New to Bettas

Hello everyone. I don't yet have a betta but have reserved one from a local breeder which I will be collecting next weekend. He's a red halfmoon. I'm so excited.

I had a bad fish week last week. After doing a fishless cycle for 5 weeks, I tried introducing mountain minnow to my (then coldwater) tank. Unfortunately they didn't survive, even when I went to a special fish shop not just the pet store. I've since realised that my water's very alkaline and so any small amount of ammonia is likely to be more toxic. I'm working on bringing down the pH which was 8.5 using bogwood and bottled water with pH 6.5. I've got some Indian almond leaves coming and am collecting some mature filter media from a friend. The breeder's kindly offered me some of the fish's own tank water (his pH is 7. so that should help, and I am planning a slow acclimatisation using a dripfeed into a bucket over hours. I'll give him 24 hours to settle in before feeding him too.

This is his tank, a 25l fluval chi with home made roof:
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Sorry for rambling on! Any advice gratefully received

He welcome to betta bred. A lovely set up you have their !

Welcome to the forum Vectis! Good place to be for information and to share.

Hi Vectis,
I hope you get a compromise with your ph problem.. I know what it's like as my tap water had changed last summer from pH7 to pH9!! I use rain and well water now as it's just too much work getting the tap water down consistantly.

Your betta should adjust in time to higher pH if need be but will prefer the 6.8 - 7.2pH better but only if it's stable.

Nice tank btw

Welcome great set up mate

Thanks for your welcomes . The bottled water has worked wonders for my pH and a little betta boy has moved in (he has his own thread). He's survived 28 hours so far and is an interactive little soul.

Welcome Vectis! I think it would be cheaper just to buy one of those water filter adapter. At the moment I use [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] I let the water sit for about an hour before putting my bettas in and they seem to be very happy.

Glad everything is going well for you