Possible leak as skimmer pulling in a lots of water

[cybercoolman]

Hi,

I never owned the pool before and moved into the house with a pool. I would probably use all wrong terms and may not make sense, but I would really appreciate anyone's suggestions.

We just opened the pool and started the pump and noticed water level is drastically getting lower. Because there was a crack on union-ring on filter side, we decided to run only a couple of hours on first day of opening. Then, over next a couple of hours, pool water is being sucked into one skimmer so much (as other skimmer is not pulling any) that about 3-4 inches were gone even after pump is off. Being afraid of what might happen, we clogged the bottom hall of skimmer, then it all stopped. Would this be a leak on skimmer line somewhere? We tried various Jandy valve settings, same symptoms. Even if there's crack somewhere, how could so much water can be lost without any symptom on surrounding areas? We called the pool-technician, he will show up next 7 to 10 business days. Meanwhile, s there anything I could try to figure this thing out?