Chemi-Clean Experience

[Midwest Express]

So I have had a nasty outbreak of red cyano.  It took my tank over covering the rocks and sand.  The other day while picking up my clean up crew I was talking to Lazy and he told me about Chemi-Clean.  So I hopped on Premium Aquatics and ordered the powder version.  It promptly arrived the next day.

I dosed the tank as described in the instructions.  I am doing more water changes than described because my water is now super cloudy and everything in my tank is closed up and looks horrid.  I thought I may have overdosed the tank but I redid the math and did what I was supposed to... or so I think. hah

Here are some pics of the tank before chemi-clean.










Post Chemi-Clean:

[HUNGER]

looks alot better

[Midwest Express]

I think i didn't feed the tank with enough oxygen. I am feeling that is why everything is closed up and looks horrid. Gotta try to find a way to get O2 back in the tank to get everything from dying.

[Wall_Tank]

Run your skimmer, just keep the water left low as to not skim out the chemicals.

Try to run an airline outside to get better air.

[Midwest Express]

Right now I have my two modded maxijet 1200's pointed at the water's surface to agitate it and a I also have a koralia 1 in the sump doing the same thing.  Hopefully that will do it.  I still don't have a pump big enough to run on my skimmer.  I can run what I have but it is pretty poor on flow but makes a ton of micro bubbles.

[lazylivin]

Oh man Wes after the 10 minutes soap box on adding large amounts of air? Man your killing me.
Pointing your maxijet/koralia at the surface will add an insignificant amount of oxygen. Raise the koralia so it is part way out of the water or within a inch or two so it is chopping air into the water. Micro-bubbles...... There should be so much you couldn't see 6 inches into the tank. Certainly shouldn't be able to take those pics. Assuming your coral and fish are still alive get some oxygen in there!

[swatem]

When I treated mine I ran two air pumps with the 15 inch diffuser rods (i think they are called that) and everything kept going as normal. My tank was literally full of bubbles for that 48 hours.

[micki]

Wow, I must have missed something... I've used chemi clean a few different times over the years and never knew you were supposed add extra air/O2 to the tank.  I never had any problems with anything dying after using it.   

[Blown76mav]

Little late for this now but there is a way easier way to remove cyano from your tank, its cheaper and won't kill any thing.  Just turn the lights off for three days and its gone.  No chemicals, no harm, no messing with air pumps.  I've read good and bad about Chemi-Clean, if used correctly it removes cyano but it seems if you don't mix it really well bad things happen. I know I've read somewhere (reef addicts I think) that you should mix it in a container of your tank water for 15-30 mins to make sure its dissolved and then pour it into a high flow area of the tank. I've also read that the more you use this the more the cyano becomes resistant to it making it harder to remove the next time. 

[Midwest Express]

Well I popped off the pump on my Skimmer and just letting it fill the tank with air. SSump is super full but display is just slightly cloudy. Things are starting to perk up. Good thing I only had a couple corals worth anything. They are looking better. Fish have been fine fully active through whole thing thankfully.

Lesson learned the hard way!

[lazylivin]

Wow, I must have missed something... I've used chemi clean a few different times over the years and never knew you were supposed add extra air/O2 to the tank.  I never had any problems with anything dying after using it.   

Micki it depends how bad a case you have. If you have a lot it can cause issues. In your case with water falling all the way to the basement you have heavy aeration already.

This is the instructions on the product.

http://www.chemi-pure.com/prd_am/product/idproduct=2

Simple to Use Instructions*:Remove all chemical filtration (Chemi-pure, Chemi-pure Elite, carbon, etc.)

• Turn off protein skimmer, ozonizer, uv sterilizer.

• Use air pump with an airstone for upkeep of oxygen adding heavy aeration. THIS IS CRITICALLY IMPORTANT.

• For Liquid Chemiclean use 1 drop per gallon, For Powder Chemiclean use 1 level scoop(provided) per 10 gallons, wait 48 hours. It is imperative that you take into account water displacement of sand, rock and filter when dosing!

• Perform a minimum 20% water change 48 hours after treating the aquarium.

• After 24 hours following the treatment then add back your chemical filtration (Chemi-pure, Chemi-pure Elite, carbon, etc.)

• Turn on protein skimmer, ozonizer, uv sterilizer. Repeat if necessary starting with step 1.

• *Disclaimer - We are not liable and cannot be held responsible for improper use of Chemiclean.

[Neogenesis]

I've also read good and bad with this product.  I found as much first hand knowledge as I could, as I was concerned for my Hadonni Carpet Nem, and they don't fare so well when Chemi-Clean is used.  So.....just as a mental note, be careful when using with nems.  I ended up not using it and went with a different method that cleared up my cyano.

[Midwest Express]

I only have a couple corals in my tank and going to just a FOWLR and build a new nano cube reef and start pretty much all over.  Basically reset myself in the hobby.  My 125 was over run in the cyano and I had tried no lights and tenting the tank for a few days but that only helped for a couple few days and then it started coming back slowly and took over the entire display tank again.  Oddly I never had it in my sump.

Thankfully what I do have in the tank is plumping back up and standing up again.  So I am going to keep feeding the tank the oxygen and I will be good to go.

Note to all that choose to go with Chemi-Clean... don't assume your supplying enough O2 to the tank.  Go overboard with the O2 or just don't use it.  I thought just running my skimmer with no top and letting the bubble filled water overflow and and 12" air stone would be enough.  However, I was horribly wrong.  So just pulling the pump off of the skimmer and letting it dump full force aerated water into the sump.  After that everything in the tank started perking back up.


O2 O2 O2 O2 O2 O2 O2 O2 O2 O2!!!!!!!!!

[lazylivin]

That is good everything is perking back up.

[micki]

Micki it depends how bad a case you have. If you have a lot it can cause issues. In your case with water falling all the way to the basement you have heavy aeration already.

Brian, that makes sense. 

[aquavista99]

I use chem clean on my reef