Similar thing with the water quality of your betta tank. Sure you can bother to cycle your tank. But most of the time we’re in a hurry and only find out once our betta is in the water that things are not going well. Ammonia levels have spiked. Which all but assures you that a nitrite spike is on the horizon. Not the kind of coming attractions your halfmoon male will find all that appealing I can assure you.
But there may be help on the horizon for that too. You see, the fish keeping industry also knows that problems with your betta tank’s water can come out of nowhere. Or not. And they know too you want a quick and easy fix. So as this video shows, they’ve come up with products that can help.
One such would be a product called AmQuel Plus. Billed as a water conditioner it can help keep things tolerable for the occupant of your tank. It works to make ammonia and nitrites nontoxic to your fish. Let me hasten to add that it doesn’t remove them, just makes them nontoxic through the magic that is chemistry. The problem is when you see this working it may make you less inclined to do the water changes you know in your heart of hearts you should be making. Please don’t let that happen, okay?
Stress coat is the other product profiled. It gives their slime coat a bit of a boost.
Finally there’s aquarium salt. It can help cure and ward off health problems better than Obamacare. Just know this. Some in bettadom swear by it. Others swear you don’t need it. Both sides can produce convincing evidence to support their position. Leaving it up to you to decide which camp you fall into.
If you opt to use it you might keep the dosage to no more than a quarter to a half teaspoon per gallon. And while we’re revealing trade secrets a lower cost alternative might be Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt.
The Problem with Amquel?
Before we go there’s a problem with products like Amquel. It may throw off the readings your test kit gives for ammonia levels. Creating a false sense of security or panic when no such thing exists. Just something to be aware of I’d say.
Okay, okay I can’t leave you hanging like that. Just to clarify, you need an ammonia kit that is salicylate-based NOT Nessler-reagent based. Reason being, and to keep things simple this isn’t chemistry class after all, the reagent used in kits relying on the Nessler method will react with the Amquel and produce a massive false positive. What you need is one that is Salicylate based. If you insist, click here and you can read the ins and outs of ammonia test kits until your eyes glaze over. So go ahead knock yourself out. (Oh and there's nothing necessarily special about that page. Just thought it was helpful is all. You can probably find others that are better if you look hard enough. )
Anyway, long story short you’ll need to get the appropriately named "Amquel Test Kit" if you want to measure ammonia levels properly when using Amquel in your tank. Or you can use the one put out by Seachem. It too will work correctly with ammonia neutralizing products like Amquel. Just not as fast as others might.
Anyway, some prefer to team Amquel Plus up with NovAqua because that’s how they were designed to be used. In tandem. Together they will tackle chlorine, chloramines and ammonia, with the NovAqua also providing a bit of slime coat protection.
One site likened NovAqua as a conditioner with benefits. Nice. In other words it works to make tap water safe for your fish by removing the chlorine. Plus it gives their slime coats a boost.
So you use the Amquel Plus to neutralize the ammonia. And the NovAqua to condition the water.
CONCLUSION: You should have picked up something to use in a pinch if the water parameters get out of whack in betta fish tank. But it should not be considered an alternate to regular water changes. But more just a way to help get your fish over the hump and to keep things from getting seriously out of hand should the need arise. Okay?
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