1st time pool owner...

So, I just bought a house that has an inground pool and I am pretty much clueless on what does what on the pool.

When we viewed the pool it had a robotic sweeper running out of the skimmer, but after we moved in I noticed that there is something that looks like a vacuum port on the middle/side of the pool.
http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2901/1...f4c25b38_z.jpg

Question 1: How do I activate this vacuum port to use that instead of using the skimmer port, since there is only 1 skimmer in the pool? Or should I continue to use the skimmer port?
http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2903/1...cf0e4cc8_z.jpg

Question 2: When looking at the pump/filter system I only see a spigot handle (excluding the switches for the solar heater) What does this do? Does this enable/disable the main drain?
http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2922/1...90b98bac_z.jpg

Question 3: I swam down to the bottom so see how much suction the main drain was putting out and it doesn't seem to be enabled at all. Should this be when I am not vacuuming?

Thanks I advance!

In the picture above, I can only see a single line entering the pump, and single line leaving the filter. If that's the case, the main drain may well have been abandoned -- which is not ideal, but not easily fixed, either.

The non-rising stem (NRS) brass gate valve on the left of the filter suggests that your pool is 20+ years old, so the original main drain line, may have collapsed or leaked.

. . . membership updated.

I believe the drain is plumbed in to the skimmer, but when I bought the house there was no skimmer basket or float valve assembly. I am wondering if I bought these if the drain would turn on (from the random thins I read on the internet). The pool was resurfaced last year and they even replaced the main drain cover, so that makes me think that it must still work or why would they replace the drain cover.

Another Question: What is the threaded higher up port in the front of the skimmer (pic below)? They have the sweeper connected to the back lower port via some piece of elbow PVC.
http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2933/1...2c92fe8b_z.jpg

It would be possible to connect a skimmer to the main drain, but I can't imagine someone doing so. More likely the open side port is (or was) connected to a skimmer bypass, that prevented the pump from running dry if the water got too low to fill the skimmer throat. It's become common to plaster over the sidewall opening to which that port would have connected.

By the way, you REALLY should get a skimmer basket. If the wrong plastic toy or object ends up in the skimmer, you'll end up digging up the deck to remove it!

A lot of the pool diagrams I found online show the drain port in the skimmer and the float assembly enabling and disabling the main drain. Any ideas on how to enable the vacuum port that is on the wall in the middle of the pool (the one in the pic of the 1st question from above)?

Also, I did pick up the skimmer bucket the other day since I had planned to take out the sweeper for a party I was having.

There are many ways to pipe the skimmer and the main drain. Your issue is not how some builders have done it, but rather how YOUR builder did it.

Without knowing what pipes connect to YOUR skimmer, I can't offer any suggestions.

So it looks like I am just missing the control plate to enable the main drain, which sits in the skimmer itself. #10 in the diagram - http://www.poolcenter.com/p/skimmer. Just ordered that, so maybe that is how I can enable the vacuum port on the side too. Will update once it comes in the mail.

Thanks for the info.