Chemi Clean

[Prater]

OK,

I dosed the tank friday night with Chemi Clean to help get rid of a large red algea outbreak. After an hour the algea had turned dark maroon. I turned the skimmer and carbon filters off like the directions said for 24 hours. I turned the skimmer back on for 24 hours yesterday and did a 20% water change this AM. There is still quite a bit of algea left. Should I dose again tonight or wait until tomorrow and do a second dose? Before the water change I pulled out a lot of red algea off the rocks and sand by hand.

 

[dugg]

I would dose it again, then do the change. Be prepared to give your skimmer a good cleaning in a week or so, it really made a mess of mine. It covered the skimmer with a red slime.

 

[papagimp]

I had to dose twice myself to get rid of it all in my tank. Just follow on box instructions and you'll be fine.

 

[Prater]

Here are a couple of before pics with the algea outbreak. I had been away from home for almost two months.

 

[Prater]

Here is a pic after I pulled a lot of the agea out of the tank by hand.

 

[jpitts101]

hey prater, if that dont work you may want to try maracyn. its a bacterial medicine for fish but clears up red algea great. i bought some chemi clean and didnt get it out of the box, i was told about maracyn and it had my algea out in 2 days and still no return. it is reef safe, i have 30 plus corals and didnt have any effects on them. im sure there will be a post right after i post this saying not to do it, but it did work for me wilth no ill effects on my tank. thats my 2 cents.

 

[mskohl]

I think you did most of the work by getting it out by hand. That's the best way to do it. That stuff feeds itself as it dies. If you still have some or if it comes back after your chemi clean treatment, you might want to do some serious vacuuming and rock blasting with your next water change.

 

[Prater]

mskohl

Just noticed you are from Vinita. I spent some time there this summer. My boat was at Cherokee Yacht Club on Grand Lake of the Cherokees. Will probably be there next year also...

 

[Prater]

Here is a pic after the second dose of Chemi Clean, plus the addition of more live rock. I will be doing another 20% water change this evening.

 

[mskohl]

Looks like it's improving.

yeah, we just moved up here in August. Maybe by next summer we'll have a boat too. The lake and trees are really beautiful right now. During my years in OKC, I never saw this many colors in the leaves. I think it's the dirt. We have brown - black dirt here. How strange is that?!?!?

 

[dugg]

It's not the dirt, it's the cold lol. My trees stay green year round . They shed thier leaves, but by the time the last leaf falls, the tree is full of fresh new ones, just the way i like it.

Looking good steve. That chemi clean works wonders. It will still clear more over a bout a week or two, as the skimmer pulls all the dead stuff out. Increase the flow some if you can until the skimmer goes back to normal color skimmate.

 

[Prater]

I just increased the flow by chagingtwo MJ600's to two MJ1200's. I will also do the mod on one of the MJ1200 pumps.

 

[dugg]

Not sure who it was, but someone on here said they put a MJ mod in thier 75, and it was way too much flow for the tank. Have you tried the Seio powerheads yet? I have 2 m620's in my tank, and i love them. For a 75 i would go up a size, but they are some sweet pumps. They also put out way less heat then the MJ's. I did a test on mine, with a new seio m620 and a new MJ 1200. The MJ1200 raised my temp by 2* over what the seio did.

 

[captbunzo]

If I understand correctly, your flow now is 2 MJ1200? If so, then that is a huge part of your problem, as well as potential nutrient export issues.

I would put a minimum turnover for any reeftank at 20x GPH. And for that I would exclude sump return from your numbers. So we are talking about 1500 GPH for a 75g tank. And that flow needs to be QUALITY, not just QUANTITY. We are talking about more diffuse, stream style flow (Tunze, SEIO, Modded-MJ). When adding laminar flow powerheads into a system, I'd say you should really only count half the flow they create in your numbers.

Just my thoughts. But I can guarantee you that if you improved the flow as I have discribed above, then most of your issue with Cyano would disapear.

 

[Prater]

Paul, thanks but I have more flow than just the two MJ's. I have around 1000GPH right now. My algea is already decreasing and as soon as I have a part in I will have a closed loop with a mag 24. With head loss I will probably be putting out about 2200GPH.

 

[captbunzo]

Ah - that's good then.... Didn't realize that before. And with the MJ-Mod you are going to do, that should be awesome! Cool....

 

[Reef Happy]

I am having the same problem in my son's 80 gallon reef tank. Where in town can you buy Chemi Clean?
I found it for $20.00 at one place. I don't know how much it should cost but this seemed alittle expensive to me.

 

[Prater]

I will sell you what left in mine for $9. Will still treat around 150 gallons.