how much waves do i need cause it's making a lot of ripples on top of the water but i don't see any bubbles forming?

it's an aquaclear and i will use it to stir up the water. thanks

you dont need to have bubbles forming, if the powerhead is just rippling the surface that will suffice.


how old is this tank???

It's spring, and there could be something in your tap water that might have done this. This is why it is best to use RO water that is filtered before putting it in the tank. What type of conditionner do you use? It might not be enough to neutralize seasonal desinfectant that the water company might use.

At least that is my guess, but a small 20 gallons with 3 fish in there and no skimmer, just a small powerhead, could be low oxygen as well.

Could be a disease. How long did you have that wrasse that died?

I'm going to guess it's not a O2 issue. 20g with 3 small fish and you have surface movement, not O2. Easy way to test, siphon 5g into a bucket, then dump it back in the tank. If you don't see noticeable improvement immediately, it's not O2.
All fish breathing heavy and not eating sounds more like disease to me. Or contaminants in the tap water.

Tank is about two months old and after an overnight of getting more oxygen in the tank the fishies are still breathing heavily. I also use nutrafin aqua plus for my water conditioner. It might be the spring water that has melted recently. Anything else i can check for?

Have you checked for ammonia? If you have chloramine in your tap water and you used a dechlorinator, then that released the ammonia and left it behind. In that case you should use Prime. I would use Prime as your water conditionner as it is a very good conditionner that neutralize ammonia as well.

I would get a RO unit as soon as possible and do a good water change. Put some carbon in there maybe just in case there would be some chimical in it, or chemipure or polyfilter in case that would be some heavy metal.

Just don't use Kent carbon as it might be contaminated with copper. Seachem Matrix carbon is good, just rinse it very well and if you can, first soak it in boiling water for a few hours before use.

For 20 gallons tank, it is really best to have a RO unit since it will be so fast to generate enough water and it will last a long time without replacing the membrane. Since this condition coincide with the water change, I suspect some contaminant in your tap water. The conditionner only neutralize chlorine.

did you use liverock or dry rock??

i will look into buying prime water conditioner but aqua plus states it removes chlorine and chloramine. i did check for ammonia and it shows close to 0. i have about 30 lbs of live rock currently in my tank. any suggestions where to buy an ok RO unit? i'm on a budget. thanks

should read 0 for amonia if theres any amonia it could be the cause of heavy brething could even be lethal in even just small amounts.

if theres amonia in your tank then your not finished cycling yet and with 3 fish in a 20g it would make sense that they are breathing heavy.