Hi Hal,



I have looked at other pumps:



http://www.thepondoutlet.com/home/tpo/page_1679





633-gph (EPP315) - 35 watts; max lift 7.8', 1/2" - 3/4"outlet fitting. 12'
cord.

1056-gph (EPP320) - 70 watts; max lift 9.1', 1/2"- 3/4" outlet fitting. 15'
cord.

1267-gph (EPP325) - 90 watts; max lift 14.7', 3/4"- 1" outlet fitting. 15'
cord.



Since my pond is plumbed for two pumps anyway, I could run a 1,056 gal/hr
pump say 12 hours at night and then run one of the Aquascape 3,000 gal pumps
the other 12 hours during the day.



280 watts - 70 watts * 12 * 365 = 919,800 watt hours/year



This would cut almost a million watt hours yearly, which would be great.



Cycling the current pump off and on would be a lot easier and cheaper, of
course. I had read a couple articles where they said do not interrupt the
pump flow for more than five hours in one spot, and one hour in another
article, so I was considering going the "cycling" approach (here the concern
is oxygen depletion in the bio filter).



As it stands now, I turn off the pump for about an hour each day to feed the
fish (there is so much current that all the food ends up in the skimmer
otherwise), and the water quality is great. I thought that an hour on
followed by an hour off during the night would be a good compromise.



I guess I could try it and test the water very closely to see if it degraded
the bacteria in the bio filter. I was just hoping to see if anyone had tried
this before. Thank you for the feedback -- much appreciated.



Thank you,



doug