Do chemical treatments for pests like dinos and other algae really help?

[Charles Zinn]

I'm using pods and Live Rerf Enhance to get rid of my dinos. So animal and bacteria seems to be working and the pods are good for your corals

 

[Spare time]

By considering everything in the world a chemical you defeat the whole purpose of the post. Yes, you can TECHNICALLY say that algae is a chemical but generally a chemical refers to a substance which is artificially derived. I'm pretty sure "chemical" was intended to refer to an artificially derived substance in the post...

My point is that the term "chemical" is poorly used and is often made to be derogatory, when in fact it should be neutral. Artificially derived isn't helpful either, as anything produced, processed, or combined by humans could be argued to be "artificially derived," such as our aquarium salt, the "waves" in our tanks, the products we dose to keep things alive. Pretty much nothing about this hobby is naturalistic, and I don't think we should be considering chemical additives to not be "natural."

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

My point is that the term "chemical" is poorly used and is often made to be derogatory, when in fact it should be neutral. Artificially derived isn't helpful either, as anything produced by humans could be argued to be "artificially derived." Pretty much nothing about this hobby is naturalistic.

Whether you assign the term "chemical" a derogatory connotation or not I'm fairly confident the post was referring to something artificially derived by humans which I personally feel is helpful as it distinguishes from something biological such as bacteria or anything produced in nature.

 

[Sink_or_Swim]

I always prefer to use chemical treatments as a last resort. That being said, I did recently treat a red cyano outbreak with Chemi-clean. It did work, but I'm fully aware I have to get nutrients in balance better and flow optimized to prevent it from coming back. I'm upgrading tanks soon and manual removal/water changes wasn't cutting it and the cyano kept returning daily - needed to get rid of the stuff before moving those rocks into my new tank. (Added a gigantic air stone during treatment I might add. No ill effects to any livestock.)

 

[MnFish1]

I'm using pods and Live Rerf Enhance to get rid of my dinos. So animal and bacteria seems to be working and the pods are good for your corals

So does time. My guess (GUESS) - is the pods and the chemicals are doing not much

 

[HankstankXXL750]

I used Flux Rx in a predator tank to get rid of briopsis and GHA. Did great on the GHA but still have some briopsis. Nutrients got way out of line, and the algae was out of control. Began carbon dosing and now looking at alternate phosphate removal. Didn’t use it to treat the problem, but to try to get ahead of the algae while I address the problem. I have used ChemiClean in a differed FOWLER tank as I had cyano. Again as a short term patch while I addressed the underlying issues. This seems to work really well.

 

[Ober_Reef]

Vibrant did seem to work for my battle with Chrysophytes.

 

[Reefbuds]

Why use chemicals when nature can do the work for you?

 

[HankstankXXL750]

ReefFlux worked for me after everything else failed to get rid of Bryopsis. It is too early to say if the fix is permanent, as I just ended the treatment last week.

My first treatment of ReefFlux eliminated my GHA but didn’t fully take out the bryopsis. Going to start a second round now. I added an algae scrubber and started carbon dosing to cut the nutrients, but want to eliminate the bryopsis so my macros in fuge and GHA in scrubber don’t have to compete.

 

[HankstankXXL750]

I’ve had success with ReefFlux and ChemiClean. I made filtration changes such as carbon dosing and adding an algae scrubber. But wanted to get rid of the huge over growth in the display so that it didn’t compete with the fuge and scrubber. Didn’t completely eliminate the Bryopsis but starting a second round of treatment today.

 

[Reefer Matt]

I think there are fans on both sides of this conversation. I stick with what works for me. Blackouts and uv sterilizer for dino (Dino X can kill coral), fluconazole (Flux rx, Reef Flux) for byropsis and bubble algae (Full 6-8 week treatment) , Chemiclean for cyano, Snails and hermits (not a chemical) for hair algae.

 

[pdjemail]

I had Dino’s disappear after accidentally overdosing RedSea Reef Energy plus AB+

 

[RLucas50]

They work of course, but to me it's the 'nuclear option'. Poisons are never the first thing I reach for and I only use them if it's worth possibly wiping out the tank. Sometimes it is worth the risk and I have both on hand. Much prefer maintenance and managing competition for nutrients, but sometimes that doesn't always work.

Yes, it is the nuclear option but after 3 months of thick mats coating my sand and rocks, choking out a patch of Zoas, and killing a Candy Cane, I got tired of doing things the "natural way". My nitrates and phosphates were both at 0.00 and lights were at 10%. Corals were not doing good and starting to lose more. My snails and crabs were even moving about trailing strands of the crap! Going "nuclear" was a last resort and my only regret was I didn't do it sooner as I, and my corals, would have been much better off.

 

[DannoOMG]

Personally I think when I tried to use chemicals it created another problem which almost took out my entire tank. I had to do a rip clean to fix it. No more chemicals. I still have algae but the corals are happier and I just remove algae by hand. I also reduce a lot of what I put in the tank now as far as Phytoplankton/rotifiers/AB+ etc.

I manually remove them then treat with peroxide (out of the tank). I have nano tank so I can do that easily.

I still have GHA but it isn't as bad.