help... newish tank

[clownmama]

Hello All,
I have had my tank up and running now for about 2 months, just added my first fish today. I have a 20 gallon nano tank that I put in 2 damsel fish and a firefish goby, all seem to be a little stressed and breathing sort of heavily. What should I do. I've added some prime, and some nitrifying bacteria, as well as some stress coat, per suggestion of the LFS, but it doesn't seem to be helping.
Water parameters are as follows as of an hour ago.
ammonia between 0 and .25 ppm
nitrite 0ppm
nitrate 0ppm
temp 78 degrees F
specific gravity 1.023.
That is all I test so If any of you have another suggestion of something to test, please help.
Thank you!

[Marlin]

The ammonia is probably the cause for the fish being stressed. It should be at undetectable levels.

[clownmama]

how do I fix it?

[LoneStar]

Water changes...

How much/often do you feed?
What type of filter do you have?

[clownmama]

fed it like 2 small flakes of ocean nutrition, have 2 mechanical hang on the back filters, each 20 gallon rated, live rock and live sand. How much of a water change 10% 20%? And how often?
Thanks!

[ErikH]

water change! If you can get 10 gallons warm enough quickly, and to the correct salinity (higher is better than lower if by accident), I would change out that much. How much rock is in the tank? Sand? Do you have a skimmer?

Water changes will fix 90% of your beginning problems, aside from diatomatic algae and overall clumsiness.

Also, adding three fish all at the same time is probably wrecking your water chemistry. Did it cycle at all?

"per suggestion of the LFS" is always iffy. If you are having problems with Ammonia, trites/trates, don't buy expensive chemicals. That's a fast way down the wrong track. Water changes are the best thing you can do.

Do try and be precise as smaller tanks take changes at a more drastic pace.

[clownmama]

Cycled for about 8 weeks, I've got about 3 to 3 1/2 inches of sand, don't know how much rock but it covers about 70% of my tank bottom. I will do a water change definatly, but how often do I need to do it?

[ErikH]

Well your tank is at least going through a minicycle. Change half now if possible, and test again after an hour. Then about an hour before bed, test again. If it's not at 0, do another 50%...

[LoneStar]

Some people do 5% weekly or 20% monthly. Just depends really. I would just do a monthly one of 20%. If I had a lot of corals in the tank, I would probably do weekly changes.

[clownmama]

so I did a 50% water change, and now my numbers are even higher, but the fish seem to be doing better? My ammonia is now at 1.5 ppm. pH is 7.8 Guess I need to change more water.

[JimD]

Did you disturb the sandbed while you were syphoning the water out? Also, keep an eye on that firefish, once your water is good and the fish begin to adjust, my bet is that the Damsels will pick on the firefish. The fact that you introduced all the fish at the same time may work to your advantage.

[clownmama]

weren't meant to go together, same issue with the other tank, tested the water before the purchase (0 ppm all), had ammonia (0.25 ppm) in the tank when I got home, empty tank (as in no other fishes), cycled 8 weeks, lr and sand. I will do a water change in that one also and get him out of there asap, at least that is the plan... all seem to be doing well now, everything dropped back to normal after I added some bacteria and did another water change (or the other way around rather).:) Pulled the water out with a clean cup (one cup at a time) and re-added it that way so as not to seriously disturb the sand bed.

[clownmama]

just wanted to report this morning that all fishes are still alive. :) And doing well!

[R.Allard]

how old is the rock??