Betta Fin Rot

[pebbles28]

My betta had fin rot a couple weeks ago and I started treating him with aquarium salt and it worked amazingly. He had fin regrowth and was looking really good. I finished the treatment and now he's starting to lose parts of his fins anymore. He doesn't have the same brown/black around the outside of the fins that are falling off though. And I took all the plastic plants or anything he could tear his fins on out. It's not super bad at the moment but would like to find a treatment to fix it. I'm in the middle of cycling my tank, so the ammonia levels are between .25 and .5. I do daily water changes, trying to get it down. I am able to keep it below .5 but can't get it to 0. The nitrites are at 0. PH is usually between 6.6 and 7.0. and nitrates are at 0 as well. What can I do at this point?

 

[JuiceBox52]

Welcome to the forum! You have a beautiful betta. May I ask what size tank he is in?
To get the ammonia levels down do a 75% water change every day until it goes down and stays down, then you can do 50% every week. Another thing that causes ammonia is uneaten food. How much do you feed and how often? Feed once a day as much as the fish will eat in less than a minute the package will say 2 minutes twice a day but I have found this to be better for healthy fish.

 

[pebbles28]

Welcome to the forum! You have a beautiful betta. May I ask what size tank he is in?
To get the ammonia levels down do a 75% water change every day until it goes down and stays down, then you can do 50% every week. Another thing that causes ammonia is uneaten food. How much do you feed and how often? Feed once a day as much as the fish will eat in less than a minute the package will say 2 minutes twice a day but I have found this to be better for healthy fish.

Thank you. His tank is 5.5 gallons. I usually do a 50% water change every other day and 75% the other days. I feed him once a day around 2pm. He eats everything I give him. He doesn't allow any to sink to the bottom so I don't think that's the issue. I also vacuum the poop pretty often, usually with the water changes. The PH I meant to say is usually between 6.6 and 7. Not sure why I said 6.8. Like I said, I'm still trying to cycle his tank and that's why the nitrates are still at 0 as well.

 

[JuiceBox52]

Did you not cycle it before adding the fish?
Your water change schedule sounds good to help get that number down

 

[pebbles28]

Did you not cycle it before adding the fish?
Your water change schedule sounds good to help get that number down

I did not do a fishless cycle. Mainly because I have had multiple fish tanks in the past and never had an issue cycling the tank with fish until this one. This one I'm having trouble with for some reason.