Brother, unless electric is really cheap where you live, 400Watts will quickly eat up the initial savings of buying a cheap pump that's not designed for continuous use (that's why it has that float switch - that pump is designed as an intermittent duty sump pump and will typically overheat when run continuously and last a little over a year). In contrast to the direct drive you refer to, a typical magnetic drive pump of the same size but lower head will draw around 250 Watts, run continuously for many years and be cheaply rebuildable. A more expensive asynchronous magnetic drive, also called hybrid magnetic drive, will draw 200Watts or less. To take advantage of the savings make sure your tubing is 1 to 2 sizes LARGER than the discharge of the pump, to minimize friction losses and get every drop you're paying for. My advice would be to figure your running costs first, then take another look at the initial price. Happy Ponding! D

I have both the Eco Plus (4000gal) and Cyclone Alpine (8000gal), I push water 50ft up a hill, so both will be probably an overkill. Eco Plus has some small pumps, just understand what you need to push first, width of waterfalls etc. I use the Eco during the winter and the Cyclone during the summer.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ALPINE-CYCLONE-PUMP-8000-GPH-WATERFALL-POND-PUMP-/220762874321?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0amp;hash=item33667e21d1

Check out Amazon as well as eBay, Amazon has better returns if you need to sometimes, depending on the vendor, so read the return policies etc.

Here is a link that might be useful: Cyclone Alpine 8000Gal

I've used Pondmaster Pumps by Danner mfg for many years with great success. On my large pond (3500 gal) I've been running a 2400GPH pump non-stop for over 10 years.