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Is the bare-bottom tank in the last photo a quarantine tank? What medications have you used? Sometimes using more than one medicine in quick succession can be hard for a weakened fish to handle.

So it's ok to use things like Seachem Equilibrium or buffers on my RO water, right?

Yes, my six year old talked me into a castle in his 10 gallon tank. I was against it at first but have learned to love it. I have my own 5 gallon and a 20 gallon that I did all natural.

It's odd that your nitrates are at zero. My understanding is that usually a cycled tank will have nitrates above zero. Do you know if your tank was cycled? How long have you had it?

Planted tanks are much more fun I think! I'm sure your kid will love it. I always think betta colors stand out a little better against darker substrates, but kids tend to like the more colorful substrates.

What if I'm using RO water because my tap water is bad? Don't I need to adjust the GH and KH at least in that case?

Did you consider laying the driftwood down with the arm sticking up?

I agree that changing out your cartridge probably caused a cycle crash and a nitrite spike. Your tank is probably recycling. You can probably change out one at a time if you have at least three or four, if they start getting too dirty or falling apart, but I definitely wouldn't exchange the...

I think as long as the water is clean to prevent infection, bettas usually recover from something like this. You're doing the right thing. I hope he pulls through!

That's strange. Did you do anything differently than usual recently? Was the tank fully cycled? I wonder if you had a cycle crash somehow by accidentally killing beneficial bacteria, which I think could cause a nitrite spike.

It could also be some kind of algae. I wouldn't be too concerned about it if your plants seem otherwise healthy and it doesn't spread too much.

Are your water quality readings all still good? Is ammonia still zero? Nitrates and PH still under control? Maybe you could switch up his food? Live food? I feed my betta a few live fruit flies occasionally and he seems to love that. Otherwise, I'm not sure what the problem could be. I...

The levels in my tap water are about 1ppm for ammonia and a little over 20ppm for nitrates. I have three tanks. My betta tank had a little over 0.5ppm ammonia, while me shrimp and CPD tanks had a little over 0.25ppm for ammonia. On nitrates, my betta tank was actually over 40ppm, while my...

I've been having high ammonia and nitrates in my tanks and I just assumed that I was doing something wrong. I finally decided to test the tap water and discovered that it had higher levels of ammonia and nitrates than my tank water! I assume I need to switch to RO water to solve the problem...

It could be low oxygen. Consider adding an air stone or increasing surface agitation somehow.

Thanks everyone. I like the idea of some driftwood and a background. What kind of wood do you all like for driftwood? Is just plain black the best thing to do for a background? I tried to put frogbit in but it isn't doing well. I think the water may be moving too much with my airstone for...

This tank has 8 Celestial Pearl Danios, 4 Kuhli Loaches, 1 Nerite Snail, and a handful of yellow dwarf shrimp. Any tips or advice for improvements?

Any tips or advice on how to improve it? Anything you would do differently? I usually don't like things like castles, but this tank was for my six year old and he fell in love with the castle at the store, so I bought it for him.

I got some better shots. He seems more active and happier and looks better since I implemented all of your helpful advice, but I'm still concerned for what appear to be red marks on his head and his fins aren't growing back yet. Any sense from anyone for what these marks could be? Also...

Here's a close-up of my Red Cherry Shrimp.

I think the best thing you can do at this point is daily water changes until ammonia stabilizes at zero and hope he recovers.

That's exactly it! The ghostlike float and the untrustworthy faces.

Yes, I would do a 75% water change every day even until your ammonia is at zero. I'm not sure which water testing kit you're using but I find the API Water Testing kit to be pretty accurate and easy to use. Make sure you're dechlorinating and making sure the water temperature is equivalent...

Is there anything in particular I have to do to properly maintain a betta/shrimp tank? Beyond regular water changes?

Thanks! My betta is super peaceful for some reason and never goes after shrimp as far as I can tell.

I'm a relative beginner and not a good photographer, but here is my 5G Betta tank with 1 Nerite snail and some Red Cherry Shrimp. Any tips or advice? I know my betta is suffering from fin rot and I'm doing my best to help him recover. I also know I need to change out the Indian Almond Leaves...

I think it's a good idea to have a low flow filter for a betta tank; live plants are great too. I've found that if a tank has low oxygen, the fish will hang out exclusively near the surface and will look distressed. That happened with my CPD tank and I added an air stone and their behavior...

It doesn't seem like swim bladder disease to me either. I would get a test kit and test for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate and see if those levels are healthy. I would also increase your water changes and vacuum the gravel and make sure you add dechlorinator. By the way, my understanding is...

Based on your fish I would go with mostly driftwood and rocks. You could try something like jungle val and see if it survives. I agree with the black backgrounds suggestions.

I bought the Fluval 5G for my betta and I love it.

I'm not an expert so I hope someone with more experience chimes in, but I wouldn't transfer the gravel. The beneficial bacteria is mostly in the filter media, and it's good to have clean gravel. I would transfer the bio filter media though.

Beautiful betta

I would try to reduce the use of the net on him if possible; it is stressful for him and you could harm him if you're not careful. You can usually leave him in the tank while you clean, or you can guide him into a container or large cup and scoop him out more gently maybe. I'm not an expert...