What's this White Stuff?

[R.K. Castillo]

I've been cycling my system and the last couple of days this white stuff has showed up all over the grow media.  

What is it?

[Vlad Jovanovic]

Where's it at now? Don't bother adding any more unless it starts to fall under 40 or 50.

[R.K. Castillo]

It was right at about 40 or 50.  

[R.K. Castillo]

A local aquaponics farm said they'll give me 5 gallons of their cinder from their system with worms and all that.  Would that be a good thing to add?  Or will whatever's going on in our system just jack it up?

[Vlad Jovanovic]

Cool...see that kH doesn't fall below 40 to 60 AT THE VERY LEAST...and you should have your nitrifiers soon... 

It wouldn't be a bad thing to add...but you'd just kill off the nitrifiers if you don't take care of your kH/pH situation first...

And keep your ammonia between 1ppm and 4 ppm during this hole time.

In the meanwhile, now that you've got the bicarb/kH situation somewhat stabilized...grab your self a bag of shell-grit and hang it somewhere in the system water...

And test for your nitrites in the coming days...I suspect that they should show up soon...