover (
Phosphate Removers - Further Reading), so it too is acting like the floc. Since you seem to have had an algae outbreak that started this whole thing, the warnings about it giving invalid test numbers seem appropriate. It seems the pool store had you add it at a time when it would do no good at all. It has never been a product I have used. I would tend to avoid its use, and just concentrate on having good Cl numbers to keep future algae in check.