Bacterial Bloom?

[beautylovetruth]

Here is what my tap water tests as:

And after the water conditioner is added:

I think that I haven't been adding enough water conditioner (even though I've been adding the prescribed amount of 1 mL/gallon).

[Znaika]

Man, you have ammonia/ammonium in you tap water. It is probably because your tap water is treated with chloramine, not chlorine. Chloramine is chlorine bound to ammonia. When you apply the conditioner, my guess is - it converts ammonia to ammonium and binds it with thiosulfate, but ammonium still remains in the water, just in a different, non-toxic chemical form, which, once processed by the filter bacteria, turns into nitrite anyway. Each massive water change ends up being massive surge of bound ammonium in the water and this is why, perhaps, after you change big part of water and add conditioner, you end up with a nitrite surge.

Try to age your water instead of adding the conditioner. Put the water into some pail and switch on aeration. Chloramine's half life in such conditions is about 30 hours. Means in 30 hours 1/2 will escape, in 60 hours 3/4 will escape and so on. If you keep it for a week (normal partial water change periodicity), 99% of chloramine will escape. Try to use this water and see what happens.

[beautylovetruth]

So I would have to keep the buckets aerated all the time or just stir them every so often?

[Znaika]

30 hours half life is for constant aeration. If you do not aerate, it probably doubles. Small air compressor is only 3 watts, so it is not any kind of electricity drain. I would say try it one and see what happens with the nitrite level. If it does not surge, here is your answer. Otherwise there is another reason.

[Sprucegruve]

Small air pump/power head running 24/7 if you want to age your water in barrels,

I suggest just doubling your dose of prime and doing your normal water changes,it takes up a lot less time and space

If you read the bottle of prime you can safely dose 4X the normal dose.....I have seen it dosed more than that with no real bad effects on the fish

[beautylovetruth]

Thank you very much for all the help!

I've got one bucket aerating now, will use that water to change on Sunday since I did a 60% change today. Will let you know.

[beautylovetruth]

Quick update. Decided to test the ammonia level in the aerating bucket. Gone up to 1.0 in 30 hours. Is this expected because the chemical bonds are changing/releasing?

[beautylovetruth]

So I aged the water, tested for ammonia (was about 0.25) so I added 1 mL of Prime and put it into the aquarium. Two days later, my tank is reading 0-0-0!!! FINALLY!

Thank you so much for all your help in getting through this process