Chemiclean - First Time User - My Experience

[JayinToronto]

I've been in the hobby for about 10 years. With the same tank and basic setup the whole time. 400 gallon mixed reef. About a month ago after a large water change I had a terrible outbreak of red slime cyano. I've had little bits here and there over the years but nothing some spot suctioning and a little tank TLC couldn't take care of. This time nothing was working. I would suction every inch of my live rock and clean the sand and sump and perform water changes but the red slime bounced back literally overnight. My nitrate and phosphate readings the whole time have been negligible. All my other chemistry has been solid the whole time. After trying all the tricks people have for eliminating red slime I finally bit the bullet and purchased my first vial of Chemiclean as I was getting nowhere.

This afternoon I removed my GFO and Carbon reactors, took the lid off my slimmer, and added 40 scoops of Chemiclean as per the directions.

See some "œbefore" pics and a video below.

Wish me luck!!!

 

[JayinToronto]

Pics attached

 

[JayinToronto]

Vid at link below.

https://youtu.be/F3TFWs_i0-E

 

[JayinToronto]

Another vid

https://youtu.be/OvWF0WCn7Bo

 

[JayinToronto]

Update:

6h in. Everything looks good. All fish and corals seem happy. Protein skimmer foaming like crazy (I have the valve open and am just letting the effluent run back into the tank) . The one thing I've noticed is that my pH levelled off shortly after starting the treatment. It normally swings from about 8.1 in the morning to 8.3 at the end of the day (apex controller). When I added the chemiclean the pH was 8.24. It basically plateaued at that point and is sitting at 8.23 right now. I hope it doesn't march down to really low tonight. Will check alk and calcium later tonight.

If anyone has any thoughts around the pH please chime in.

-J

 

[Raptor72]

Chemiclean - First Time User - My Experience

Curious, where did you add the Chemiclean to? I'm kind of going through a similar issue.

 

[JayinToronto]

Curious, where did you add the Chemiclean to? I'm kind of going through a similar issue.

mixed forty scoops in 40 cups of aquarium water then just poured it in all over the display tank.

My alk and calcium tested normal tonight (talk 8.2, ca 400). I'm a little worried about he pH trending down, now it's 8.16. I'll check it out first think in the morning and add some more alk if it's too low.

-J

 

[JayinToronto]

It's now 11:00pm. I put the Chemiclean in at 2:45. My main observation is that the red slime seems to still be out in full force. Usually at this time with the dimming lights there is a bit of a withdrawal of the red slime, but not tonight, it's just matted on everything. Maybe it's dying? Maybe it's not performing its regular night day cycle. Maybe, just maybe this is the start of it's death! Please please please let it be a sign is dying!!!

 

[Vinny Kreyling]

Give it time, it is not instantaneous but it has worked well for me every time, even @ lower doses.

 

[JayinToronto]

I didn't get much of a chance to look at things this morning before work. Blue lights were just coming on. Everything kind of looked the same. Most importantly the fish all looked normal. No signs of stress.

The pH did it's normal night drop. It's a little lower than usual but nothing I'm too concerned about right now.

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[mcgyvr]

That does not look like cyano to me..
I see Dinos and what looks more like Lyngbya than cyano.. Both cyano and lyngbya are a bacteria and the Chemiclean should work against it..

Its unlikely to work for the dinos though.
Good luck..

 

[JayinToronto]

That does not look like cyano to me..
I see Dinos and what looks more like Lyngbya than cyano.. Both cyano and lyngbya are a bacteria and the Chemiclean should work against it..

Its unlikely to work for the dinos though.
Good luck..

In watching more videos I fear that you are right regarding the dinos. Will give this Chemiclean a 2 day shot then re-evaluate. If it is dino then I'm a little concerned having my carbon off-line and any build up of toxins. I used to run a UV sterilizer but haven't in years. Maybe it's time to dust it off again.....

I think I'm going to pick up a microscope to properly diagnose the organism I'm dealing with. As I had red slime in the past I may have been too quick to assume that's what I was looking at now.....


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[JayinToronto]

Also, dinos exploding in a low nutrient environment would fit with the fact that it happened after a large water change and changing of my GFO substrate. :hmm3:

 

[JayinToronto]

27h in. I think I've misdiagnosed my problem and potentially made a big mistake. The situation is worse. The sheets of brown are covering everything.

I'm really convinced now that I have a dinoflagellate problem and not a red slime problem. My concern right now is that I've potentially wiped out some of my beneficial bacteria with the chemiclean that may have been competing with the dino.

Considering what to do next.

See pics and vid below.

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[JayinToronto]

Vid 27h in

https://youtu.be/6T8Fi6w4QiU


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[JayinToronto]

Well obviously the Chemiclean did absolutely nothing for my dino problem. See pics below.

I did the 20% water change tonight, started up my charcoal reactor again and put the lid back on the skimmer. I guess a good takehome point for me is that the Chemiclean didn't seem to have any negative effect on my coral or fish. May have had an overall negative effect on my aquarium bacteria population, but I really have no way to know that.

I'm off to tackle my dino problem......

Cheers all.

-J

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[ali1]

post another thread with your progress. Love the updates

 

[ReefsandGeeks]

Agree they are dinos. I'm battling them myself right now after carbon dosing too heavily and dropping Phosphate and Nitrate to 0 and not testing frequently enough. Didn't realize hitting 0 was such a big deal untill I got dinos. Dr. Tim's has a "recipe for sucess" for dinos which includes dosing bacteria and a 3 day black out. I've always been afraid of doing a blackout on my tank for fear of hurting the corals. I instead tried a similar regimen from elegant corals which is dosing several bacterias and vodka to fuel them. Seems to have helped, but didn't get rid of them. After reading about it more, it seems many people have to do these type of treatments several times before dinos go away. It's harder to fight than cyano for sure.

Some dinos are affected by UV, and some are not. A microscope ID and some help identifying the strain would help you decide the right course of action. I just ordered myself a UV to try because my strain is ostreopsis(spelling?). Best of luck in identifying and fighting them. They are a headache for sure. This has prompted me to start dosing some nitrate actually which seems to help some.

 

[JayinToronto]

So I went and got myself a microscope (I think deep down I've been looking for a good excuse to buy one since high school), and yes, it's dino. Specifically Dinoflagellate Prorocentrum. See pics below.

I've read and watched a ton over the last few days. It's unfortunate but there definitely doesn't seem to be a magic bullet for these, or even a sort of reliable half *** ok bullet. Taking in all the info I've decided to do the following.

1) Took my phosban reactor out of the tank (a potential source of iron for the dinos as well as perhaps turning the dinos into bacteria eating machines in the presence of ultra low phosphate levels).
2) Running charcoal alone (to remove the toxins).
3) Spot suction the dino aggressively each day through a 200 micro filter sock and return the water.
4) Add bacteria (Dr. Tim's formulas).
5) Try to increase the phosphate and Nitrate levels to approx .1 and 5 respectively through increased feeding and possibly dosing if I can't do it through the feedings.
6) Stop water changes (I also change my membranes on my RO unit so my evaporation top-off water is better quality).
7) Order a UV sterilizer (I had one long ago, but it seems to have crapped out).

I'm going to hold off on the blackout period and refrain from increasing pH or adding peroxide.

I'll post progress along the way.

Wish me luck!!

-J

 

[JayinToronto]

Close up

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