It is hard, but refrain from overcrowding your tank. Overcrowding is defined as putting more than one inch of fish per one gallon of aquarium water.
Some people quibble with this old rule, saying it doesn’t take into account the weight of the fish, which is a more accurate read on how much waste load the fish contributes. That’s true and they are right, but in the interest of keeping things simple the inch per gallon rule is so easy to understand and easy to follow. The fish by weight rule is not. In general, stick with the one inch of fish per one gallon of aquarium to keep your tank healthy.
The one way you can get around the one gallon of tank water to one inch of fish length is by increasing the filtration. If you have already overstocked your tank and have no way or reducing the fish load (ie, you do not want to set up a larger tank, or you do not know anyone who would take a few of your fish), then the next best thing may be to increase the filtration.
You do not need to throw out your old filter. What you are going to do instead is to get a second filter. It will need to be fairly powerful, with mechanical and biological filtration, and it should have a design that will not disrupt your tank set up too much. So underground filters are out. Power filters that hang on the side of the tank would work. And a canister filter would work, though unless your tank is over 50 gallons, adding a canister filter is probably overkill.
I recommend adding a power filter that is built for the same size tank as you have. Upgrading to a filter built for a tank larger than yours is not a totally bad idea, but because this site is focused on betta fish, and because the higher-powered power filters can create quite a lot of water currents, and bettas do not handle strong currents well, I would lean toward the most “peaceful” power filter you can get that will still substantially improve the water quality to make up for the tank having too many fish.
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