Brand New system- Water chemistry help please

[Roe]

New to all of this, and flunked chemistry. System has 100 gal tub for fish, eventually. 2- 8 ft area growing space bed with river rock as growing medium.  I filled the system with tap water yesterday. Today I did my first chemistry readings.

Nitrate 0

Nitrite 0

Ammonia .25

PH 8.0

 

What do I need to do? What are my target levels? I want to put goldfish in the jumpstart the system, when would it be proper to do this?

[sticky]

Honestly, you could put fish in the system immediately. I went to a local lake and got a half gallon of water to jump start the bacteria for my nitrogen cycle. I had about a 35 gal tank with a dozen feeder goldfish from the local pet store. Put that together and just watched the ammonia. You'll see it go up and then go down (indicating your bacteria are flourishing and the nitrogen cycle is spinning), if your ammonia gets too high you can do a 1/2 total capacity water change. But at 13 cents a piece i would just buy new fish. Another option is to buy ammonia from the store and add it to your tank and then wait for the bacteria to convert it. Then you'll know your water is "established"

As far as PH goes, the lower the better. Your plants will absorb nutrients better if your water is more on the acidic side, however you fish will like a more alkaline PH. So you kinda have to split the difference, I am shooting for high 6's/low 7's. that may not be the most "optimum" but it is where i am headed right now.

In regards to Nitrite and Nitrate, theoretically keeping your nitrites at 0 is best as to ensure that you have as much nitrates as possible. It also reduced the risk that your water is becoming unfriendly for your fish.

The demand for nitrates will vary, so this is one you will need to keep a close eye on. When your plants are small they will  consume less nitrates, as they grow they will use more. At the end of the growing season (assuming you stop or greatly reduce based on the seasons) your demand for nitrates with almost go away. My view is this: i want to have residual nitrate levels (within a range that is OK for my fish) so that i know for a fact that my plants are getting all they nitrates they want. for example: if in an established system my ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels are all 0, i would be worried that my plants were not getting all the nitrates they need. So idealistically speaking i would want my ammonia and nitrites to be 0, but my nitrates to be maybe 5-10ppm. Again this ensures maximum nitrate production and ensures all my plants are getting everything they need and my fish have healthy water.

Another reason i prefer residual nitrate levels is so that if my plants look poor, i can quickly eliminate nitrates off my list of culprits. In that area keep an eye on your hardness and alkalinity as they will indicate what kind of mineral content your water has.

P.S. there is a lot of info in some of these forum threads, so i recommend combing through them.

[Roe]

Thank you so much. Now I understand a little more why I wanted certain numbers. 

I actually did throw in feeder goldfish and 2 weeks later threw in some plants figuring everything was sacrificial to get the system started. Well we picked our first tomatoes, peppers are coming along, squash and zucchini plants are big but no production yet. Fish were doing amazing, even had a pregnant goldfish but the tubing from the pump fell out of the grow bed overnight so we found the fish in just about 1" of water. Added water back and lost about 1/2 of them. So we are building that population back up. I have recently obtained a free hot tub so I am preparing that to be linked to the set up. Then I will have the fish in there and 3 bathtubs as grow beds. Very addicting.