Closed Pool Drain / bad pool circulation

[Cloudbusting]

after diving 6ft and unscrewing screws I found out that there is... nothing under the plastic main drain - I guess previous owners must have cemented the drain years ago - pipe still exist.

Would it be worthwile opening it again and maybe with a snake and new flexible pipe reopening it?

The problem I am currently facing is that there's no circulation unless a pool hose or vacum cleaner is in the pool.

3 returns are 1 foot deep, 1 skimmer also 1 vaccum port in the shallow side

any ideas / suggestions?

 

[JasonLion]

If you aim one of the returns down towards the bottom of the deep end you shouldn't have any problems with circulation. Before my renovation I only had a single return and I never had much trouble finding a way to aim it so that all of the pool water circulated well and mixed throughly.

 

[Isaac-1]

I would also suggest looking at some of the alternative eyeball types, like the 90 degree angle fittings and slitted eyeball fittings (you may try an ebay search on pool eyeball) to direct return flow to the deep end.

Ike

 

[Cloudbusting]

I'll take a closer look at the old/half broken return eyeballs, thanks.

how hard is it to take them out and replace them?

 

[Isaac-1]

There is more than one style of eyeball, some screw in others are press in, some have threads on the inside others on the outside, etc.

 

[Cloudbusting]

Looked online and surprisingly found a very good one for $6 at Leslie's that comes with 3 different eyeballs, currently can feel the water stream 5 feet away at 2000rpm