update on one betta and its 'sitter'

[alicemagooey]

in the interest of peoples time,i am going to divide this post into two parts.
The first will be the nuts and bolts,concise as possible,with a little background and specific questions.
The second will be updates on fishies condition..and a little 'new fish person chatter'(from your new fish person,here)which most people will opt to omit.

incase you need background,my detailed post was at:
[quote author=alicemagooey
link=board=bettadiseases&thread=110382675&start=0#0 date=1103826754]

from advice i got at this forum
i went and ordered from Drs Foster and etc.,

• 
  a water test kit
  
• some Novaqua
  
• some Amquel+
  

(because i want to take care of a betta of my own some day..(not yet,..not until i learn all that i can.)

update on his envronment/condition:

• use heating pad to get water up to 76 to 78 degrees stable
• changing water up to 50 % daily
• decided to keep the plant in bowl,and kept 'his' bowl(rather than going to bigger tank) because he is an older fish,his plant has become his 'hidie',and his bowl is his accustomed 'home'..for now.(besides,i am only a fish sitter,not a fish-napper
• 
  fishie is happy,frolics,bubbles,and eats voraciously!.
• i.feed two beta Bio gold in morning,and two in evening,daily..but have been replacing the evening meal with some freeze dried bloodworms (pinch) (have done this twice in four days).
• .this morning,after reading that Bettas may get constipated,i fed fishie a 'heart of pea'..which i realised,i should have chopped it up a bit more..
  anyway,he gobbled it and then worried me sick,because,i was thinking ;"omGod,i fed him a piece too big.spit it out fishie."
  he spat it out..i tried to grab it to cut it up more but he beat me to it..he kept it in his mouth for about twenty minutes ..i would go over and look at him,he would 'munch' a bit,spit it out,grab it again and then tuck it into his mouth again.he just swam around with it in his mouth..He seemed to be having a good time while i was having a worry fit..anyway..he finally managed to ingest just the right amount..(by my way of thinking,a piece as big as his eye.)then he let the rest fall into the marbles..where he cannot get it.
  

i think i digressed.all my resolutions not to 'yack'

more relevant information
i tested the water.(with aquarium pharmaceuticals(??)

• 
  ph= 7.3/7.4 in his tank
  
• ph= 7.6 from the sink.
  i use a hand blender to dssipate chlrine,but does not help much with hardness.(hardness?)
• 
  less than .25ppm ammonia
  (test kit does the salicilate(sp?) test.
  
• nitrites 0.pp,
  
• nitrates 0.ppm
  

QUESTIONS

• 
  do i still need NOV AQUA..anyone have formulae for to treat one gallon @ 5ml per10 gal
  
• do i still need Amquel+
  (need same formula).
  

that's it for now.
many tanks

alice and 'fishie'

[amanichen]

This is mainly addressing the second part of your post:

I'd recommend just getting the standard Amquel, and not Amquel+, due to some weird chemistry stuff that happens with Amquel+ (I'm too lazy to go search for specifics it right now.)

Anyway, .25ppm of free ammonia (salicylate test does free ammonia) is indeed too high, and the Amquel will help with that. And, if you're using Novaqua you don't have to worry about trying to outgas the chlorine from the water.

If both the Novaqua and Amquel are .5 ml/gal then I'd just follow the instructions that ABM gave you in your "chemistry and dilution" topic.