Hi, texas dad I believe I'm the one you're referring to as I did replace the sand in my filter with pea gravel and replaced the Hayward pump with a Sequence. I am thrilled with the results after little more than a year! As for the air pump, I under-estimated the power of the one I bought and it really roiled the water. It was very quiet actually and very efficient at oxygenating the water, but I took it out because, as stated, it was way more than I needed and I couldn't figure out how to restrict the airflow w/o damaging the pump. I left my pump running all thru the winter and had no problems at all. Right now, I'm having to dump out the skimmer basket on the pump daily due to buying water hyacinth that promptly shed ALL their roots after putting them in the pond-LOL-but it's pulling from the bottom drain so I figure it's doing its job of drawing everything down and out. My pond has a habit of catching all the leaves from surrounding trees, too, but that gives me an excuse to be out there in the mornings-since most anything will float before it sinks, I just skim it out with my pool net before it has the chance to clutter up the bottom during the fall/spring leaf drop/flower drop. I did use my pool vacuum last fall to clean up the silt and debris on the bottom, but had to backwash frequently. I still have lots of plans, but little time and a meager budget so it'll take awhile. But that's what it's all about and it's sooo worth it. I'm adding a link to my photobucket account if you should be interested in seeing the results so far. Whatever you decide to do, enjoy it...ponding is an ongoing love affair. Sorry all for the lengthy post; still passionate after a year+ Linda Here is a link that might be useful: pool/pond conversion

Pool pump motors can be wired to run on either 110 or 220. IF your pump was wired for 110 and supplied with 110 it was not running at 1/2 speed but was perhaps drawing more amperage than necessary. IF the pool guy changed the power supply to 220 in this case but did not re-wire the back of the motor, the motor would trip on it's own safety controls BUT WOULD PROBABLY NOT BE DAMAGED. Check the back of the motor, where the wires are connected to see if the motor is set for 110 or 220, it is usually a case of moving 2 wires to different connectors. IF your pump was wired for 220 and receiving 110 it would run at 1/2 speed. This is usually really obvious because the motor doesn't sound right and hardly moves any water.

I am starting my pool next week which is approx. 25,000 gallons with a cleaner, two skimmers & four returns. It will also have a waterfall & three jets on my sunshelf with a total demand of about 75-80 gpm. I want to be energy efficient but not really interested in the Intelliflo, a little too pricey for me. Thanks again for the info. Julie

Just my two cents, on heat transfer in a dynamic environment. I.e. fluid as opposed to a solid block of anything. There is a lot of opposing theory here. First lets try and apples and apples it. If the surface area and thermal dynamic properties of the heat exchanger are the same i.e. one is aluminum a one is copper. And the only variable is the speed at which the water flows through the pipe. You first have to understand the effects of laminar flow on the xsfer of heat (energy) from the walls of the heat exchanger to the fluid in the center of the pipe. Due to the increase of friction at the edges of the water Colum inside the pipe , the water in the center of the pipe flows faster, with me so far? The statement "heat xsfer is greatest when the deference between the bodies is greatest" is in a way correct when you look at percentage of transfer. What you fail to take into account is that the transfer works both ways. At the same time you are heating the water , you are cooling the pipe. Thus requiring more energy to heat the pipe. Since the energy to heat the pipe is limited i.e. the amperage of your wiring in a heat pump or flow of gas in a furnace, You must stick to real world. Another fact is heat transfer has momentum. Once you pass a point of the curve you see a ramping effect called thermal momentum. Soooo if the gauge is how fast you raise a body of water outside the exchanger i.e. a pool or spa the question is simple the longer a molecule is in proximity to a heat source the more energy it will adsorb. So the two options are 1. to run that "piece" of water quickly through the exchanger so it can deposit its heat into the body of water and go back and get more? Or , 2. to allow that "piece" of water more time in the exchanger to gather more energy to deposit it in to the water. The end result is the same, Hot. The deference is the curve. We use this formula every day in controlling chemical reactions through temperature. The slower moving fluid reaches the steeper part of the curve faster, thus gaining Thermal momentum fasterÂ.. ending up with the body of water reaching a desired temperature faster. DamÂ.. I need a beer!