Cottonwood 125 Reef tank build

Looks like a great deal to me!

I had a Yellow Watchman once. I loved him. Such personality. And your tank is coming along very nicely! I can't wait for pictures of all your new stuff.

Those are some crazy prices! However I don't think they'll be able to ship them to Sedona (just too artsy) so I'll PM you my address. :lol:

Thanks Erin, I'll get pics up as soon as I can. I'm trying to figure out if I should work 7a-3p or 3p-11p on Wednesday...I'm not sure when on Wednesday they will be delivered...

dcantucson said:

Those are some crazy prices! However I don't think they'll be able to ship them to Sedona (just too artsy) so I'll PM you my address. :lol:

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I'm lucky, I don't actually live in Sedona...I live in hick town, Cottonwood 20 mins from Sedona. I just put that because people know where it is, and I work there. I love Sedona the area....hate the tourists and lots of the residents though! haha! :Cheers:

I get my critters tomorrow I can't wait! I was just staring at my tank and I have a brown slug looking thing with 2 feelers on its head. Its a bit smaller than a dime. I tried to get a pic with my phone but it just looks like a brown blob. Any ideas?

Does it have a finger-nail like shell?

If so, stomatella snail. Reef safe hitch hiker.

Looks like it might...but it only covers maybe half of it. It's hard to get a good look at it.

That sounds right. I have a ton of them.

I got my citters in today! I love them, finally some life in my tank. The Randalls Piston Shrimp and Yellow Watchman Goby teamed up immediately, I placed the pistol where I wanted him, he went under the rock, then I let the goby go in the exact same spot and BAM! They are there working on their lair already. The 3 chromis are awesome they cruise all over together and the Sailfin Tang schools around with them 50% of the time. They are all so small...tiny babys but it will be cool to watch them grow. The tang is like the size of a silver dollar maybe. The green "war paint" goby is hiding in the rocks and hasn't been seen. And the pep shrimp just kinda dance, but haven't really done much. All in all, I am very happy! Reefs2go.com was a good deal and they packed everything in a Styrofoam cooler and sent it overnight. Didn't see a lot of pods, but maybe they were all just too small to see...I tried to get some pictures but my phone camera sucks! Here is one I tried to get of the watchman goby in his lair and another of my blue mushroom....which was open wide until I turned on my skimmer and then it closed up. Thought it was too much flow so I moved it but still not open very much so maybe I'll move it again. Sorry for the long post, but the life in the tank got me excited!

Crappy Pictures (hopefully were getting the camera this weekend)

Congratulations on all your new critters. You have lots of activity going on in there now. :)

Earlier today when I got home from work I noticed one of the chromis looked like a giant crab had pinched him, but the mark was just on one side...kinda like a big scape from his belly up to his back. (I don't have anything big enough to do that to him) I have no idea what its from. Then I just came back from my brothers football game and I cant find him any where....the other 2 are still cruising the tank like they have been but the 3rd is no where to be found. Would he jump? I can't find him but will keep looking.

He could have jumped... But it could have been the other chromis too. They have a habit of picking each other off one by one until one one is left.

Really?! They are so cool...I was thinking of getting some more of them...I hadn't read that any where. I like how they change color depending on the light hitting them, and how they cruise all over in a group.

So my blue mushroom was closed up...I turned off my skimmer while I fed, but left my powerheads on. When I came home a couple hours later he was opened up nice and big. I turned the skimmer back on and he closed up. I moved him lower to less flow and he didnt open up, so I moved him down to the sand with even less flow, but still some, and he's been closed for about 24 hrs still...Any idea what I can do to get it to open up again?

sweet new additions!

Cottonwood said:

Really?! They are so cool...I was thinking of getting some more of them...I hadn't read that any where. I like how they change color depending on the light hitting them, and how they cruise all over in a group.

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I've read about them fighting as well too.. I'm lucky though I have 5 of them and they have lived together fine for atleast a year (including time with the previous owner)

There was an article in the coral magazine that featured a bunch of stuff on damsels one of which was an article on ensuring your chromis get along... maybe you want to try giving that a read?

Ok so Chromis #2 is gone now. I see him in some rocks with a small emerald crab munching on him...but the emerald seems too small to have caught him...I also spotted a yellow bristle worm? Had to be at least a foot long before it jetted back into a hole in the rock, and another that looks to be very big that isn't really moving, though I can only see about 4 inches of it. Is that bad if its that big? I haven't seen either of my goby's since I put them in. So all I can find is my Sailfin Tang, 1 chromis, my pistol shrimp (because he's kicking up all kinds of sand) and my pep shrimp that aren't eating my aptasia...ahh!

Well you did add a whole bunch of fish to a brand new tank. A good rule of thumb to follow is no more than 1 fish every 3 weeks. Chromis do have a habit of fighting with each other and bullying each other, and I wouldn't be surprised if the one chromis you have left is the dominant one that murdered the rest.

Sorry to hear that they aren't doing so well. Why did you add so many all at once?

I added them at once because I had to order them online...the fish store in phoenix wanted $16 per chromis that I got for $3 on reefs2go.com, and there aren't any stores any where close by.

I've done water changes, and haven't had any significant change in my water readings. I've been checking because of adding them all at once, so that I could try to stop any type of cycle but it hasn't happened yet...every thing seems fine in that department. The Tang is doing great as far as I can tell, seems very happy, and even was schooling around with the Chromis at times. I guess I got a bully, which stinks because I really liked them!