The option of a mid-water intake is to help reduce the risk of the pump (think pump chamber) ever running dry. You might notice that Savio also makes an external pump kit that installs thru the wall of the skimmer filter near the bottom. This is for situations where the homeowner might want to have a very large gph pump installed outside the skimmer filter (buried lets say between the skimmer and the bio-falls). Since a skimmer basket could get clogged the intake below the water level would prevent the pump from running dry. I've often wondered if you put the mid-level intake atop a medium level shelf would that act as a vacuum, enough to keep the lower reaches of the pond clean? If you had a really large pump, I dunno...?

I'm following up my own post to get this crap off the top of the discussions board! Can hardly wait til my under-sink canisters come in, since my old faucet had one of those add on filters, and we've just been trusting the town water for now.

Assuming you don't have any major problems you need to deal with, the PUR is okay. However, since you're in TX, I'll point out that you have the same problem I have in sunny FL: most of the gravity fed filters don't work so well if the water is warm. The PUR says flat out it doesn't work above 80 degrees, so most of the year I have to chill the water before I run it through. The water tastes better if it was cold when it ran through, too, even after it gets back up to room temperature.

Before anyone goes off expecting miracles and the impossible, "found" roses exist because they have found the minimums of what they need to maintain their existence. Old cemeteries, abandoned gardens, what have you, must provide either sufficient rainfall and moisture retention or high enough ground water to allow the plants to exist. Add that the particular varieties also either have the right resistance to whatever types and races of those types of fungi surrounding them, or the conditions don't support fungal issues. NO rose exists without water, anywhere, period. There IS either sufficient rainfall, ground water, dew/fog condensation off or surrounding canopy plants, etc. to maintain and support that "found" rose. Take a look at many of the old cemeteries in the Gold Country. There are many oak trees in many of them. Those oaks transpire tremendous quantities of water and often result in "rainfall" of their own under their canopies. They also drop copious quantities of leaf and twig litter which, when allowed to remain on the ground, maintain a very high level of ground moisture. NO rose will survive if planted anywhere there isn't enough water supplied in whatever fashion necessary to maintain it. NO rose will survive where the heat levels are too high for it, either direct or radiated/reflected heat. If you take ANY of these "found survivors" and plant them where they don't receive the bare minimum of what they require to survive, they will NOT survive. Period. I agree that it's romantic and fun growing the found "survivors". I have for years. But, none of them are miracles. Every one of them will succumb to being cooked where it's too hot and too dry. Every one of them will die from lack of water if not supplied what is needed, however it's necessary to provide it. Every one of them will succumb to fungal issues when planted where conditions support the fungi and particularly when something is wrong with the plant's culture, making it more susceptible to whatever fungus issue is around. So, while these found survivors may be "tough", they are also blessed to have found the minimums of what they have required to survive in the specific locations in which they have survived. How many of the same varieties have NOT survived in less ideal situations? Instead of placing all the acclaim on the particular rose for its "durability", I strongly suggest more thought be placed on what it has been about the specific locations in which they have been "discovered" that permitted them to exist until being "discovered". Just as a case in point, Jesse Hildreth "survived" in the San Juan Bautista cemetery for decades UNTIL the drought took its toll and nearly eliminated it. Without locals bringing water to supplement the rains which didn't arrive and the ground water which subsided, the rose would not have made it. Of course the stupidity of the supervisory personnel in using Round Up around those plants certainly didn't help. But, had they not received enough water naturally to survive the heat on that hill, they wouldn't have survived to be found and now they aren't receiving it naturally and are having to endure greater heat than previously, without our intervention, they won't survive.