Help! Betta’s fin are frayed

[Betta Mom]

I rescued a Betta fish with frayed fins. I’ve had him for 6 months. New to having a fish. Moved him from to dirty 3 gal tank with no heater to a 20 gal with heater. Did a fish in tank cycling, upgraded his filter to aqua clear. Didn’t know what I was in for but got it cycled. His tank has 0 Ammonia 0 Nitrites 0 Nitrates. No other fish in tank. I have had some issues with pH but I adjust it when it happens. Tank has green algae. Think it has to do with my tap water. Haven’t figured out water hardness, think I have an issue there. I have some live and some fake plants, betta leaves, sand, floating betta log, some betta hammocks, a fake tree root decoration that has a hole he does go in. His fins looked tattered when I got him. Not sure if it is normal or not. There is no black on the edges. So not sure if it’s fin rot. I’ve never seen him bitting. I don’t think there are any sharp edges in the tank but not sure if I’m missing something. I haven’t changed his water in over a week but will in am. I change 5 gal frequently. I use prime, and API aquarium salt, API Stress Coat, API Stress Zyme. Feed Glo Fish Betta Flakes mostly but also frozen shrimp and blood worms. His tank is set at 79 ranges from 78-80. He comes out and hangs out with me when ever I am by the tank. He has only made a bubble nest 2-3X. One when I first moved him.
His tail seems worse than the rest. Not sure what I should do.

 

[Colin_T]

Hi and welcome to the forum

Do you normally add salt when you do a water change?
If yes, how much salt do you add?

How often do you do water changes and how much do you change?
How often do you clean the filter and how do you clean it?

Have you added anything to the tank in the last 2 weeks?

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Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. Wash filter media/ materials in a bucket of tank water ad re-use them. tip the bucket of dirty water on the lawn/ garden.

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for at least 1 week.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

Add 2 heaped tablespoons of rock salt for every 20 litres (5 gallons) of tank water. Keep the salt in there for at least 2 weeks.

The salt will not affect the beneficial filter bacteria, plants, shrimp or snails.

After you use salt and the fish has recovered, you do a 10% water change each day for a week using only fresh water that has been dechlorinated. Then do a 20% water change each day for a week. Then you can do bigger water changes after that. This dilutes the salt out of the tank slowly so it doesn't harm the fish.

If you do water changes while using salt, you need to treat the new water with salt before adding it to the tank. This will keep the salt level stable in the tank and minimise stress on the fish.

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After treating the fish, do not use salt in his water changes because Bettas don't do well with salt on a regular basis. Using it to treat is fine but not all the time.

Monitor the fish and see how it goes over the next week or two. If it gets worse while using salt, you might need medication to treat fin rot. But try salt and water changes first.