Newbie with pool pump/water flow question (with picture attached)

[Spotlighthw]

Hello. Newbie here and to pool anatomy in general. I just got my first house, and with it, my first pool. I've grown up with pools, but pool maintenance and mechanics were always taken care of by whatever service company my parents had procured. So now, I'm trying to learn all I can to best care for this pool!

I had a company run a water analysis, which yielded the following-
Total chlorine: 2 ppm
Free chlorine: 2 ppm
pH:7.4
Ca Hardness: 130 ppm (now on day 2 of adding calcium hardness increaser to address this, with 1 more day remaining)
Stabilizer: 0 ppm (added 6 lbs of Stabilizer yesterday to address this)
Alkalinity: 50 ppm (will be addressing this after the hardness and stabilizer is corrected)
Total dissolved solids: 650 ppm

The pool is approximately 14000 gallons, in ground, freeform/kidney shaped, marcite/gurnite finish, with hottub attached and waterfalling into it. And living in florida, land of the mosquitos, it is also screened.

Now, I am at least semi comfortable following the instructions provided to me for the chemicals, but I noticed when brushing the pool that the little bit of dirt on the bottom didn't get sucked down by the bottom drain. The skimmer is working perfectly fine, as are the jets circulating the water in the pool, so I assume the pump itself is fine and it's a matter of levers/valves to 'turn on' that bottom drain...

Anyone have any insight for me on how to do that?

I'm including a pdf showing the pump and all the pipes if that helps!

 

[Richard320]

Those pictures are too small to see the valve positions clearly. Enlarging them doesn't help. They just look fuzzy. You'll need to upload some larger pictures. A photosharing site is the way to do it easiest. Posting Photo's Tutorial

That said, a few thoughts.

1. Even when my main drain is working, there is nowhere near the suction the skimmers have. They're designed that way so no one gets trapped on the floor by suction. I can brush a flower petal straight at the openings and it will float right on by. So there may be nothing wrong with yours at all.
2. If the main drain is plumbed separately all the way to the pad, larger pictures should help us help you identify what valve goes where.
3. If the main drain is plumbed to a skimmer instead of straight to the pad, you will need a diverter valve in the bottom of the skimmer to direct some suction to the drain.

That last one is where it gets tricky. First you pull all the baskets and stuff out of the skimmer(s) and see if there is more than one opening in the bottom. If there's just the one suction port, the rest of this doesn't apply. If there are two, look on the pool wall below and directly inline with the skimmer for any mystery holes in the wall. These could be bypass holes. If the skimmer basket gets overloaded with debris, water will get drawn up through these holes to keep the pump from running dry. If you have one skimmer and two pipes coming up and no mystery holes in the pool walls, then your main drain is plumbed to the skimmer. Are there any plastic things beneath the skimmer basket that you had to remove to see the bottom of the skimmer well? If so, they need to be adjusted. If no, you need one.