I bought my first house in September. The previous owners closed the pool prior to selling. I opening it last week and am struggling to learn everything. I've tried asking the people at the pool store, but they just tell me to buy this and that and don't really help. I'm hoping I can find answers here. Any help would be very welcomed.

Q1. All my chemicals are within the proper range except free chlorine which is stuck at zero. The water is perefctly clear and blue. The testing kit said it should be between 1-3ppm. My total chlorine is is at 3ppm. My pool sits in direct sunlight, so I know that kills the chlorine faster, but how do I get my free chroline up and keep it there?

Q2. I have a DE filter. Over the first few days the pressure gauge would start at 10 and go up to 20 within an hour or two. Each time i "bumped" it and it returned down a little (maybe restarting at 11 instead of 10). I've drained the filter twice since then each time adding more DE. I assume for a new opening it was just doing alot of cleaning. Now the gauge starts at 10, but still slowly goes up. Example it went from 10 to 15 over the course of about 4 days. Is this normal, is the filter still doing alot of cleaning or is there a problem?

Q3. The vacuum that came with the pool is the type you attach to the end of the pole on the "skimmer" I think its called. You attach a hose then attach the other end to a piece of plastic the covers the skimmer on the pool. I've connected it all and had the hose filled with water, but the suction is very weak and isn't really pulling the dirt up. Am I missing something or do I need to buy something better?

Again I thank you for any help!