Muffymouse

Ok, here's the deal: tank 1.5g (not cycled, not enough time and no biospira locally ), fish: 1 betta trying to beat fin rot, water testing 2x daily. Ammonia .50 or higher (but not yet reached 2.0) so far no readings on nitrates or nitrites, water changes at least 1x per day at 50% with often a 2nd one at 20%. To help Sir Gawain, am treating the water with AmQuel+

But nothing is working on keeping it down, I cant' get it below the 0.5ppm mark any suggestions? Help please =)

Muffymouse

Forgot to add: The water is clear not cloudy at all, and it is being filtered by a Whisper 3i filter and has an air stone. Looking forward to any suggestions about what I can do

Gargoyle

You will just have to stay the course and wait it out... There really is no "easy" way out of doing a cycle.

COBettaCouple

Gargoyle's right, i wish there was an easy way to cycle fast without dropping $40 to have biospira overnighted. are you adding any vitachem to his water? daily doses of that could help. what are you treating the fin rot with?

Luniyn

You are doing what you can already. It's good that you are using Amquel+ as that will keep the toxic parts of the ammonia at bay (the majority of it is actually not toxic to fish, how much depends on your pH level though). Just keep it up, and one day you will suddenly get nitrite and finally get into phase 2 of the cycle. One thing to note, the bound up ammonia from treating with Amquel+ (or Prime or any of the ammonia binders for that matter) will take longer for the good bacteria to eat. So you might notice an ammonia reading for quite some time even though the majority of it is actually under control. Just keep up with the water changes and you will be good. Good Luck!

Muffymouse

Thanks for the encouragement and words of advice.

Yes I am adding vitachem to his water and I did one treatment of Maracyn/Maracyn 2 gave it a rest as I really needed to work on tank conditions. Starting soon-range I will be doing another round of that. I did see some improvement during and after the first treatment but it has slipped some. If it looks like he might need something else I'll ask about it on the betta board.

Thanks again everyone, this sucks but it must be done :

tan.b

i'm afraid i have no suggestions either. a slightly elevated temp can help speed up the mutiplication of good bugs thus speeding up the cycle. if you can increase temp....do. also increased temp is less stress for poorly fish. instead of trying to keep warm they can concentrate on getting well! good luck and keep up the water changes....not only does this help keep ammonia as low as poss, the clean water will help the fin rot too.
GOOD LUCK! tan

COBettaCouple

warmer water is good advice from tan. as you increase temp though, make sure there's good aeration from an air stone to make up for the lower oxygen in the water. fin rot can be a back & forth battle and i found trisulfa to be a great med for it.. just keep taking care of him and you'll get your little Betta through and his fins regrown.