After I got most of silt out I still could only see about a foot down into water before vacuum head disappeared, this is where I started to slam, filter and then vacuum out the heavy residual. I left the pump on 24/7 for over 7 days. My motor is so old and corroded so that I can no longer read the face plate and model number so I do not think it is suicide to do that. During SLAM which is recommended by this site, the pump is supposed to be on 24/7, so most on here are doing similar some much longer than myself.
PS, you have way better visibility than I had my water looked like coffee with heavy cream in it. I can see the seat in your spa in the picture above.
If you do need to have Pool Store come out to change pump, also have them explain the system you have thoroughly and all your plumbing if not familiar already, this helped me a lot just be careful of the diagnosis. One guy told me I had broken pipes in my return lines and wanted to dig up concrete to replace the lines which would cost thousands of dollars. What I had was a bad spider gasket ($50 to buy the top half of valve online) and broken lateral ($40 online)
I do have sand filter and had to backwash several times, I assume you will have to clean filter several times but do not know as not that familiar with other types of filters. I also had thick black layer stuck to liner but the SLAM with brushing several times a day took care of it.
PS, you have way better visibility than I had my water looked like coffee with heavy cream in it. I can see the seat in your spa in the picture above.
If you do need to have Pool Store come out to change pump, also have them explain the system you have thoroughly and all your plumbing if not familiar already, this helped me a lot just be careful of the diagnosis. One guy told me I had broken pipes in my return lines and wanted to dig up concrete to replace the lines which would cost thousands of dollars. What I had was a bad spider gasket ($50 to buy the top half of valve online) and broken lateral ($40 online)
I do have sand filter and had to backwash several times, I assume you will have to clean filter several times but do not know as not that familiar with other types of filters. I also had thick black layer stuck to liner but the SLAM with brushing several times a day took care of it.