Hi Scott,
getting back on the subject of pump run time. The run time really depends on the environment as well as your personal wants and wishes. For example, a pool in Nebraska surrounded by farms will have more dirt and debris collect in it while a pool in a tropical back yard in Southern Florida will not. So the minimum filtering needs of those two pools will be very different.
You should set your pump run time based upon your surrounding environment and your personal experience of how much debris gets in your pool to be filtered out.
Typically, 2 to 4 hours is plenty, but the example above shows the run time can vary. So you need to determine what works best for you. The pool industry will make recommended run times based upon your pool water "turning over" 2 to 4 times a day. Most people here at TFP will comment that the turn over rate of a pool has nothing to do with it being clean and sparkly. The chemistry of your pool has the larger effect for water clarity. And I wholeheartedly agree.
As others have already mentioned, filter time has very little to do with getting algae or not. If you are getting algae, then per the TFP method, your FC is too low in relationship to your CYA level.
Me personally, I despise seeing any floating debris in my pool at all!. I have a VSP and I run mine 24/7 at 1200 RPM and it costs me about 20 dollars a month.
Does my pool need that much? Nope. But it's my pool and running it 24/7 makes me happy.