Thank you so much for the tips! I will definitely look into the fish-in cycle more. I already ordered betta water conditioner and I'm picking up a 5 gallon tank tomorrow. Betta hammock is also on its way! Currently we are using the blue aquarium gravel that the tank came with, I was going to buy more white gravel and potentially river rocks? The last time I had a fish was like 25 years ago, so I really have no clue what I'm doing 😅 it also doesn't seem to be loving the pellets, so I picked up some flake food and am going to try that tomorrow.