I've finished building my system. I think I've worked out all the kinks and corrected my mistakes so far. Now it's time to get some fish and get started. On the surface, you would think that it's as easy as dumping fish in their new home and start planting. Turns out though, it's a bit more complicated than that.
The next step in the building process is called cycling. Cycling is the process of building the necessary bacteria in the media while keeping your fish alive. This will take some time. Right now the there isn't enough bacteria to filter out all the ammonia that a full fish tank will produce. If the ammonia is still present when the water returns, eventually it will build up and kill the fish. Apparently I still have to have some patience.
After reading a few ideas on the internet, I've decided to start with just 4 minnows in my tank. Hopefully with 60 gallons of water the ammonia won't build up fast enough to harm my minnows. The trick is to produce enough ammonia to build bacteria, and produce enough bacteria to filter the ammonia. It's a delicate balance. Here are more ideas on how to cycle : Cycling
How do I tell if the bacteria is there? I've decided to install a huge microscope over my grow bed. Ok, I'm just kidding. I need an aquarium test kit. These kits will tell me all the things I need to know. I've already found a test kit on Ebay and I"m waiting for it to show up. There are many options when it comes to test kits. I've decided to not go cheap this one time. I figure this step is pretty important.
Testing with this kit will tell me the level of ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, and ph level of my water. I'll test the water a couple of times a day over the first week to get an idea of what's going on. The first thing I'll look for is the level of ammonia. If it rises near toxic levels I'll just replace some of the water to bring it down. If the ammonia level is ok and the nitrates start to build up, then the bacteria is there. If the level of nitrites goes up then I'm not getting all the right bacteria built up. The key is to make sure the toxicity of the water stays low.
Nitrates are harmful to the fish also. When they start to rise the next step is to drop in a few plants to eat up the nitrates. I've decided to use transplants when it's time. You can also use seeds from what I've read but for the first go round I'll put in established plants. This way it will take less time for me to see the results.
I also started out with seedlings in my test system (built around a 30 gallon aquarium in my kitchen). I know some people plant seeds directly in their growbeds, but I can't figure out what keeps the seeds from just flushing through the system before they develop roots. Lately I've been starting seeds in pots to transplant. But starting with seedlings from a nursery was pretty nice instant gratification!
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