Starting my grow bed

[Don Gibbs]

I am in need of some advice from the experts. I have a small system that I started recently and my set up seems to be working fine. Up until yesterday all I had to check the water with was a 5 test dip strip. The strip tests were ph, alkalinity, water hardness, nitrites, and nitrates. In order to try and help my system along, I put a bag of worm castings in the tank while cycling. I monitored the water with my strips daily for about a week and last Saturday, I planted my grow beds and put fish in my tank. I have a 55 gallon plastic drum for a fish tank. I have 7 bluegill that range from 4 fingers to just a little over hand size. In about 2.5 days radishes started breaking through the gravel and have been doing fine. Nothing else has sprouted except for 1 watermelon. I did look for some of the other seeds and found 2 locations where I planted peas and the seeds looked like mush. I planted at the top edge of the water level in my beds. I don't know if this is to deep on not. Back to my water testing. I purchased the API water testing kit and ran my first test this morning. My initial reading were ph - 7.4, ammonia - 0.25 ppm, nitrites - 5 ppm, and my nitrates were 5 - 10 ppm. I really don't want to put my fish in harms way or have to restart everything all over again. I have enjoyed building my system and waiting on the beds to grow. If anyone can point me in the direction I need to go now or offer some advice on what I should do next it will be greatly appreciated.  Thanks.

[Tom OBrien]

I started my peas outside the grow bed by moistening them first in a paper towel and then putting them in one of those peat pellets, but I have seen the same problem with seeds turning to mush. They need to be moist to germinate, but I think if I over-water or keep them too wet they rot.

[TCLynx]

Peas also like it warm to germinate.  You can put them in moist paper towel in a baggie (left slightly open to vent but stay moist) say on top of the fridge or some other appliance to keep it warm but wrap it in a dark towel or put in bock to keep light away.  Check it daily, as soon as it looks like the seed is starting to sprout, gently (without breaking it) place the seed just at the high water line in the grow bed with the rootlet pointing down and cover with a small bit of media. BUT...  I wouldn't stress too much about the seeds at this point, sprinkle some stuff and what comes up is good, find another method of planting what doesn't.

Your Nitrites are HIGH.  STOP FEEDING THE FISH!!!!  Make sure you have plenty of aeration.  If you have good source water without issues with chlorine or chloramine, I would say do a 30-50% water change to try to bring the nitrite down  since I fear it may actually be higher than you think.

Then I would say salt the system to between 1-3 ppt here is a blog post that will hopefully give you the numbers needed to figure out how to go about salting the system.  Salt for fish health

I say to do this after the water change and don't change out more water after you salt since you will get all confused about how much salt to use and stuff.

Then you are going to wait and this will be the hardest part.  Your system wasn't fully cycled yet and you are still experiencing the nitrite spike which often lasts longer and is more frustrating to get past.  You will practice as much patience as you can, testing daily and when the ammonia is close to 0 and the nitrite has fallen below 1 ppm, you will then perhaps get to feed the fish a little bit.  You will then slowly increase how much you feed them per day based on if the ammonia and nitrite continue to fall or stay close to 0.  Ideally you want both ammonia and nitrite to be 0 while you are able to feed the fish as much as they want in 5-15 minutes.  Don't over feed because rotting food in a tank tends to make fish sick.

[Don Gibbs]

TCLynx and Tom, Thanks for the replies. I will start today germinating more seeds outside my beds. I am also going to try the water change. I don't know exactly where I can get the salt mentioned in the blog post, but I will try to find some. As I stated earlier this is my first system and I am using this as a test system in hopes that I can make a bigger system to provide a majority of my vegetables. Ultimately I want to have a greenhouse and grow year round, Thanks again for the help.

[TCLynx]

Don, the salt should be pretty easy and cheap to find.  It is normally the cheapest solar pool salt or solar water softener salt found at grocery, hardware or big box store like lowes or home depot.  Somewhere between $4 and $8 a 40 lb bag.  That reminds me that I should get some in prep for moving all my fish to the new farm.

[Don Gibbs]

It has been Saturday morning that I feed the fish. I took TCLynx's advice and changed out around 15 gallons of water.

I eventually lost 1 fish (6 left) and so far the rest are doing fine. I ran a water test today and the ph is 8.2, the ammonia is is down to 0, the nitrites are at 5 ppm, and the nitrates are still at 10 ppm. I expected the ph to go up but I thought the nitrates and nitrites would lower just a bit. I guess I still have some time left in the initial cycle. I plan on restarting to feed tomorrow or the next day in small amounts.

[TCLynx]

Wait, Wait till the nitrites come down closer to 1 ppm or below.

[Don Gibbs]

OK. Will do.

TCLynx said:

Wait, Wait till the nitrites come down closer to 1 ppm or below.

[Tom OBrien]

By the TCLynx, thanks for all your help and pointers for pre-fish cycling. I've got trout in the tanks now and so far they are doing well (knock wood). The water chemistry has been good, with ammonia and nitrites under 0.25 ppm.

[Don Gibbs]

Things seem to be turning around some on my system. After the water change last Sunday, I started some more plants in paper towels ans in an egg carton. Both sprouted and I transplanted them Thursday. My ph is currently at 7.6 and declining, ammonia is at 0, nitrates are at 10 and declining, nitrates are at 5 and seem to be rising. I noticed some algae starting on my rocks where the water enters my grow beds and read that this could be a result of not enough plants using the nitrates. Hopefully what I have transplanted and what has came up from resowing the beds will use some of this up and control the algae. I have posted new pictures of my beds on my profile to document the process. Hopefully in the near future I can start a second system and will not have as much trouble as long as I can be patient. Thanks to all the help I have gotten and may need in the future.

[Tom OBrien]

I tried one of TCLynx other suggestions with a part of my grow bed and just dropped in the arugula seeds. I watched the little round seeds bounce down into the hydroton and figured they were gone for good. But I now have a bunch of little sprouts poking up. Seems like a good solution for lettuce and other greens where the seeds are tiny and the plant spacing is fairly close.

[TCLynx]

Don, don't worry your self too much over a little bit of algae growing on the rocks where the water enters the grow beds.  Where ever you have light and fish water you will have some algae.  A little bit of surface algae on some media isn't going to make a big difference, nor is it going to hurt anything.   A think matt of algae or pea soup green water would be another story

[Don Gibbs]

I had some of my younger plants to shrivel and lay down flat in my beds yesterday. I ran a water test and there has been no change. We did have an extremely hot day with lots of sunshine. I was just wondering would it be beneficial to put a roof over my beds to provide some shade. The sun would still be able to get to the beds just not all day long. About the only material I have on hand is some tin roofing.