Just curious, either way it was a huge mistake. Often on day 5 or 6 on startup which is the 4-8 hours runtime you really need to watch fish reaction and smell your water. Older nutrient laiden and deep ponds may need to be held at the 4 hour or 8 hour runtime for many days in a row.The suggested startup procedue is just a rough guideline and every pond or lake can react differently.The only time you would go 24/7 to start is in a new pond with no fish that you wanted to pump up prior to stocking, especially if you were starting out with high numbers of mature fish. If your system isnt running year round (with LMB in your area you may not want to) be aware that if your lake is "mature" that you should exercise a start up procedure each spring.The total number of "turns" that your lake was sized for will have an effect on all of this also.This is why proper sizing is so important.
