OK, re-reading mas985's post. I think I understand it a bit more now that I did before... and now I think I might just benefit from going to a SMALLER motor and impeller after looking at the spec sheet for my pump. To answer his original question though, I thought I might need a bigger motor because I was seeing debris just float by my skimmer, so I thought maybe there wasn't enough suction to properly skim the pool?

To the specs: http://www.waterwayplastics.com/prod...d-pumps/smf-2/

According to their flow rate chart, the 1 HP motor I've had might just be too big. 40 ft of head for the skimmer line = 75 gpm flow rate, and that's higher than the rating on my filter. FWIW, I've got 25 feet of head to the other suction line.

I guess I'd be looking more at the 3/4 HP pump now, based on the flow rate chart. This is all assuming that I'm calculation my GPM's correctly (54 gpm to turn over the pool in 8 hours, 60 gpm flow rate of the filter, 44 gpm per suction line x2) Based on all of that, would I be correct in choosing a 3/4 HP pump instead? If I were to get a replacement 3/4 HP motor, would I also need to get a different impeller as well?

Thanks for all the help on this, BTW. Last year I got a crash course on chemicals, and now I'm getting a crash course on the mechanical aspects of pool ownership!