Quote Originally Posted by Poconos
Something is wrong. If you opened the air release for a minute, that sounds like a long time. Did water finally come out? You need to leave it open until that happens. My guess is it has to be the filter bacause if there was trapped air after it, like in an unused return line or something, it (compressed air) would have to move the mass of water in the filter back through the pump and skimmer and I can't imagine getting that much of a blast from the skimmer. A thought, have someone hold their hand over a return jet as you kill the pump and see if you continue to get a flow for a couple seconds after the pump is shut off. Just another data point. Other than these comments, I'm out of ideas for now.
Al
Seems to me what is not working is the check valve, or lack of it. A check valve should be installed immediately after the pump, and will prevent your "gieser' very quickly.

This could be bad workmanship on the part of the original installer.

Hope this helps.

Pat