Reddit mentions of Two Little Fishies ATL5445W Ball Valve for Regulating Water Flow, 1/2-Inch

• As for filters, you have a plethora of options. The easiest to maintain are either sponge filters powered by an air pump. If you choose to go with a sponge filter you will need a ball valve to regulate the flow and control the amount of current in the tank (bettas generally live in and prefer very calm water with little to no surface agitation). OOOOR my favorite route, a hang-on-back filter. Aquaclear makes an excellent filter. The benefit to a hang-on-back filter over a sponge is that you have control over what type of media you choose to use inside of it. This allows for a ton of more advanced options down the line to control chemical levels and water purity. The average size of a filter speaks volumes to the necessity of a 5 to 10 gallon tank.
  
  
• You will want to replace your plastic plants with ones made of silk. The best way to figure out if a decor item is safe for your fish is by dragging a pair of panty hoes (don’t know if I spelt that right) across the decoration. If the panty hoes tear at all then the item is not safe for your fish's fins. Once you are a bit deeper into the hobby, live plants are an excellent addition to any tank as they provide a type of "buffer" for your tank as they absorb harmful chemicals. That being said they can be quite a bit of work depending on what you want to grow.
  
  
• API makes the best hobbyist level water test kit on the market. That being said, I hate the rest of their products for the most part. They are just simply inferior to other options. When you can, all you need to buy is some Seachem Prime for your water condition. It is the crème de la crème of water conditions and while the price tag is higher than others up front it is MUCH cheaper in the long run as it literally only takes 1 ml / 10 gallons to make your water safe for your fish. It also nullifies harmful ammonia and nitrite through a proprietary formula. To add to the awesomeness, you can safely overdose it at up to 5x the concentration safely, and that is even recommended for particularly harmful situations such as cycle crashes or fish-in cycles.
  
  
• Due to the size of the tank he was in, water changes are a bit irrelevant. With such a small body of water and no filter, to keep him safe you would need to be performing 25-50% water changes a few times a day (not exaggerating) this leads back to my previous point about larger bodies of water being much easier to maintain. Once you have upgraded to a larger setup a standard water change schedule is usually ~30% once a week. In the event your water parameters are way out of whack and you need to change a lot of the water out, it is ALWAYS better to perform many small scale water changes as opposed to one large one. Large water changes cause violent shifts in PH, water hardness, temperature, and other parameters. These all stress the hell out of our little buddies. To add to this, established tanks do not need to be "cleaned" ever. All that is necessary is a vacuuming of the substrate to clean up any leftover food (we are gonna get to avoiding leftovers altogether shortly) or waste.
  
  
• After hearing about his living conditions, his condition upon death is less and less relevant. Unfortunately due to the nature of his home, he was going to pass quickly regardless of the cause.
  
  
• Food! In the wild meals for bettas are sometimes very scarce! They primarily live off of mosquitos and mosquito larva. They will sometimes go up to two weeks without finding a meal. Because of this, they have no mechanism in their anatomy to signal when they are full. They gorge themselves on whatever they can as they may not have another meal for a very long time. It is always better to error on the side of caution of underfeeding rather than overfeeding. A good rule of thumb is that their stomachs are about the size of their eyeballs. For reference, my fully grown betta gets about 3-4 pellets twice a day. That being said he is quite large and feeding schedules vary from fish to fish. If you watch them while they eat you can actually see their tummies plumping up a bit right after they eat. Plump is good, too plump is not. Another safety measure that many people utilize is a fasting day once a week. Many folks will feed a bit heavier on a Saturday and give treats like blood worms and then will starve them the next day. This helps clean out their digestive systems that are very susceptible to blockages and bloating.
  
  
• Removing leftover food is important. A helpful tool for this is a turkey baster. Any leftover food will breakdown into Ammonia. This is one reason many people like to keep shrimp or snails as tank companions as they will clean up the leftovers. If you aren't ready for that yet, just make sure you clean out the leftover food.
  
  
• Omega one betta buffet is great food. Freeze dried bloodworms are awesome too. I generally save the bloodworms as a treat since they are so messy and difficult to clean up what they don't eat.
  
  
• In reference to the buggy eyes, with a 1 gallon tank, no filter and no heater, there could have been numerous causes for his condition.
  
  I like to end posts like this with shots of my tanks. I do this because I just want to remind you 1 more time that my first 5 gallon tank was an absolute death trap for any fish that was unfortunate enough to land in it. I hope this helps!!!
  
  
• http://i.imgur.com/lYu70ZW.jpg
  
  
• http://i.imgur.com/qP7LmqU.jpg
  
  
• http://i.imgur.com/lL2M7xw.jpg
  
  
• http://i.imgur.com/Gkkywcv.jpg
  
  
• http://i.imgur.com/MTDRF2N.jpg
  

Distilling water is the exact same process as ethanol just a bit higher temps. The pump should sit inside the bucket and the tube should connect to the bottom most port. The top port on your condenser will be where the water flows out, I personally put this tube back into the bucket as to create a looping system. It saves on water and 5gallons should cool your pot enough for a single run. By the end of a run the water in the bucket will usually be around bath temps so it's good to change this out if your doing multiple runs in a day. A valve isn't some complicated device lol, it just slows the stream of water or can shut it off completely while the pump is still running. This valve is cheap and does a great job.The valve is nessisary with this pump as the condenser bucket will overflow at max speed and as such I turn the valve half way till the water is constantly leaving the top port without flowing over the port hole it self. The pump I listed is a bit overkill but it leaves much flexibility for the future. It can pump up high distances such as the distance from the floor to the pot, and it can be used with any size still should you ever upgrade. If you have any more questions, feel free to ask. I periodically check my Reddit so when I do I can help ya out.