Velvet or fungus?

[ethereal_fire]

My mom's been taking care of my betta for the past 7 months, I just came home from overseas yesterday. She said he's been unwell since she did a full water change on his tank about a month ago, and about 2 weeks ago she started medicating him with BettaFix.

Since I got home I got a pH test kit and found the pH was above 7.6 so I did a partial water change last night with some distilled water to try and bring the pH down (because distilled water has a pH around 5.4ish) and added a spoonful of aquarium salt and about 5ml of Stress Coat.

When I tested the pH this morning though it was still above 7.6 (I don't know how much because the test kit only registers within a 6.0-7.6 pH.). Below are some photos I took this morning. I was having trouble getting a good shot (only had my DSLR), but you can see how his fins are kinda clumped, and he's got kinda a brownish colour on him (was a blue fish, and would sometimes go a little redish when stressed but this is more brown) and there are black specks on his fins.

From reading stuff online I think it is either Velvet or a fungus but I'm not sure which, or how to go about treating it. I have BettaFix and PimaFix on hand, its a 5 gallon tank, our tap water goes through a water softener and so is very soft (I don't know if that contributes to the high pH or not) and is well water not city water. I also have two other water conditioners: AquaSafe and EasyBalance.

What I'm thinking I would do is try and get the pH down and run a course of PimaFix, but I don't know if that it best. It would treat a fungus but would it work if it is velvet? Any advice would be helpful. If I don't hear anything back in the next 24 hours I may start the PimaFix because in either condition it isn't good to leave it too long...