Chemiclean Gone Crazy

CoralNerd · Feb 12, 2015

I had a small amount of cyano a week or two after I spilled my auto feeder. I treated my tank with 9 little spoons of ChemiClean and the cyano went away. I should of done 7 spoons as I didn't take in account my rock.

My conch snail has doug himself in the sand and doesn't want to come up. I checked last night he's still alive. I have done a multiple water changes, large carbon bags, polly filters.
The skimmer is going crazy and I can't run it. The last water change I did, I had the skimmer water drain out in to the water change bucket, I guess I need to do this more? Man, this is a pain in the xxx.

carol · Feb 12, 2015

Wow what a bummer. I have used chemi clean before but it didnt hurt anything. You really need to run your skimmer because of all of the dead stuff floating around in your water from the chemi clean. Maybe watch it and clean it every hour. Also use really good carbon to remove the stuff from the water. Thats my best advice other than a couple more water changes. Im curious how it all works out.

zesty · Feb 12, 2015

When I used chemi-clean. I ran the skimmer with the collection up off and let it drain right back into the sump. Keeps the water aerated for you this way, which is very important.

Also, you're going to want to work on your nutrients otherwise you'll be doing this again in 6 months. Ask this guy why? Why, you ask? cause I ignored the nutrient problem and the cyano was back in 6 months.

zesty · Feb 12, 2015

carol said:
Wow what a bummer. I have used chemi clean before but it didnt hurt anything. You really need to run your skimmer because of all of the dead stuff floating around in your water from the chemi clean. Maybe watch it and clean it every hour. Also use really good carbon to remove the stuff from the water. Thats my best advice other than a couple more water changes. Im curious how it all works out.

You are leaving out some portions of the instructions. You are to run carbon after chemi-clean runs it's course. In the instructions, it states to turn the skimmer off and run an airstone.

Watch the skimmer cup every hour for 3 days? Is that what you are talking about doing? With as fast as the skimmer goes nutty on chemiclean, he'd be cleaning it every minute. :tongue:

CoralNerd · Feb 12, 2015

I'm on day 9. I have used to different kinds of carbon, large bags with no luck.
The nutrients derived from the auto feeder spilling. [emoji30]

CoralNerd · Feb 12, 2015

Yes, I turned the skimmer off for 48 hrs after I put chemiclean in, I had the carbon out...I put the air stone in a little late in the cycle. Anyways I run the skimmer draining into the sump but I'm thinking what's the point of doing this so mostly I have it turned off.[emoji475]

msderganc · Feb 12, 2015

I ran my skimmer with the collection cup draining into a five gallon bucket. On my 200, it took about ten gallons of runoff before my skim went back to normal.

CoralNerd · Feb 12, 2015

msderganc said:
I ran my skimmer with the collection cup draining into a five gallon bucket. On my 200, it took about ten gallons of runoff before my skim went back to normal.

The last 15g change, I did it that way...I will have to fo it again.

Aquaph8 · Feb 12, 2015

msderganc said:
I ran my skimmer with the collection cup draining into a five gallon bucket. On my 200, it took about ten gallons of runoff before my skim went back to normal.

I did the same

carol · Feb 12, 2015

chemi clean

I was thinking he had already passed the 3 day mark with the chemi clean. Still i just turned my skimmer off when i used it.
Hr did say he was at the stage of water changes though. So it sounds like he needs to run the skimmer. I dont know. More info would be helpful. But yes, 3 days is the poing of the clean up stage

CoralNerd · Feb 12, 2015

Day 9 mentioned above you missed it.[emoji111]

zesty · Feb 12, 2015

carol said:
I was thinking he had already passed the 3 day mark with the chemi clean. Still i just turned my skimmer off when i used it.
Hr did say he was at the stage of water changes though. So it sounds like he needs to run the skimmer. I dont know. More info would be helpful. But yes, 3 days is the poing of the clean up stage

all good, I was unclear as well. :bigsmile:

I'm all for the skimmer draining into a bucket. However, does your ATO make up for this water lost? Or are you replenishing it with NSW?

msderganc · Feb 12, 2015

zesty said:
all good, I was unclear as well. :bigsmile:

I'm all for the skimmer draining into a bucket. However, does your ATO make up for this water lost? Or are you replenishing it with NSW?

You'd have to use salt water, or your salinity would drop pretty significantly.

CoralNerd · Feb 12, 2015

No I'm not going to have the ATO put fresh in, if I'm draining I will replace with salt water. [emoji97]

zesty · Feb 12, 2015

CoralNerd said:
No I'm not going to have the ATO put fresh in, if I'm draining I will replace with salt water. [emoji97]

Awesome!
It's not that we think you wouldn't... We just don't know; so we go after the easiest things to eliminate first.

merle.mitchell.7 · Feb 12, 2015

I had a purple spongy stuff spreading on my rocks a few months ago. Feari g cyano, I used the Chemi-clean. Within 2 days the purple turned a horrid shade of green. I followed all the directions to the letter except adding the air stone before treatment. I remembered and added it about 3 hours to late for my bi-color Angel. After the second treatment (it did turn from purple to green after all), it began flaking off and I had to remove the rocks and scrub the hell out of them.
I never did get any Cyano on the gravel and the largest purple spongy "cliff" growing off the rock was directly in front of a powerhead.
It worked though. No more odd looking growths! We live and learn, I guess.

jasonandsarah · Feb 12, 2015

If you want to run your skimmer when you use Cemi-clean you have 2 options.....
#1- raise your skimmer with a stand. I normally have to raise my skimmer 2-3"
#2- put some kind of a ball valve on the air intake so you can more finely tune the amount of bubble in your skimmer.
Sometimes if the skimmer is really freaking out you'll have to implement both of these things. Normally within a day your skimmer Wil be able to run normally again.... hopefully this helps! [emoji6]

CoralNerd · Feb 12, 2015

I'm proud to say I'm ChemiClean!

The absolutely best advise is make sure you account for your glass, rock, and overflow and dose accordingly.

Then after 48 hours hook up your skimmer drain line to a 5g jug and get this stuff out of your tank.

Or better advise is don't use chemiclean.

Here I'm am getting this stuff out.

Hopefully my conch snail comes out soon, as he keeps the sand really clean.

Sterlingg · Feb 13, 2015

I recommend adding "carbon" to you tank. That will remove the excess red slime remover. Thus allowing you to run your protein skimmer without it overflowing perfusly. As far as the slime, you've already dosed the tank, so I would also recommend at least a 15 - 25% water change. After about 24 to 48 hrs, tank should begin to stabilize back to its norm. Hope this helps! Thanks.

CoralNerd · Feb 13, 2015

Sterlingg said:
I recommend adding "carbon" to you tank. That will remove the excess red slime remover. Thus allowing you to run your protein skimmer without it overflowing perfusly. As far as the slime, you've already dosed the tank, so I would also recommend at least a 15 - 25% water change. After about 24 to 48 hrs, tank should begin to stabilize back to its norm. Hope this helps! Thanks.

You need to read the whole thread, been there done that. LOL. [emoji118] [emoji111] [emoji475] [emoji56] [emoji61] [emoji83] I'm so glad my skimmer is back up and running. I ran a wet skim last night.