Since you talk about a hose feeding the pump, you must have the early style
westie with the pump inside the sink closet, at the bottom. Later westies
use a submersible pump.

My guess (I never worked with one of these below-the-sink pumps) is that
this model needs to be mounted below the water level to work. Gravity-fed
water will prime the pump (fill it with water).

If you've got the pump up in the air, you have it essentially trying to
pump enough *air* to create enough suction to lift the water out of the
bucket. I doubt the pump is capable of that.

Tim

At 03:46 PM 10/9/2006 -0700, chris wrote:
>I removed my water tank some time ago.
>
>id like to just throw the hose that fed into the stock tank, into a
>smaller portable water tank I have handy, but the pump doesn't seem to
>be able to pull the water up from it.
>
>If I place water almost level with the pump and dang near submerge the
>thing, then I can get it to pump, but its not easy.
>
>how did the old system work, is it (in part) gravity fed?
>
>Aka, do I need to somehow attach the hose to the bottom of whatever tank
>I use and allow gravity to force the water into the pump before it will
>start to take over on its own?
>
>thanks!