Nitrosonomas appear and convert ammonia into nitrites. Nitrites will then attract another kind of bacteria, Nitrospira, which finally convert the nitrites into nitrates.Once cycling is done, all the bacteria continue to live in the gravel and will keep doing their job without much monitoring.
I ended up adding one big dose of ammonia (well over 8 ppm), as opposed to adding small amounts daily. This was not my intent, but there were some "user-errors" when testing how much was going in. Now that I have it figured out, testing the water for ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates has been my lense for watching the cycling process. It seems to be working beautifully: Ammonia levels are finally dropping, nitrites have appeared, and nitrates are on the rise. This indicates the bacteria is present, and now just needs to reproduce. When ammonia and nitrites are down to 0 ppm, its safe to add fish.
Most of my research comes from scouring internet forums built by thousands of other aquaponics enthusiasts around the world. Ive also been reading Sylvia Bernsteins instructional book "Aquaponic Gardening," which could really walk somebody through the entire process. While Im giving my research props, I should mention that my original inspiration for this project came from this Murray Hallam video:
