Chemiclean RUINED my tank

[roferro]

So it all started with my aquarium being COMPLETELY fine, 3 months had passed since I first started it and everything was thriving including my corals. One day I notice I have some red things growing on my rocks and sand so I take it to my local fish store (WWC) and they tell me I most likely have Cyanobacteria. Okay great it’ll be fixed… right? They told me to buy some Chemiclean and that it would completely get rid of the red stuff, AND it would make my water CRYSTAL CLEAR! I did everything right, with air bubbler and everything in the tank so the depletion of oxygen wasn’t a problem. I finished the cycle with the Chemiclean and did what I was told to do. That same night I get back home and all my fish are dead. Water is cloudier than I have ever seen it and the corals don’t seem too happy. What do I find out? Chemiclean killed everything because of the depletion of oxygen. Now, I go back and tell them everything that happened, my pH had dropped from a 8.1 to 7, and I believe all my bacteria had also died.
I was able to recover my fire shrimp as he was dead when I pulled him out of the water, and then I put him on a separate tank where he came back to life.
It has been a total of 4 weeks that this incident happened. Water is still CLOUDY like I can’t even see the back of my tank, my hammer coral has never been this closed before and same with all of my other ones, they told me my parameters were all good except my calcium, alk and magnesium were a tad bit high but not to the point where it’ll ruin it. I have stopped doing water changes because all it does is make my water cloudier. I currently have 2 clownfish in there since they said I could bring it home by my parameters. They don’t seem too happy, and have barely been eating. My shrimp is also in there doing nothing other than eating and sitting on his rock. I will be posting a picture of before and after and also my most recent parameters. I’m not sure if many people have been through this but I can’t stand looking at it like this anymore and am thinking on upgrading to a bigger and better tank and restarting it all.

Ok só this isn’t that great of a picture but you guys can clearly see that the hammer is really happy and everything else seems normal, the back of the tank is visible and all fish were happy and alive then.

Now here’s a picture taken today, 4 weeks after the incident. As you guys can see my hammer on the left is closed and all his 4 mouths are OPEN and it’s been like that for 3 days now. My organ pipe coral is closed, my Xenia is open but the hands aren’t opening and closing fully, my torch is super small and it usually extends a lot and the rest just looks like it’s there for a science experiment.
Here are my parameters before people start going crazy and asking.

Test from 1/31/22

Salinity: 1.026
pH: 7.8
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 2ppm
Alk: 11.5dkh
Calcium: 500ppm
Magnesium: 1500ppm
Phosphates: 0.03ppm

Here’s the hammer from a closer view, the blue tint is super strong because the water is cloudy but he is NOT happy (it is a branching hammer)

PLEASE HELP I DO NOT KNOW WHAT TO DO IN THIS SITUATION ITS BEEN KILLING ME.

 

[DE FISH]

It’s looks like you had a bacteria bloom which lowered the oxygen and most likely caused an ammonia spike in your tank which has killed your fish I would add a uv steriliser to clear the cloudy water. I doubt chemiclean was the result of this unless it was overdosed or caused a rapid change in parameters. Sorry for your losses uv will clear that water within 24 - 48 hours.

 

[Danroo]

Your tank looks fairly new, the beneficial bacteria might have died out due to chemo clean, pretty much killing everything that was free floating. Buy the fritz turbo start and dumb the whole bottle have a sponge and filter floss added to your system throw the previous one out there might be some chemi clean on it. Wait on the UV, try this out first. I also dealt with lack of beneficial bacteria due to improper cycling. Have a power head face the top of the water to create agitation.

 

[JumboShrimp]

Can you describe ALL means of oxygenation during the Chemiclean? Return nozzles pointed to break the water surface (?), powerheads doing the same (?), skimmer in use (?)… and was it air stone producing vigorous bubbles?

 

[Just Jared]

This is extremely unfortunate but YOU killed the tank WITH chemi-clean. I think that’s where people get it wrong. I have used it, as have others, with no issues at all.
Did you clean out as much of the cyano out as possible before dosing the tank?
Did you over oxygenate your tank while treating your tank?
At the point you are at now I would’ve tried doing the largest water change possible and adding carbon.

 

[DE FISH]

Your tank looks fairly new, the beneficial bacteria might have died out due to chemo clean, pretty much killing everything that was free floating. Buy the fritz turbo start and dumb the whole bottle have a sponge and filter floss added to your system throw the previous one out there might be some chemi clean on it. Wait on the UV, try this out first. I also dealt with lack of beneficial bacteria due to improper cycling. Have a power head face the top of the water to create agitation.

The corals have gone 4 weeks and are ticked off they need light. The uv is only to clear the water once clear beneficial bacteria can be added if required but if the water remains this hazy op will lose their coral also.

 

[roferro]

Can you describe ALL means of oxygenation during the Chemiclean? Return nozzles pointed to break the water surface (?), powerheads doing the same (?), skimmer in use (?)… and was it air stone producing vigorous bubbles?

Big Air stone as advised by chemiclean itself. Power head was pointing down… I have an outer filter tho causing some water movement on top. And yes, the top of my tank was COVERED in bubbles.

 

[Spare time]

Sorry to hear about your tank but I doubt the chemi clean killed the tank. Remember that correlation does not equal causation and tens of thousands if not more have used chemiclean with no issue. Chemiclean would not lead to a bacterial bloom unless you had an absolutely massive amount of cyano die.

