Chemiclean wipeout corals

BarIzoN

BarIzoN

Member
Hello!

It's 3 in the morning.

Just got from my basement to put things together, and I'm sad.

I used Chemiclean once in the past - about a year ago - to handle cyano. I had positive results and I was happy with that.

Again, I was noticing some cyano to develop, and decided to go for my second round of Chemiclean.

This time, more than cyano was gone.

Noticed after a while some corals - yes, corals! - to bleach. Their tissue was literally falling apart and the white skeleton shown. I immediately did a water change, added carbon and turned on my skimmer.

So, I don't have my parameters here in hands, but everything was normal. Fishes and corals were doing great - and I had only that cyano developing that was bothering me.

My question is: why Chemiclean could kill corals - even bleached coraline?

Thanks and I'm truly disappointed.

No fish losses - as far as I know for the moment.

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Why are you using a air store? The bubbles in a Reef tank aren't good


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Hello guys!

I've added the air stone as described in the product, to help oxigenate the water. Bought an air pump and stone.

I started the treatment in the evening.




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Do you have a skimmer on this tank. What kind of filtration do you have. Looks like I see a canister filter. Those if not cleaned once a week turn into nitrates traps. Also how often do you do water charges. A lot of people like to use products to cure the ailments of these tanks but imo nothing beats 10-20 precent weekly water changes


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Think those other Bubbles are from the hang on skimmer not being dialed in. Chemiclean, if used correctly would not cause widespread damage as we are seeing here. I would imagine something effected that canister and it polluted the water with Ammonia or something similar. Tank doesn't look too bad though. Just not great husbandry. Do some water changes and imcrease flow.

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anthonys51 said:
Why are you using a air store? The bubbles in a Reef tank aren't good


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Click to expand...

1: you have to run an air stone to increase oxygenation when you use chemiclean.

2: bubbles won't hurt a thing in a reef tank.

3: chemiclean is just an antibiotic. It kills bacteria indescriminatley, which includes cyano and all beneficial nitrifying bacteria. Usually these kinds of deaths are from an ammonia spike after the colony of bacteria have been destroyed.

I hate this stuff.
 
Bent said:
1: you have to run an air stone to increase oxygenation when you use chemiclean.

2: bubbles won't hurt a thing in a reef tank.

3: chemiclean is just an antibiotic. It kills bacteria indescriminatley, which includes cyano and all beneficial nitrifying bacteria. Usually these kinds of deaths are from an ammonia spike after the colony of bacteria have been destroyed.

I hate this stuff.
Click to expand...
Yep, exactly. Would imagine that filter had a bunch of nasty in it and the chemiclean unleased it into ammonia and nuked your tank. The chemiclean itself would not do what happened. OP, are you not checking your parameters? Testing for stuff before using a chemical fix is usually the best policy. Best of luck.

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Bent said:
1: you have to run an air stone to increase oxygenation when you use chemiclean.



2: bubbles won't hurt a thing in a reef tank.



3: chemiclean is just an antibiotic. It kills bacteria indescriminatley, which includes cyano and all beneficial nitrifying bacteria. Usually these kinds of deaths are from an ammonia spike after the colony of bacteria have been destroyed.



I hate this stuff.
Click to expand...



I heard bubbles are bad for the fish. Now I am not a bubble expert so maybe I am wrong. But I would agree this tank isn't bad but needs some old fashion water changes and more flow


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anthonys51 said:
Most people inject air into there tanks. It's called protein skimmers :). But our sumps are designed so they don't go into our main tank. Are you telling me I overpaid for my sump :)


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Click to expand...



I was referring specifically to purposeful injection of micro bubbles into the display.
 
Chemo-Clean targets certain bacteria, but generally not the ones that consume ammonia. It only affects Gram positive strains, if my memory is correct, but I don't keep track of that.

The airstone might a bit message, but it will help with oxygenation in some cases. I'd discontinue it when the decay has finished.

Although the Chemi-Clean won't affect corals directly, it might have killed bacteria that contained a toxin, and enough of them to cause problems for corals. It's hard to say. I'd do some water changes and run some fresh carbon.
 
Chemiclean makes skimmers go bonkers so they need to be shut down during treatment, that's why additional aeration is recommended. Antibiotics in a reef tank= bad idea in my opinion.
 
Yes, I do have a skimmer.

I have a Fluval G3 tank.

Let me give you a little historic information.

When I started the hobby I had no information whatsoever. Then my wife gave me a Petco gift card on my birthday to spend in the tank. So, I bought a 55G tank.

The tank is that slim, so no much space for sump.

I know, it's my fault. I should have gone for a bigger - and sump-ready tank, but life is what it is and here I am after two years in the hobby.

I've setup my mixing station, got all the filtering, and running pretty well.

Regarding to the filter, as I don't have a sump, I decided go with the filter - a Fluval G3, which has a sediment filter, the option for any media as well as a chemical cartridge compartment. So, basically that's my sump. I don't have any media inside the filter, and so far, I haven't noticed any significant trace of nitrates on my tank.

The filter has a timer, where I can schedule the cleaning, so, basically I clean - and swap the sediment filter, once a week and reload the carbon twice per month.

Again, this didn't increase any nitrate on my tank, and I'm pretty happy with the results.

I have an Aquamaxx HOB skimmer, which I clean the cup twice a week.

Water changes also 10 to 20% each week.

My lights are simple. I have two T5's - one actinic and one white light - and one LED "rule stripe" to give a shimmer effect. I've seen growth of most corals.

The tank is lightly stocked with only 4 small fishes. I have a small cleaning crew, but reliable. The ecosystem is in balance. At least was. I don't touch much, and let the nature do its thing. So far, no losses, besides my crazy gobby who jumped out of the tank on a water change, when I removed the tank cover.

HOWEVER, the cyano started about a year ago. It came with violence. Changed the lights each 6 months, but no success. Tried blackout also, nothing. Feeding less, no result.

I also noticed the back of the tank start developing some algae on top of coraline, later on it was also getting covered with cyano.

After research, I saw the Chemiclean would be an alternative.

First time I used, followed the instructions, even bought an air stone and air pump for the procedure. Removed the carbon cartridge from the filter, and applied the product.

So far, so good. Great results and no cyano.

After about a year, cyano starts to develop again and this happened.

anthonys51 said:
Do you have a skimmer on this tank. What kind of filtration do you have. Looks like I see a canister filter. Those if not cleaned once a week turn into nitrates traps. Also how often do you do water charges. A lot of people like to use products to cure the ailments of these tanks but imo nothing beats 10-20 precent weekly water changes


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Click to expand...
 
The skimmer was still under effect of the chemical, so the bubbles were escaping to the wrong chamber and filling the display with micro bubbles.

That's my point. I used correctly, I'm not somebody irresponsible who get a higher dosage to make it quicker, or something else. I did exactly the way instructions says. Same way I did the first time with same filter, same equipment, same everything.

If that was something related to Ammonia, I think I'd have losses with fishes or other invertebrates, but none were affected. I had no loss, besides the corals irritation.

Thanks for the comment, but the pics I sent was during the situation was happening, but the tank was thriving before that. I'll post a few pictures... :)

For flow, I have a Maxpect Gyre 130, in pulsing mode, and generates enough water movement for the corals.

timnem70 said:
Think those other Bubbles are from the hang on skimmer not being dialed in. Chemiclean, if used correctly would not cause widespread damage as we are seeing here. I would imagine something effected that canister and it polluted the water with Ammonia or something similar. Tank doesn't look too bad though. Just not great husbandry. Do some water changes and imcrease flow.

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Click to expand...
 
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