New Betta Owner needs help.

[Eddie44]

Hello All, I purchased my first betta fish four weeks ago. I went down to the local pet shop
and picked out my fish friend. He kind of picked me, I walked up the shelf and he started wiggling back and forth and staring right at me, way more active than the rest. He was the one, Also purchased a 2.5 gal tank with cover & light, Red Sea Art Deco nano filter, gravel, and decor. A small cave rock and some plastic plants, and a heater, Set up tank and filled and treated water with Tetra Aqua water conditioner. A week later introduced him to his new home, temperature and clarity were consistent. He loved it, feeding him is no problem he attacks his food & kind of dances around feeding time. Named him jaw's because of the way he eats, I do a 50% water change every week . I use three 1 gal plastic water bottles, treat the water and store it for the next week's change. Two weeks ago noticed that the water started getting cloudy, cleaned the filter hoping that would help but no change. Made a complete water change and it was clear for about 4 days and it started to cloud back up. Could some one please tell me if I'm doing some thing wrong. Made sure there is no wasted food after he eats, Only give him what he can consume in three minutes( size of his eye ball) more like three seconds. Would greatly appreciate the help

[LaniBaby]

it sounds like you have a sound procedure there with the aged water and all that. i generally treat the water immediately before use, but i'm not sure if it makes a difference.
Have you tried vacuuming the substrate? What are you using for it? Rocks? did you rinse them out when you did the complete water change? do you vacuum the floor when you do each water change? You ought to be sucking up the waste he produces, because even though you're not letting food get lost, the food that goes in him IS coming out and hiding in there somewhere. You can do it easily with a turkeybaster.

that's all i can think of at present. (BTW, do you add aquarium salt to your water? I don't think it necessarily effects cloudiness but it does protect your betta. i recommend 1/2 tsp /gal)

[Nataku]

Greetings and welcome to Fish Forum.
Sounds like this could be one of two things to me. One, its whatever substrate you have. Sand and sometimes gravel if not very thoroughly rinsed before being placed in a tank will cloud the water as it resettles. Two, and what I think may be slightly more likely, is a bacteria bloom as your tank is starting to try and cycle. You have a filter, and with the water changing regimen you are doing, it is possible. Have you got a water testing kit? If so I'd test for your ammonia nitrites and nitrates and see what's going on in there. Did you intend upon cycling the tank?

[Eddie44]

Rinse the gravel with hot water when I do the 50% water change, And before I added the gravel initially washed it thoroughly. Have not purchased a vacuum & test kit yet , but will do.
Not sure what cycling is? Have not added salt to water, is there a particular brand I should use. And thank you for the help.