Ph crashes/betta fish-please help!

[bsg]

Hi, I hope Carl can help or someone with knowledge of ph! I've never had fish before and am now taking care of a relative's betta (he has chronic SBD from either injury hitting side of bowl or high ammonia and nitrites and fin rot because they didn't learn about fish care.) I'm cycling a 5 gallon for him with a sponge filter but in the meantime he is in a 1 gallon bowl (he freaked out in a temporary 5 g. Sterilite container and seems more comfortable in the 1 g. because of the SBD) I have been doing 40% water changes with Prime everyday and 100% once a week. There is also an anubias plant in there (he likes to rest under the leaves and amongst the roots-it keeps him from floating above the water) that is keeping the ammonia and nitrite at 0 ppm (our tap has .5 ammonia) Temp is 76 to 78. He eats well (I feed him small meals of a NLS betta pellet soaked and cut up into tinier pieces and frozen daphnia/blood worms when his bladder is not too distended) and comes to the front of the bowl to greet me and blows bubbles. He is so sweet but the fin rot is getting worse. I know that the stress from chronic SBD can cause fin rot too. I have tried clean, warm water and he has been on Triple Sulfa, Paraguard, Kanaplex (not at same time) and am back to just clean, warm water but since it is getting worse I tried looking up more info and just learned that while the anubias is keeping ammo etc at 0ppm it can cause morning ph crashes! So this morning at 8am I tested his water and our tap- his was 7.2 and tap was 8.3! What should I do? How do I keep the ph constant during water changes and prevent ph crashes in the morning? I thought I was doing good keeping ammonia and nitrite at 0 and now I learn that the poor little sweet guy has been/is dealing with huge ph issues! I am trying not to panic and am so worried, please what should I do?

[bsg]

Just bought an API Gh and Kh liquid test kit and tested tap water. (Gh/Kh is 53.7) Going to do his daily water change now and test ph before and after to gather more info. Also going to check ph before sunrise to see if there is a large ph change. Need to gather more info and read as much as I can about plants/Ph/Gh/Kh!

[bsg]

Did 40-50% water change and ph was 7.2 before and 7.4/7.5 after-so not as big of a change as I was expecting with 8.3 tap water. Gh/Kh must be buffering it? Sorry for my lack of knowledge! Now just need to check ph before sunrise to see if it is going much lower at night with the anubias in there. But so far it looks like the fin rot is not going away because of the stress and resulting lowered immune system from having the chronic SBD. I hate to see him suffering but for now he is eating well and interacts with me though most of the time his belly is distended and he has a difficult time swimming. I'll have to make a difficult judgement call-when he stops eating, greeting and blowing bubbles at me, just seems miserable and the fin rot gets worse I'll need to do the sad and difficult thing of humanely euthanizing him (I bought some Tricane-S when the time comes) He really is such a sweetheart!

[bsg]

Sorry, I posted in the wrong board! Should have under questions/concerns board-duh!

[Carl]

Sorry for the slow answer, must have missed this post yesterday.

With your pH changes being no more than .5, I would not be overly concerned here.
Often new tap water will gas out as per our Chemistry article, pH section, but will go from a lower ph to a higher ph, not the direction your water is going.


I am more concerned with too many changes of water in generally, and unless your ammonia is going up to dangerous levels, there is no reason do perform these this often.
Your Sponge Filter once "seasoned" should do this well, while use of products such as Prime and Purigen can control ammonia until then. This is assuming the ammonia/nitrites climbs between water changes.
Suggested Reading, "Aquarium Cleaning; Bowl"
www.americanaquariumproducts.com/Aquarium_cleaning.html#bowl

Product Sources:
www.americanaquariumproducts.com/Seachem.html#purigen
www.americanaquariumproducts.com/Seachem.html#prime
www.americanaquariumproducts.com/SpongeFilter.html


Do you know how old this Betta might be?

Since he has a swim bladder disorder, have you considered a fish bath that includes salt, this can often be very helpful
Also maintaining a small amount of salt (sodium chloride) in the bowl might be helpful about 1/4-1/2 teaspoon in 1 gallon).
As well, maintaining a constant source of mineral Cations (positive mineral electrolytes) is also important.

Please Read:
Aquarium Chemistry; Depletion of positive mineral ions
Do Fish Drink? Osmoregulation in Fish
Salt in Freshwater Aquariums

Carl