cbohn

@Brandy thank you so much for your help! I appreciate you explaining why the hard water affects my ph changeability. I was so frustrated that I couldn’t figure it out. I will definitely take it slow. Do you mind if I use this thread to ask you further questions as my water changes?

Thank you for you help! I am aware that the ph is the biggest issue in regards to my buddy’s health and I have tired every chemical ph “reducer” or modifier, but have been unsuccessful. I appreciate your distilled water idea. I had thought of that and started the process, but I’m overall glad to see that my idea holds water. If I’m able to use distilled water to get the ph down, should I then start doing water changes with only distilled water or should I do them with a mix of distilled and tap? I ask because when I tested the distilled it came up as a ph of 6, which I know is too acidic. Would mixing the water theoretically help me find a happy medium?

I have a mystery slimy, white substance in my tank that showed up a couple of days ago. As my fish has increasingly severe fin rot, which I have been trying to treat for quite some time - to no avail, I'm a bit on edge about it. Does anyone have any idea of what this is and, or how to stop it if it is not healthy? From my research I am assuming it is a bacterial build up, but I am no expert in this field - hence my failure to lower my tanks PH and cure my fishes fin rot using a variety of medications. If anyone has any advice for those topics as well, it would be greatly appreciated. I've posted previously about my PH and fin rot issues and even though I got some help on it, the ideas that were suggested were ineffective. I just want to help my little buddy and am hoping that I can save his life.

I'll check it out! Thank you for all of your help 🙂

Thank you for the suggestions. I have added both driftwood and almond leaves previously. Unfortunately is caused some mold growth, so I had to do a deep clean yesterday. I will try again with a different piece of driftwood and almond leaves. I also use dark water almond leave extract, but that doesn't seem to help lower the ph as it just makes it more like Toby's natural habitat - I like that though, so I plan to keep using it regardless.

I will look into it. If you or anyone else has any other recommendations I would greatly appreciate them! My PH level is proving to be a significant issue in my tank maintenance as well, so if you have any recommendations beyond using PH Down by API, I'd love to hear them. I've been using that brand since the beginning and my PH never seems to go down - at least not from what I can see from the test strips.

Thank you, I have actually already tried this. Any other ideas?

I can't believe I'm just now responding to this, Cory. Thank you for your help, here are pictures of Toby when I first got him and how he looks currently as well as a picture of my water test strip. According to my water, my water is very hard and the alkalinity and ph are too high.

My betta fish, Toby, has been showing signs of fin rot for weeks. I have tried various treatments, from aquarium salt to imagitarium bacteria infection remedies, but I can’t seem to help him. I recently started my first cycle of Jungle Fungus Clear and KanaPlex and I’m hoping that helps, but I’m skeptical because nothing has seemed to work so far. When I do water testing I see that my waters ph and alkalinity are too high, but no amount of ph down seems to help. I’ve tired all that I can understand from my own research, but nothing is changing If anyone has any advice for how to reduce my ph/alkalinity and, or help with Toby’s fin rot, I would greatly appreciate it!