[warthog5]

I'm pretty sure it's the mounting Jason. Those pump's don't like to lift water. They like to push it.

When the ballvalve is open I bet the water come's up as high as the bend in the hose. So the pump is air locked. it may work whan you have some foward movement with the boat, but that doesn't do you any good when your anchored up. Plus, just the foward movement of the boat will fill the livewell without the pump even turned on.

As far as I know, all the livewell pump's don't have a on demand.
Now a lot of the washdown pump's do, but they are diaphram style pump's.