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Midnight

Chemi-Clean and Skimmer Cleaning

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by
Midnight
, 12-13-2011 at 09:40 PM (4650 Views)
So today I decided to deal with the Cyano that started in my new frag tank that was connected to the system during the summer. I believe the initial outbreak was a combination of: 20 lbs of new sand and the new acrylic frag tank itself. It has been mentioned in a few publications that new plastic parts initially leach a few things like silicates and such into the water column. Anyway the Cyano started there and only moved to the display upon me moving some frags to the display.

Another contributing factor may be the now two dead Koralia pumps that were in the system. The system used to have one MP 40 and two Koralias creating flow through the tank. Two months ago one of the Koralias died due to a ruptured impeller magnet. Just this last week the other one took a dump. Now some of you are thinking that reduced flow was/is the culprit. However, once the first pump took a dive I decided it was time to get another MP 40 which was planned form the start. I also got a MP 10 for the 20gal frag tank. So flow was definitely not the culprit here. In fact the nasty Aiptasias that were in the Cyano area (not surprisingly unaffected by the Cyano,) were blowing in the flow just like normal.

So I dosed the tank with enough Chemi-Clean for 150 gallons and pulled the skimmer off line. I also chose this time to give the skimmer a thorough cleaning since it will be offline for three days any how. Taking from Marc's skimmer cleaning article I rinsed out a tub and put about 10 gallons of freshwater in. I then added two full gallons of distilled white vinegar.



I gave the skimmer a quick shower to get most of the grime build up off and pulled the pump apart to inspect the internal parts.



Upon inspection I found a rubber band that must have made it into the sump during unpacking and acclimation.



Soaking



Soaking



Soaking



After the skimmer ran for a few hours in the low ph solution I gave a good scrubbing which was easy now that the acid had acidic water had went to work on all the encrusted junk. In case you are wondering, this is the Reef Dynamics Ins 180in-sump skimmer.



Now the skimmer is nice and clean and ready to beput back online once the Chemi-Clean has run its course.

I will give the Chemi-Clean clean threefull days to work its magic. I already have a batch of new saltwater mixed and aged and will start another batch once the container is empty.

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Categories
‎ Tank Entry , ‎ Water Chemistry , ‎ Equipment

Comments

  1. baker.shawn's Avatar
    this reminds me i really need to clean my skimmer....sigh..maybe monday lol

    just curious what skimmer that? it looks like a euro reef but it could also pass for a vertex or i could be totally off
  2. blennyman's Avatar
    I just finished up with a chemi clean dosing myself. I found that after 48 hours, my RBTA and corals were getting noticeably pissed. The water started getting cloudy and I started getting nervous. As much as I wanted to, I couldn't wait for all of the cyano to be visibly gone before I turned on the skimmer to bring relief to the inverts. I read on here someone commenting about how chemi clean is a super safe treatment and that they've even witnessed spawning during treatment. I wonder if that's the kind of spawning stimulated by poor water quality... I'll be interested to hear about your experience.
  3. Midnight's Avatar
    Baker, the skimmer is a Reef Dynamics (formally Euro Reef) Ins 180. It is a hoss and generally over skims my set-up. I believe I will be upgrading soon to a larger system and will not need to replace the skimmer. The other thing I really like is the twisting collar that allows for zero clearance during skimmer cup removal.

    Blennyman, on the bottle it says you are allowed to do a water change and repeat the process. Not sure if that helps. The cloudiness could be from a spawning event.
    Updated 12-14-2011 at 06:45 AM by Midnight (spelling)
  4. blennyman's Avatar
    I forgot to mention that all of the Cyano disappeared over the course of the next couple of days. I guess my point was supposed to be that in my experience (sample size of 1) the cyano doesn't have to be visibly gone or "dead" before you turn your skimmer back on and start your water change. If things look bad, I wouldn't wait 72 hours before skimming. My other poorly made point is that I don't think spawning is an indication of good water quality and that my tank got visibly stressed - though I didn't have any losses. The last thing is that I'm not good at making points late at night.
  5. cyano's Avatar
    any time I ever ran Chemiclean I would dose have the recommended amount and get great results with no visible changes in water quality followed after 72 hours with a large water change, but before doing that I would always try and manually remove all of the cyano I could so when it all melts away it would reduce the amount of bad stuff it released into the water column. When I still had a RBTA (died during tank relocation) it never showed any signs of distress during the treatment and the same goes for all of my inhabitants including CUC and shrimp
  6. blennyman's Avatar
    Ah yes, that's certainly one thing I didn't do - siphon out the cyano ahead of time. I wouldn't say my cyano had reached plague proportions by any means, but it may be the difference maker in our experiences.