Brian – I don’t think your bait water conditioners have any affect on your fishing success. With all the rain and the rapidly rising water I would think that may have a larger affect. Everytime I go out I use fresh water in my bait bucket and treat it with a dechlorinator. My bait, especially the bullheads are always very lively. I use tap water in my 100 gallon bait tank and change about 30% to 35% of the water every 5 days or so. I also run a large 110 gallon aquarium power filter and run two 10″ airstones. I treat the water with a product that is call “AmQuel Plus+ which removes the chlorine and neutralizes the ammonia released from the water conditioning process. My bait is doing great, the bait tank water is clear. I keep about 75 bullheads at any one time. I have had problems keeping my suckers alive – I may need to separate them from the bullheads. My suckers seem to die off within a few days. Bullheads are hardy little devils and it doesn’t take much to keep them going. Here is something I just pulled down from the internet which explains the chemistry of the whole process:
Chemical Dechlorinators
There are many products sold for aquarium use that are specifically intended to remove chlorine. Several brand names include: Prime, AmQuel, AP Tap Water Conditioner, Aquasafe Plus, and many more. These all include Sodium Thiosulfate, which reacts with the chlorine (or the chlorine portion of the chloramine) to form harmless chloride ions. The chlorine is completely and totally removed. This reaction happens instantly. The tap water doesn’t need to be mixed with the dechlorinator for any amount of time before adding it to the tank. It’s safe to just add the dechlorinator as you add the water into the tank.
There is one potential problem if your water is treated with chloramine. As stated above, the dechlorinator reacts with the chlorine portion of the chloramine. The chlorine is eliminated, leaving the ammonia free in the water. As you hopefully know, ammonia is toxic to fish, even in low levels. So, if you use a simple dechlorinator that only contains sodium thiosulfate, you are solving one problem (chlorine) and creating a new problem (ammonia).
Lucky for us aquarists, our aquarium product companies have a solution. Many of the dechlorinator water conditioners include chemicals to convert the ammonia into harmless ammonium. Look a a few labels. My favorite one, Seachem Prime, states: “Removes chlorine, chloramine, and ammonia”. Others that I’m sure handle the ammonia include Tetra “AquaSafe NH/CL Formula”, Jungle’s “ACE”, Kordon’s “AmQuel”, and Kent’s “Professional Ammonia Detox”. If the label doesn’t specifically mention that it neutralizes ammonia, then don’t depend on it to safely treat water containing chloramines.
