"You're killin' me, Nitrosomonas!", said Ammonia

Observations

1. The GH number has restored to baseline, and KH remains at baseline.
2. pH went up to 7.5 from 7.0
3. Nitrites and Nitrates increased!
4. Ammonia went down to 0.5 from 1.0 ppm.
5. The plants are still not doing well. If I don't kill them through this process, I may have to reseed.

Analysis

I have to say that I'm happy with these numbers after being very concerned yesterday. I'm excited because it means that I'm on my way to introducing fish to the system. I'm hoping the number trends continue as the nitrosomonas eat the ammonia, which poop the nitrites, which are eaten by the nitrospira, which poop the nitrates, which are fed to the plants as a source of nitrogen and in turn clean the water and return it to the tank. Yes, poop is a technical term in the Nitrogen Cycle. :-) [please correct if wrong; I want to get it right]

As an aside, I previously read that nitrobacter were responsible for the nitrite to nitrate conversion, but I've since read that it's actually the nitrospira which perform this process; at least in the marine realm. There is actually a nice FAQ about cycling on The Aquaponics Source site that I just discovered. Its advice mirrors some of my own discovery.

Coming back to discussion of my system, my plants are not doing well. I understand that in order to get a balanced system, there's going to be a disruption first. My initial goal is to have water that will support the fish, so the plants will have to suffer until this is accomplished. Perhaps I should not have added the seeds right away, but I couldn't resist. I thought that it would be a good way to get the system online. I don't regret the decision though. The aforementioned FAQ actually recommends adding plants/seeds as soon as possible, so I guess that I was right in doing so.

Regarding the plants' health, I'm assuming that the change in the pH coincided with the health of the plants. I think there's still something to the theory I floated in a previous blog entry, but I'm not sure whether it's relevant to this situation.

In all, it's a bit of a breakthrough day for me and the system. The FAQ mentioned that I would be ready for fish if the ammonia and nitrite levels are at 0.5 ppm or lower. I'm now at the high end for both, but if the levels are okay, and if things don't change too much tomorrow, I'm going to buy some fish!

The Numbers

Date	GH	KH	pH	NO2	NO3	NH3/NH4	Temp °C
12-May	180	80	7.5	20	40	0.5	23°

The Nitrites Cometh!