[androal]

I just fired up the pond for the spring and something strange is going on.

The falls are going very, very slow.

The pump is a sequence 1000 connected to a 3-chamber spirex vortex filter system.

When I plug it in, it sounds normal, like it is running fine, but the flow rate is about 1/10th of what i normally get.

This kind of thing has happened before, but it was always because something got clogged in the intake of the pump. I checked the pipe going into the pump, and water seems to be flowing just fine into the pump.

The pump is below the water line, so there is constant gravity feed going into it.

The pump is going on 8 years old, so I expect it will just fail at some point.

I am tempted to just order a new pump, based on the age, but i don't want to do that if the pump is not the problem.

Anyone have experience enough with pumps to tell if my pump is "on-th-fritz" and about to die on me, or if it's likely something else? (maybe something got cloggged up in a pipe somewhere over the winter?)

Is a pump an a "all-or-nothing" device? In other words, if it is working at 1/10th it's normal strength, is it still "working" and the problem is something else, or can the pump "fade away" before it completely craps out on me?

any insights appreciated!