Jayden Gomez

Sponge filters are almost always low enough flow, you likely don't have to mess with the flow. I'd also not inject a 5gal with CO2, especially with smaller tanks because it is soo much easier to give fish CO2 poisoning if you accidentally dose too much. Also anything in a 5gal with CO2 injections should be done by someone experienced with CO2 in the past and lots of disposable money, as I don't see much point for a 5gal CO2 tank, unless it's a show tank that'll be setup for 2-3 weeks, as whatever plants you got will very likely quickly overgrow your tank. Also a tip on the airstone, new users like to have those really fine bubbles but you usually don't want that, you almost want bubbles almost like the ones without a airstone, just more fine, smaller bubbles; it'll give more oxygen in the gas exchange process.

@Sacah Yeah I forgot that section existed. It's hard for me to even get a good look since it's always moving around, which is a good thing. I'll just do a water change today and give it time to see if it worsens or gets better, or if eating and activity levels change, thank you. Also with that I knew I probably shouldn't had said "I want a response and seems like no one ever answers my stuff anymore. ", just I was trying to find out what to do and was panicking and in stress myself due to not only the fish stuff but also family stuff non-related, not just trying to make up some excuse but I guess that's one anyways. I also probably should've at least worded it differently or just not have posted that part at all. At lease I've gotten some good input from this community, and for anyone whom has answered me, thank you. I'll remove that part of the post.

@Tony s They are basically holes in the head, sounds a lot like HITH but it's from injury, can HITH be caused from injury? Sorry about the photo not being clear, I don't have a true good way to take pictures, and this betta is camera shy and really likes to move around all day. Basically as you can see from the photo, in those areas of lighter coloration are just missing the top layer of skin/scale, whatever they are. Also I specifically want to thank you, since honestly Tony you've replied to most of my questions. Thanks! I do also have the med trio, but I think really only paracleanse would help out of all of them due to the ability to treat HITH and cloud eye or whatever from what I remember, or maracyn due to bacterial? I honestly forgot about which exact functions each of them do, but I have them and used at least maracyn before, will read up before medicating and gotta find them again somewhere in my fish stuff, they're somewhere though.

One day my betta ended up hurting itself (not sure if hole is head, doesn't really look like it for most bettas with pinholes), I've only had it for about 4-5 days and it has had a fast breathing rate since I got it. It is in nearly perfect water parameters after being put in a 2mo planted 10gal / 40L cycled tank (no parasites or anything from the tank), I would post a picture but it's literally too active and moves around too fast for me to get a good picture without it being blurry or unclear due to bad camera quality. I've been dosing 5ml of stress coat each day for the past 4 days, and stuff like ammonia, nitrites, etc. are low levels and in check. 6.4 pH, acclimated it properly and water levels were almost the exact same from the store since they're using RO/DI water and so am I, although I do plan to re-mineralize it again once it gets more adapted. I think it is just injuries since it has got the first layer of it's skin torn off in some spots on it's head, and the next day it has a cloudy eye on one side which I believe develops a lot longer than 8h from infections, as every morning and the night before things like this, it wouldn't be like this and happened briefly in short periods. That's why I believe it's from injuries It is VERY, very active (I think too active), vibrant colors, spread out fins/not clamped, and eating very well and still getting excited seeing me, although it does have a faster breathing rate but I think that's from reflection flaring which I am slowly getting it reduce more and more testing with lighting and taping poster board on the sides since the back covered wasn't enough apparently. Note that I am not overfeeding or bloating it, I've owned bettas in the past and I think I got feeding down. Again, I am dosing 5ml stress coat, weekly water changes even with nitrogen levels besides nitrates at 0ppm (nitrates under 5 usually though) Should I dose salt? Note that I do have plants in it and not sure what dose to do, there are plants literally everywhere and lots, and I really do not wanna destroy my garden from salt and I don't have a extra quarantine tank, if someone could recommend a dose for salt or what else I could do that'd be cool (10gal, heavy planted) I have fritz A+ aquarium salt, yes proper salt. I also cannot tell if conditioning is worsening or getting better, but it's been less than 48h from injuries, and I don't think it's getting worse especially based on activity, lack of stress marks and eating patterns. Not sure what it's hurting itself on, using AQO sponge filter and a good quality heater with no weird sharp spots. Everything else plants, substrate, and very well sanded wood which has done good with bettas in past and I just don't see how it could hurt itself on the wood as I spent at least a hour and a half on each piece about 2 years ago. Maybe excessive flaring? (If you scrolled down and think this has something to do with flaring, please read above before answering, getting it situated. ) Again, very active, literally swims ALL day, and takes very brief naps (5-10m) during the day like at most one time per day, and mostly sleeps at night for longer periods with the room nearly pitch black. Honestly never seen a betta more active despite it's injuries, I think it has to do with it's breed, not sure.

