shortstrokin

Hello, I purchased a 450 gallon Artesian spa two months ago. The spa has filter cycles and can adjust them from off to 24 hours. I understand what the filter cycles are for but I would like to know how they work. For starters, I understand how the water is filtered. To explain what I would like to know Ill provide a example... Lets say I set Filter 1 to run from 11am to 3pm. When my filter cycle starts lets say at 11am, each of my three jets come on one at a time for 30 secs or so. While each pump runs for 30 seconds, I can fill water being sucked into the intake points (round coaster looking things at the bottom of the spa). It should be noted that I have 4 intakes in the bottom of the spa. After the pumps do the 30 second cycle the pumps go off and all that is running is a the circulation pump and I dont feel water being sucked into the intake points. So my question is what happens during a 4 hour filter cycle. Does it repeat this process every 30 mins or hour. I can not find anything out there to understand what happens after the filter cycle starts in the beginning. I guess I could stand there for four hours and watch the cycle but I do not think I could do it. Any help solving my curiosity would be awesome. Thank You.