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melev

Chemi-Clean makes me happy

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10 Comments
by
melev
, 03-05-2012 at 02:07 PM (4090 Views)
Last week when I got back from my trip to Atlanta, my tank sitter told me he was ready for me to get the cyano bacteria situation in my tank under control. I prefer not to treat the tank when I'm about to travel, so I don't put the reef in a bad spot when I'm 1000 miles away for a few days.

When it comes to using a product for this issue, Chemi-Clean has always been the one I've recommended. I've used it countless times with great results. About two years ago or so, a new liquid version came out in addition to the powdered-typed. I had to dig through my bins to find the bottles I still had, and dosed enough of the product to treat 300-350g of water. After turning off the skimmer and the carbon reactor, I dosed my tank with about 20 ml and let it do its magic.

Within 24 hours, the areas that were red were vastly improved. Another day later, it was all but gone. I had my Vortech pumps in Nutrient Export Mode for the full duration to get any trapped stuff off the rockwork. My tank has plenty of flow, and oxygen levels are good enough that I didn't add an airstone & pump to the reef.

Normally, after the treatment is completed you need to do a 25% water change. The mixing pump on my saltwater vat is broken so I've been waiting for any news on the replacement. I could mix up 50g in a barrel, or drop a Mag pump into the vat for the time being, but I was busy with preparations for Next Wave. Instead, I turned on one pump to my skimmer rather than both, and let that one pump fill the collection cup with foamy skimmate. I had the skimmer dialed in so the cup wouldn't overflow, and let it work out the DOCs over the next day. Adjusting the gate valve on the skimmer the next day, I was able to export more, and after another day I was able to turn on the second pump and adjust the water level in the body of the skimmer for normal operations. I'm actually impressed that I was able to avoid the volcano effect that usually occurs after using Chemi-Clean.

The sand is clean, the red is gone, and the tank looks better. Win-win-win. Or should I just say winning.

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Tags: chemi-clean
Categories
‎ Water Chemistry

Comments

  1. pepper'scove's Avatar
    Haha, winning! Chemi-Clean is great stuff!! On my previous tank I had several outbreaks of the stuff and after I dosed with Chemi-Clean the cyano just vanished, I wish there was such a "harmless" solution for every single problem!!
  2. cyano's Avatar
    Chemi-clean has always impressed in the way that I have had no deaths from its use thus far and though a couple corals may not look overly happy for a day or two they always bounce back
  3. Jnarowe's Avatar
    I have heard a lot of positive reviews of Chemi-Clean... but what is the underlying issue creating the outbreak?
  4. melev's Avatar
    Cyano bacteria is part of nature, but when it blooms it's because of the perfect circumstances that fuels a solid buildup. Overfeeding is often the blame.
  5. Midnight's Avatar
    By the way, I caught the Charlie Sheen reference.
  6. TDTA1181's Avatar
    I have the power version of chemi-clean still in the box unopened, just been to chicken to use it. I've read bad stories about it, although I understand everyone has a different tank set-up etc. their end results may vary. I have a 46gal high tank w/ a HOB BH-2000 Reef Octopus and two Koralia 750 pumps. No fuge or sump unfortunately. I do a/b a 5-6 gal/wk water change and have been trying my best to get this stuff off my sandbed but the stuff keeps coming bk like the Terminator. I'm currently trying a 3 day lts off w/ curtains drawn experiment that I've heard some people have success with but still got 1 day left in this process. If this doesn't work I guess I'm gonna break down and try the chemi-clean product. Any suggestions or helpful hints anybody on here has would be greatly appreciated!!! Just reading the directions on the box it says to use this product once a month, this kinda makes me think this is a band-aid solution and not a fix to my problem? Also wondering what this might do to the copepod population in tank. Thanks guys/gals.
  7. melev's Avatar
    It shouldn't affect pods. It's an agent against bacteria. Your lights out method should work nicely, though.

    In the past, I used it maybe two or three times a year, not monthly.
  8. TDTA1181's Avatar
    This 3 day dark experiment seems 2 work pretty good. I think I may the chemi-clean in a couple of wks if I start to see another round of this cyno popping bk up. Melev, it seems to me that this is a prob esp in the spring for my tank. Have u ever noticed any patterns w/ u're outbreaks. I don't guess there is any way to prevent this for being a reoccuring prob? Just hurts to walk by a dark tank for 3 days.
  9. melev's Avatar
    It can be seasonal (spring), but for the most part i see posts about cyano issues all the time any most any site I visit.
  10. Jnarowe's Avatar
    so how does it affect good bacteria? is there any boomerang effect? I have seen your posts about this for years, and never seen any negative issue associated with Chemi-Clean, but I am very curious how it kills off one bacteria bloom and not them all. Any thoughts on that?