@T. Payne basically the first layer of skin in some spots are torn off exposing the layer of tissue

Is my betta just beating itself up or is this some disease? I remember a couple of years ago with one of my previous bettas within a couple of months it had basically what looked like the same thing and just healed over time. My betta is very active and I got it 3 days ago. It is also very vibrant. All I have that it could hurt itself on is probably just the sponge filter and the heater, maybe the betta leaf but I don't have anything else in my tank besides plants and very well sanded wood which I know it can't hurt itself on. Is my betta okay? It's still very active, and water chemistry is almost perfect (especially ammonia levels). I am also dosing 5ml of seachem stress coat since the day I got em. Also note that I'm pretty sure it's the same reason as my previous betta (beating itself up) as it wasn't like this last night or this morning. Note that the 2nd image is pretty much the same as the 1st image; not just dots and just not as bad as the 1st image, just the camera picked up weirdly since it's further away and I have a crappy camera.

I put a new vibrant, and very very active betta in my 10gal planted which I setup two months ago. As far as I know, it has no diseases and the black areas near it's gills are just it's coloration. It is breathing very fast, and I have a sponge filter with an airstone. Although, only about 1/3 of the aquarium's surface is getting surface agitation due to floating water sprite and red root floaters at the surface. Should I trim back the water sprite and remove some floaters for about half surface agitation? It is also staying for the most part by the sponge filter sleeping as far as I know, but also with a fast breathing rate. I also dimmed the lights, dimmer than in the picture. Is this like, an oxygen problem or just stress, or a combination? The tank is cycled and water parameters are almost the exact same as when I got him, (only difference being a 0 to 80-120ppm buffer jump, slightly different pH). I added tank water slowly to the cup, while acclimating the cup above the water level in the aquarium for ~13-16 minutes, then net the betta in there. I then swam around, and colors brightened. It was also on about a 40 minute semi-bumpy car ride, could that contribute too? I have not fed it and am not going to attempt to till at least another 24h, it's been about a hour since I put it in there, it has mainly been flaring at it's reflection and is now hiding in a darker spot. Should I dose any stress guard? What should I do, or am I just too paranoid? Lights turn off in 1h 30m from now, and are dimmed with shady spots. The day before I got my betta (since I didn't know I was gonna get a betta today(I have everything I need) but my family convinced me) I put 10ml of liquid carbon (double dosing) into my tank after a maintenance session hoping to kill more algae, and about a hour ago I changed out 3/10 gal of water (30%) water change, is that okay, or should I do another water change?

@Pepere I am using an airstone/sponge filter, never ran one without one besides one time when I had HOB, and hated it (most likely because it was a crappy one), I have a KH of 80ppm / 4.5 dKH. I can raise my KH if i need to. 75 F, as I heard things decompose slower and plants like lower temps, which I think both are true, not 100% sure on the second one. Should I raise temps? But I doubt 3 degrees will make much of a difference, right? The surface agitation is however limited to 50-55% of the surface as I do have stem plants floating, water sprite, and floaters however they seem to stay on the opposite side of the airstone pretty well, at least to say, I know I'm getting enough oxygen. Also that houseplant plant soil tip is a great tip I've never heard before, unfortunately I do not keep anymore houseplants 🙁

@Tony s yeah but what I mean is that I literally have to float some of my stem plants lmao so I'm currently doing darkstart on a old 5gal for plant trimming and excess plants only. And yeah, nitrites are higher than I would like. @Jovius Personally I do not feel comfortable doing 4ppm ammonia in one dosing, although I will raise it to 3ppm and then perhaps 4, not sure on that though. And yeah, fritz zyme 7. Thanks for answering the second question too.