 

[RGoltz]

As said above, this looks like a bacterial bloom which is common in new systems.

How large is the system? Personally, I like to run a UV for various reasons. This will clear out the bacterial bloom which is likely consuming O2 and sort of crashing the system. However, you will need to come back with some bacterial dosing (I use Prodibio, but Microbacter or whatever you choose). I just turn off the UV for 4 hours after adding bacteria. Easy-peasy and crystal clear.

 

[Danroo]

The corals have gone 4 weeks and are ticked off they need light. The uv is only to clear the water once clear beneficial bacteria can be added if required but if the water remains this hazy op will lose their coral also.

My tank has been cloudy for a month a uv might help but the tank is fairly new, I would not take that chance of sterilizing it this early. A bottle of turbo start should clear it right away.

 

[Spare time]

My tank has been cloudy for a month a uv might help but the tank is fairly new, I would not take that chance of sterilizing it this early. A bottle of turbo start should clear it right away.

Turbo start does not impact bacterial blooms. It's cycling bacteria. Blooms are the result of some decaying matter or heavy amount of carbon (dosing). Cycling bacteria only touches ammonia and nitrite

 

[DE FISH]

My tank has been cloudy for a month a uv might help but the tank is fairly new, I would not take that chance of sterilizing it this early. A bottle of turbo start should clear it right away.

Your tank being cloudy for a month is not good and means that the problem has not been addressed. The Majority of beneficial bacteria lies within the rock not free floating I agree that adding bacteria is a good idea but I doubt it’s going to clear the haze different opinions and approaches nothing wrong with that we all do things our own way. Just have to let op decide on which option they wish to take but a uv will not kill the beneficial bacteria that resides in the rocks it will clear the water and op can then add beneficial bacteria if they choose to.

 

[Jdadams]

Chemiclean isn’t the problem. Try finding out why your getting cyano rather than use a chemical bandaid for a quick fix.

 

[Paul B]

Unfortunately many people make this mistake by putting chemicals or in this case Chemi Clean in a new tank. New tanks need nothing but time and anything that kills bacteria like Chemi Clean with disrupt that process that a tank needs to go through.

A new tank is supposed to grow bacteria but you killed it. Your Lfs should have known that.
Many people see something growing like cyano and go nuts. My tank is very old and I have cyano. It is a normal natural bacteria/algae and should be left alone in that new of a tank.

It would have taken care of itself eventually. You may have to start that tank over as those fledgling bacteria will not grow in there for quite a while and everything in that cycle is disrupted.

Sorry.

 

[Freenow54]

Not to be critical as my experience with chem clean is nil. My immediate response to you is and you don't have to answer is how well did you maintain the tank. It is a common reflex, myself included is if everything looks good to be more lax. As Bulk Reef Supply videos say it took months to create the problem, and I think a triage approach caused the reaction. It will take a wile to create. I do believe in this instance that water changes ( did not work for me in my problem ) and aforementioned UV light treatment will correct it. Hopefully no more loss

 

[Freenow54]

Turbo start does not impact bacterial blooms. It's cycling bacteria. Blooms are the result of some decaying matter or heavy amount of carbon (dosing). Cycling bacteria only touches ammonia and nitrite

Interesting

 

[Danroo]

Turbo start does not impact bacterial blooms. It's cycling bacteria. Blooms are the result of some decaying matter or heavy amount of carbon (dosing). Cycling bacteria only touches ammonia and nitrite

Your tank being cloudy for a month is not good and means that the problem has not been addressed. The Majority of beneficial bacteria lies within the rock not free floating I agree that adding bacteria is a good idea but I doubt it’s going to clear the haze different opinions and approaches nothing wrong with that we all do things our own way. Just have to let op decide on which option they wish to take but a uv will not kill the beneficial bacteria that resides in the rocks it will clear the water and op can then add beneficial bacteria if they choose to.

It’s a problem with dry rock once my rock matured with self sustaining bacteria by adding more bottle bacteria, the problem solved on itself.

 

[Freenow54]

Unfortunately many people make this mistake by putting chemicals or in this case Chemi Clean in a new tank. New tanks need nothing but time and anything that kills bacteria like Chemi Clean with disrupt that process that a tank needs to go through.

A new tank is supposed to grow bacteria but you killed it. Your Lfs should have known that.
Many people see something growing like cyano and go nuts. My tank is very old and I have cyano. It is a normal natural bacteria/algae and should be left alone in that new of a tank.

It would have taken care of itself eventually. You may have to start that tank over as those fledgling bacteria will not grow in there for quite a while and everything in that cycle is disrupted.

Sorry.

Also interesting ( loved your response to the snorkeler ) He did not respond. Do you feel as I am doing to leave the lights off, as BRS suggests will bypass this so called Ugly phase?

 

[Freenow54]

It’s a problem with dry rock once my rock matured with self sustaining bacteria by adding more bottle bacteria, the problem solved on itself.

I only added one bottle of bacteria then followed a guide adding Pure Ammonia. Worked for me took 4 months

 

[Freenow54]

As said above, this looks like a bacterial bloom which is common in new systems.

How large is the system? Personally, I like to run a UV for various reasons. This will clear out the bacterial bloom which is likely consuming O2 and sort of crashing the system. However, you will need to come back with some bacterial dosing (I use Prodibio, but Microbacter or whatever you choose). I just turn off the UV for 4 hours after adding bacteria. Easy-peasy and crystal clear.

I know it worked in my freshwater tank. did not take long