Savanna

Nope, just a low tech tank. The lilies and pogo have grown quite a bit since this was taken

Checked the tank when I got home today, KH was right at 80ppm, pH around 7.2. Nitrates were below ten, but not quite zero. I added two pumps of easy green (it's a 75g). Just checked it again maybe 3 hours later. Nitrates still aren't at 10, KH is between 0-40, pH is around 6.6.

I try to be as consistent as possible. I stay there by the strip and watch my watch until 60 seconds has gone by and then read it immediately. I'll probably stop on the way home and get a liquid test kit just to verify

The aquarium co-op test strips. They consistently read the same so if something is wrong with the strips it's the entire bottle that's bad

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Vigoro-0-5-cu-ft-Bagged-Pea-Gravel-Pebble-Landscape-Rock-54255/202523000 It goes down pretty much immediately after adding ferts. I can check it before dosing and within an hour afterwards and it goes down that fast. It *does* go down slightly over a week, but not anything like it does when I add fertilizer

I've tried putting in two pumps (it's a 75g tank) and it still brought it down a decent amount Around or a little less than 10ppm. It's hard to tell on the test strip, it's got a pink tinge to it but it's not quite at the 10 mark before. I've never been able to get it to 25 without my KH dropping almost to the "low" on the test strip

I really need some help. I've been struggling with my kh. After a water change it's around 80ppm, but my nitrates are *maybe* 10. However, within an hour of adding easy green my KH crashes and begins crashing my pH as well. I've added a bit of crushed coral and that helped a little, but I don't know how to get my nitrates up for my plants without it crashing the KH and pH. My tank is beginning to be taken over by staghorn algae and I'm really not sure what to do

OK, leaving it empty for awhile won't be a problem. I've got plants in there so I don't want to kill them on accident.

He passed away this morning unfortunately. What is the best way to decontaminate the tank?

It looks like it would be at least a week before I could get it unfortunately as none of the stores around me carry that 😔 I'll definitely get some on order though in the off chance that whatever caused it manages to get into the tank next to his

Tl;dr: older betta developed dropsy. Is it "worth" treating him at this point? How do I sanitize the tank when he passes, as I'd like to get pea puffers later? I have a "rescued" male betta that is at least 3 years old, likely older. The first 2 years of his life he lived in a 3 gallon with no heater. I moved him to a 10 gallon with live plants about two months ago. He has always been pretty inactive, even when his previous owners had him, but I noticed about two weeks ago that he didn't seen to be doing well and thought it was old age. He'd be better for a day or two, then back to being unwell. Overnight he started pineconing and I realize now that he has dropsy and most likely won't make it through the night, but I don't know how to euthanize him. My nitrates are at 25ppm after adding ferts today, nitrite is 0, ph is 7.8, his tank isn't gross, I have no idea where it came from. He's in pretty bad shape and I don't know that treatment would even help at this point. What do I need to do to sanitize the tank afterwards? I want to get pea puffers to put in here later on, but don't want to risk them getting it as well.

This weather is miserable! I can't handle walking outside in the morning and having ice on my windshield 😂 even in North Florida it's still difficult to find a lfs that isn't mostly salt water stuff.

That was also one of my concerns, but I looked around on our electric company's site and they say they use chlorine, and I didn't get any ammonia readings that would suggest chloramine

OK good to know. I've only had my tanks since may and I tend to overthink everything 😅

I'm in Jacksonville, so a little bit away. I went and got the last pack of test strips petsmart had and tested my tap water and it didn't show anything, but it smells so strong I don't know that I trust it. I did look and see that they use chlorine and not chloramine, so I think I'll leave some water out for awhile just in case