"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!

Nitrites! Where art thou, nitrites?

Observations

1. The General Hardness (GH) has dropped from 180 to 120 while the Carbonate Hardness (KH) has restored to its baseline number of 80. Could the flailing of the KH have been an harbinger for the change in the GH? I referenced this behavior yesterday regarding the KH and whether it was telling me something. Perhaps this was it?
2. The other numbers are steady.
3. The plants are not doing well. I can still smell them when my nose is about 6 inches from the growbed, but I no longer see any vibrant growth.
4. No nitrites yet. What the hell? Sure, I could put in some tank starter stuff, but I'd rather not do so. I haven't put any pH UP into the tank in three days. I'm going to see how the water hardness plays out before doing more. It does bring me to some interesting observations overall; not just for the previous day.

The observations about the plants' health compared to the changing water conditions. The chive were growing very well at the beginning. They were the seeds to sprout and actually show progress. The basil and cilantro were the first to sprout, but I they really didn't go beyond the growth shown in the initial photos when this blog started.

When I started making changes to the pH in order to spurn the growth of the nitrites, the chives went downhill along with the other plants. Inversely, the peppers and thyme started to respond positively instead. Of course, none of them are responding well at present. The most significant changes that could have effected them were in the pH and water hardness. Also, the ammonia went up. I'm thinking that the increase was due to the water dechlorinator I used to replace evaporated water in the tank. When it performed its duty, it converted the chlorine into ammonia.

My theory, which I could probably Google to confirm somewhere (or debunk), are the differing water conditioning needed for different plants for optimum growth. Taking out the cold issue regarding the behavior of the chives, do peppers and thyme respond better to higher pH than chive, basil and cilantro? Originally, I thought that the shift in the pH level, in either direction, would cause shock to the plants, but others appeared to grow better. 

I know that I'm most likely not making any breakthrough statements here, but there are just my thoughts and observations about my system. Feel free to chime in if I'm making a total ass of myself. I want to stand corrected instead of being oblivious.

Tap Water Treatments

The tap water in my area comes through the Northern Kentucky Water District. From what I've read, they don't use chloramines to treat the water; just chlorine. So, I may be able to simply get away with filling a bucket full of water, and letting the chorine dissipate through sunlight and air. In the future, I'll refrain from the Top Fin stuff and use this method. Of course, I'm going to perform an ammonia test before and after to the bucket to confirm my findings regarding the Top Fin's releasing of ammonia.

The Numbers

Date	GH	KH	pH	NO2	NO3	NH3/NH4	Temp °C
11-May	120	80	7.0	0	20	1.0	24°