It's very hard to clean up a pool that still has sludge and debris in it. If you can scoop it up, you should.
Aquabots are NOT made for dirty pools. They work will in cleaning pools that are ALREADY almost clean, but have a little debris or silt. Sludge pits need hand cleaning, leaf eaters or commercial vacuum systems.
*** MAINTAIN CHLORINE LEVELS AS YOU CLEAN!! ***
Get a cheap OTO / phenol red kit. (Yellow / red drops) Make sure the pH is between 7 and 8. Then forget about every thing else, except chlorine. Use PLAIN 8.25% household bleach to maintain a dark yellow chlorine level while you are cleaning. Get as much bleach as you think you'll need . . . and then triple it. (For a 10K gallon sludge pit, I'd get at least 100 ppm or 9 gallons. And, I'd expect to buy more.)
If the pool starts to turn green, while you clean, add another gallon for every 10K gallons of pool water. Once the bottom is clean and there are no traces of green, you can start to worry about other stuff, like clear water.
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