Re: How do i get all of this GUNK out of the bottome of my p
I've done many, many green-to-cleans (using TFP guidelines for cleaning)...
When there's mud on the bottom and you're using braille to net or using the "leaf hopper", all you're doing to that mud/muck is kicking it into the water column. Once it is in the column it eats chlorine like there's no tomorrow. If you can, try to vacuum as much as you can to waste first (might be too late for that, as it sounds like you're beyond "not" kicking it up).
HOWEVER... there comes a point where it's faster, cheaper and just plain simpler to just drain the pool - or at-least a fair portion of it. You'll spend upwards of $100 or more on gas/trips to wally world on bleach, when you can lease a pump for a $25-40 a day.
As far as the cost of water, my home in the winter uses about 10-15K gal a month in flushing/bathing/showering, etc... for 2 adults and 2 kids (does not include lawn watering, where the use goes up 4X in the summer). So, for the price of about a month or two's water-bill, draining & refilling can be an option as well.
And you can have it drained, washed out, muck removed, and start refilling in about 6-12 hours. Once your filled, you can superchlorinate with 1/10th of the chlorine to kill what you missed - and start re-adjusting the T/A, etc...
The flip side of this is that you need to be aware of the local water tables, as they used to make boats out of concrete and a in very rare cases if the water table is high a shell could float/lift. We just plain won't consider draining if it's rained in the past week or so.
I'm not saying to not continue doing what you're doing - as with lots of time and effort, it will work. I am saying that there are alternatives that can be considered when the pool's really, really, really bad - that will be cheaper and faster.
- Jeff