Quote Originally Posted by Irving View Post
Are you asking about getting the fish started?
Yes. It's a multi-part question I guess.

If there's no bacteria to break down the fish waste, the fish will go belly up eventually by poisoning themselves. If there's no bacteria to break down the fish waste into something the plants can use, they don't grow.

I'm a total newb here at this, so maybe I'm over thinking it. But I keep reading to make sure that there's bacteria in there or the system will fail entirely - fish and plants.