ok, gonna just poke a little more, maybe someone will see this and say they had a similar situation and found an easier fix than what I have come up with, aside from harping on me for proper test results before hearing what they actually are.
MY pool was closed for more than 2 seasons, that means an entire 2 years plus that it sat, unopened, untreated chemically (to my knowledge) and not cared for in that entire time, maybe even longer. This pool endured a tropical storm flood where the mohawk river flooded over the river banks of a river that normally is about 70 feet across, that had become 400-500 feet across, wiped out major bridges, washed homes away, and much more. I have been struggling with vacuuming the pool because no matter how I do it, the pool looks (in my opinion) like algae is sitting at the very bottom of the deep end. I could see the walls which are about 4 feet down before a gradual degradation to the deepest part of which I can see another foot or 2. Below this, the pool looked green and not being pool knowledgeable, I assumed this was a low spot for moving water and down there was a layer of algae even though I have held my FC at 10ppm for like 2 weeks now. Well, over the past few days, it has rained off and on so much, and coupled with a few hours of vacuuming to waste, the CYA is gone. This is the least of my problems but on my list of pool chores to take care of. Anyway, yesterday evening between thunder showers, I decided I had had enough. I tested the FC because I had used up the last of my on-hand supply the day before which wasn't even a gallons worth and my pool had between .5 and 1ppm. I grabbed a pair of goggles and a few different "pool scrubber tools" that are supposedly ok for all types of pools, even vinyl. Feeling the scrubber on my skin, I thought "pretty abrasive, but not abrasive enough to do damage" and I was right. I can scrub like there is no tomorrow and there is no deep marks of any kind. It just cleans the surface. Here is my problem... 1). The scrub brushes take a ridiculous amount of elbow grease to cut through the scaling and leaf stains. and 2). I can't stay submerged long enough to really get an idea of what to do here.
I have figured out 1 trick as of yet, and that is to have my son place one of his feet on my back to keep me under long enough to take just the vacuum hose (while on exhausting to waste) and place the very end of the hose flat on the surface and scrap the end back and forth vigorously. This lifts the scaling, leaf stains and any residual left over dirt/dead algae. Has anyone ever encountered this situation with the leaf and calcium?!?! scaling? what did you do to fix this? was there a chemical you put in that assisted you with the removal of these types of stains? Is there a tool that assisted you better than others? Please help, I have a party for my son coming up next weekend, I would like the pool ready for it