I have since brought the PH back to 6.8 and my ammonia is normal but I cannot seem to get my Nitrates back up although they went from zero to 10.....they were perfect before and everything was thriving. we have 3 4' x 8' media beds and 1 4'x8' raft. Also, my Nitrites is going up. We are up in Clarkdale near Jerome......any suggestions? I ordered the Maxicrop from Aquaponics sources and put it in ....just the small pack but not much improvement.
So I'm assuming your hose water has chlorine in it? The chlorine has probably off gassed by now, but it probably killed off a percentage of your nitrifying bacteria that convert your ammonia to nitrates. It will just take a bit of time for their population to stabilize again and get back to work. If you have any water available from a system that wasn't impacted, you could add some of that to jump start the bacteria populations. The process is working, as you noted, the ammonia levels are there and Nitrites are rising, next you should see Nitrates rising at least slowly at first. How long ago did this happen?
You can use vitamin C to neutralize the chlorine in the water.1-500mg tablet per 50 gallons of water. It will neutralize the chlorine instantly.( crush to fine or use the fizzing kind) Also get the water as warm as possible 82-84 degrees the bacteria like that range. Use the maxicrop till water looks like light tea or slightly darker. You can use epsom salts to help with the fish stress and give the water/plants magnesium....