Hello there! I'm a soon to be fish owner that has never had a fish before. I have a friend that's taken care of fish for a while, most recently a few taitas and a recently deceased Betta named Bugs (RIP).

I have a 5.5 gal tank, with a hiding place the friend suggested, sand, gravel, a filter, a heater, and a thermometer. I've been regularly checking the water and it seems stabilized at .25 Ammonia, 0 Nitrate, and 0 Nitrite. However the pH, no matter what I do, will not go down from 7.5. I have a pH down dropper thingy that I put 11 drops from into the tank, as per the 2 drops per 1 gallons suggests.

My friend insists that getting the plants will help, and I trust them, but I want to make sure I'm not forgetting or missing anything. I'm recently using Stabilizer and Conditioner as well. I didn't know you had to use stabilizer regularly, and the conditioner was a suggestion from the friend for a few extra days to see if it'd help as well

A bit of context as to not provoke anyone, I know these aren't the perfect specifications for taking care of a Betta, a bigger tank would be better, but this is pretty much a rescue from an owner that can't properly take care of the Betta. They are too busy and therefore I offered to take them having extra money from my college grants.

Any suggestions will be considered as I have no basis to work from, and I will run things through my friend to make sure I don't mess things up, but thank you so much for your time!