I am dosing 2ppm ammonia every two weeks, currently I have 0-0.5ppm ammonia, 1ppm nitrite, 0ppm nitrate in my 10gal. I have had the tank setup for about a month now, dosing beneficial bacteria. No fish, no snails, there are a couple of worm species and copepods which I hate but I have left them alone as I heard they aren't harmful. I am doing weekly water changes. Note that I do get a nitrate spike whenever I dose ammonia, I just have a hard time actually keeping nitrates up as I ordered too many plants I think 😅 Anyways, I plan on waiting at least another month or two before adding shrimp, but when is it safe to say my tank is cycled? I use re-mineralized RO/DI water, and so far I haven't had much of a issue at all with algae. Another question unrelated to that, I didn't expect to use hydrocotyle tripartita japan as a carpet, but I can do that right? So far it's a bit taller and not as compact as I want, probably 1.5in-2in. tall, but consistent weekly trimming and replanting should eventually get me a more dense carpet, correct? I've never done any carpets, and I love the way this plant looks. Note I am not using CO2.

About 3 weeks ago, I setup my 10 gallon tank which is my first tank for about ~1.5years, so I kinda forgot some stuff. It is very heavily planted aquarium, dosing beneficial bacteria weekly since day one, R/O water with added minerals to 6.8ph, 80ppm kh, 75 ppm gh. I dose a easy green twice a week, 1.5ml iron, 4-6ppm potassium once a week. No lifestock, just plants. I've had absolutely zero ammonia and nitrites for the first two weeks, and 0-5ppm nitrates. The past week, I've got 0.5ppm ammonia, 2ppm nitrites, 0ppm nitrates. And note that ammonia and nitrites are very rapidly decreasing. Has my tank really cycled that fast? I've only done one water change per 1-2 weeks besides 3 in the first week and I soon want to slow down to once every 3 or 6 months. I'm starting to get algae on my plants and biofilm on my wood. I really want to add red cherry shrimp and need the nitrates, but kind of scared I'm going to kill them someway despite me having good water parameters for them. What do I do?

Honestly I quit because even after weeks of not feeding my fish they'd be overpopulated and cause bloating, it was too much of a hassle to deal with, and 60-70% water changes every two weeks was just putting to much stress on my and my tanks. I mean, I guess I'll just leave them cause I doubt they'll get that overpopulated again. Altho this same tank is the one I plan on doing zero water changes after cycling. I think I'm just overthinking it, and just not consider it a problem.

Today I noticed detritus worms and copepods in my 10 gal this morning from last year when I quit the hobby somehow, they've caused me hell last year and I quit the hobby because of them. As of now, they're at relatively low population and none are adults yet. I cannot use bleach, however please give me some ways to put them in enough shock to completely wipeout the population of both but not be too detrimental to my plants (it is okay if it does cause some damage and dieoff), even if it's a harsh method, please give me some method to get rid of, even if it is extreme.

I have a new 10 gallon aquarium, no co2. I've had setup for about 2-3 weeks, 2ml of easy green (2 pumps) and 1ml of easy potassium for mainly anubias and java fern species, as well as red root floater, java moss, etc. I've had literally zero algae, zero nitrates, and no matter how much fertilizer or decomposing fish food I add (zero life besides beneficial bacteria and plants) I cannot get my nitrogen contents past 5, my plants barely get enough nitrates. Should I add shrimp? Then again, I also have the problem of no algae and barely any biofilm. Note that I only have a sponge filter. Is this because I'm using R/O water and adding minerals via seachem equilibrium instead of using water straight from the tap de-chlorinated? How can I get some nitrates going? Note that I do not want to change my light schedule for more algae, as it is perfect for my plants already and I do not want to mess that up.