Can someone help me? I've been trying to get my pool clean for awhile now. I started it late and never even opened the pool last year. It had lots of leaf material and algae in it. Most of the leaves are gone now, after my dd and I got in and manually cleaned them out.

I attempted to use the vacuum but it's not working right. I don't think it has any suctioning power and I'm not sure why. I've only helped put the pool up once, two years ago when I bought the house. I vaguely remember the flow from the filtering system to be stronger than it is this year. I've opened the filter and basket thing up to see if it was clogged but it's not. I also noticed that the skimmer basket on the side of the pool, where the water first goes out of the pool into the filtering system doesn't collect much debris this year. I don't even feel any suction there, isn't there supposed to be?

Also wonder if I'm not doing something right when I hook the hose/vacuum thing up. I remember the previous owner showing me how to put the hose/vacuum into the water and then putting the other end of the hose over the output hole that comes out of the pool after it has come back from the filtering system, and watching for the hose to rise to the top, before attaching it to the thing that goes overtop of the skimmer. Am I doing something wrong? There's never anything in the basket after half hour or more of vacuuming the pool, and that's when there was lots of leaves in the pool.

I hope I've made myself clear and someone knows what I'm talking about because I'm getting very frustrated. I'm about to give up and take everything back down and close the pool. Help, please!