2.5gal Fairly new! Getting cloudy!

[JimMelAddie]

I set up my 2.5 here @ work on 2/7/05 (a tad over a month ago). The water is starting to get pretty cloudy (yellowish). I performed a 40% water change exactly a week ago (3/8/05). It looks like I'm getting some brown algae build up. Isn't an aquarium supposed to "bloom" about a month or so after being set up? What I understand "bloom" to be is a sudden bacteria and/or algae growth....ah! well, I JUST found this site:http://www.drhelm.com/aquarium/cloudy%20water.html & I think it just answered my question! I am using one of those UGF active carbon filter thingies! Guess I'll change it & hope it does the trick!

 

[revfred]

Eventually the tank will get past the "bloom" stage ...

 

[JimMelAddie]

It got a bit better with a water change last week but has gotten really cloudy again! It looks like the leaves of the plant are getting coated with a brown residue. Does this still sound like a bloom? The bloom in my 10 gal @ home was more of a whitish cloud. This is my aquarium @ work & all of my employees & applicants are like "YUCK!!!"

I've added two doses of ACCU-CLEAR since yesterday.

Should I just give it time?

Would more frequent water changes help? Also, along the same lines, when are water changes TOO FREQUENT???

 

[Lotus]

I would recommend you do a water change at least once a week. Brown algae is fairly common in a new tank. It's probably best to wipe it off every few days until it disappears. What fish do you have in there?

 

[JimMelAddie]

Male Betta, Zebra Danio, & a Ghost Shrimp.

 

[dss2004]

Do you have any kind of filter or circulation? If not then the tank is probably never going to be as aesthetically pleasing as you want. With water movement and a filter to collect debris stuff will accumulate in that little space pretty fast.

 

[JimMelAddie]

Its got an UGF with an active carbon topper on it.

 

[lmosness]

Does your office leave the lights on in the night? Maybe just too much exposure for your filter to keep up with. Plus, I don't know if shrimp actually clean up algae .... I think just junk off the bottom. Anyone think a really small pleco would overload things? I've just found that some pet stores have a trade in option for when your pleco gets too big.

 

[JimMelAddie]

I turn my lights off every day when I leave. I have the tank light on a timer. The light is on for 10 hours and off for 14.