Christoplis
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
- Joined
- Oct 28, 2017
- Messages
- 24
Hello. Well first off I’d like to say that this is all my fault for not cycling my tanks properly and not understanding everything needed for fish care. Yes I have a master kit and use it daily to check my tanks. Before I had received my master kit I was unaware of the nitrate issue in my water. We brought home a Betta and within a day he got really sick And Is battling fin melt. I’ve got the nitrate down to 5ppm with water changes. Not from my tap obviously. Ammonia is at 0. Nitrite is o and ph is at 7.6. It is a ten gallon tank and has only a pleco and the Betta. Oh and my original ph from the tap was 8.0-8.2. I know with the ph chAnge happening so fast it put the Betta in shock. Yesterday my nitrates were down to 10ppm and the Betta was doing horrible. Not eating sitting at the bottom kinda on its side. In one last ditch effort I did an 80% water change for him last night. Now this morning I go to see him and he is no longer hiding and laying down. Still at the bottom but not lying down. He has fin melt. Now that u can take all that in my biggest question is do I need to medicate him for fin melt or is there a great chance with great water conditions he kicks it on his own? I really don’t wanna Medicate him if he can pull out on his own. Please feel free to tell me all the mistakes I’m making and help me become an excellent fish keeper. I love those Lil guys and just wanna be educated and do my best with them. Oh P.s before the 80% water change last night I was doing about 40% water changes that started a few days ago. Everyday I was changing some water and he was just getting worse until this morning he is actually out. Not sure if he wants to eat today though. I’m using a fluval filter and also have a heater for the tank. The tank is newly established so vacuuming does not occur. Also no new decorations and he eats tetra Betta pellets