When staring the SD, you have to let the bubbles out every day. For the first 2 weeks, I’d let the bubbles out twice a day. Then every day. Letting bubbles out is part of the process but it’s not the main IMHO. The main thing is time and patience. Trust me, I am the most impatient person there is but you just have to be.
You will see phases that occur in the SD. The water inside the reactor will become cloudy, when you see that raise the drip rate and it will become clear after a day or so. Then test your water and if the readings are high, go back to the slower rate.
NO3
Understood and thanks! I am very interested to know where in the process nitrites sit, currently my ouput is very high in nitrites but does not seem to change.