Air bubbles in return?

[BluePlastic]

Ok sorry for asking so many questions... I'm still trying to figure this pool out.

I have a pool/spa set up deal. Spa is right next to the pool. There are 4 jets around the spa which shot out water when the pump is running. When the pump is running the spa fills up and the extra spills into the pool (there's a dip in the tile made for this I'm assuming). Above each little jet is a little hole where I'm figuring water goes through and then shoots out the jet. After turning the pump on they're all bubbly because the water hasn't risen high enough for the water to go in those little holes. Well on the fourth one, it never clears up... it's always making bubbles and making sounds out of that little hole like there's not enough water going through or something. But before all four were working fine and I didn't have any air bubbles coming from any of them so what happened?

I plugged my hand over the jet and water shot out the little hole (and air bubbles shot out one of the jets on the other side). When I kept scooping water into the whole, the bubbles went away. Plugging up the whole made a big sucking sound when you took your hand off...

Just so you know what I'm talking about here are some pictures...

The bubbles...

The hole I'm talking about at the top of the tile.

Also, it never seems like the drain in the spa is sucking at all when I have the pump running. I couldn't feel any suction with my foot. The skimmer is working fine. But yeah... OH! Thats another thing. I have two sets of valves at my pumps. One set I figured out is for the skimmers. One way, just the pool skimmer is working, the other, the spa. In the middle, they both work (but weaker suction). If I do just the spa skimmer though, it kind of empties out pretty fast and the water drops below the waterline and can't get any water into the skimmer. If I do just the pool skimmer, the spa fills up a lot and just spills over the whole side into the pool.

The other valve I have no clue what it does. I've been leaving them both in the middle though. Should I be running the spa skimmer and the pool skimmer separate or just keep running them both? And what about the drain? (maybe that's what the second valve is for? Pool drain and spa drain? I never thought of that... Still can't feel any suction even though the valve is in the middle but I dunno).

Thanks No one I know has a spa and it slipped my mind when I was at the pool store today... Sorry for asking for so much. The more I use it the more things I'm noticing and I really have no clue about any of this stuff.

 

[Weth]

Whew, this is a tough one.

Could it be those little holes above the jets is the venturi suction to add air to the jet to make the bubbles. I have never seen it quite that way, but your description sounds like that may be it.

As far as the valves and the pool/spa. When you are removing water from the spa through the spa skimmer, and the level keeps going down, I am assuming there is another valve somewhere that determines where the return water goes. If it is not set to 100% spa, you are going to lose water in the spa as you are seeing. Set the suction to come from the spa, and all the return to the spa (isolating the spa from the pool). Now this would be spa mode where you could heat the water only in the spa.

You could try taking a picture of your equipement to try to help us determine where everything is going and what valves need to be changed to get desired outcome.

 

[BluePlastic]

So I was just over there looking at it again tonight (this is a house I'm fixing up so I don't live there yet so I have to make trips ) and actually there are only 3 holes. one of the middle jets doesn't have a hole. Also I noticed the hole above the one making the bubbles is not as big as the other two so I guess water is just barely reaching the hole. The hole in the second picture is nice and big see. I couldn't take a picture above the bubbly one because it doesn't go as low so you have to look way under the edge to see it.

Another thing I've just noticed... the cement above the bubbly hole is always wet... I'm not sure how it's doing that as the water doesn't go high enough to touch the cement even with it bubbling. And it makes about a half circle with about a 1 1/2 - 2 inch radius from the edge on top of the cement... like soaked up water... see in that first picture? It's wet on the side there because I splashed water on it but when I came back tonight (the water should have long dried) there was that little half circle on top in that spot (and in that picture, it's not even really wet on top much yet...)

I'll take a picture of the set up tomorrow.