The bacteria bloom seems to have contained itself to the wood I bought now. I boiled it for about 3 hours (in attempt to get it to sink more quickly) before putting it in the tank.

Thank you so much for the link, Charc!!

My fish seems to be doing well, if not overeating a touch. So I will put a little less food in there. Frozen brine shrimp is a hit but the hibachi pellets still mostly get ignored. Fishy is still small enough that I have to break them up a little though.