Fear no chemiclean + ultrared + redcyano

[Saltyanimals]

For those that fear any of these products or have cited total tank crash... I used them ALL of them back to back ... and survived (so far)

I have a cyano problem. Stable mature tank 7+ yrs old 180 gallon mixed reef. SPS, LPS, giant clam, nems, etc. I think I caught the cyano trying to rescue a bunch of frags from a friend who was going through major GHA and cyano issues. This for another day. I started seeing it a few months ago. Left it alone thinking maybe it's some imbalance that will clear up on it's own. I'm not a water change person and only do it when something is wrong. Something is wrong so I caved and did 2 back to back to remove as much of the stuff as I could. Didn't work and it got to a point where I needed to do something. Hesitating because I didn't want to go "chemical" and read of all the horror stories from these products. I sucked it up and said what the heck. let's do it.

So I started with Chemiclean....didn't work. Did it again. didn't work. Maybe I had a bad one. Ran out and bought a new one. Did it twice more.. didn't work. Maybe my tank is immune to chemiclean.

Moved to Ultralife .. twice. didn't work. ... now on RedCyano RX (24 hours earlier of this post).

My abridged log below for reference. Post here is to share the use of these without any major side affects to my tank. I did dose Bacter 7 (50 ml every couple days proactively to try and save bacteria that may be nuked from this battle. GAC and GFO reactors OFF.


Feb 27 - WC 25 gallons
Feb 28 - WC 25 gallons
Mar 26 - Chemiclean
Mar 30 - Chemiclean Round 2
Apr 11 - Chemiclean - Round 3 (new package)
Apr 14 - Chemiclean - Round 4
Apr 17 - WC 25 gallons
Apr 18 - Ultralife Red Slime Stain Remover
Apr 21 - Ultralife Round 2
Apr 23 - RedCyano RX
Apr 24 - WC 25 gallons


I plan to do RedCyano at least one more time in 72 hours and a ready to do another WC next week. If this doesn't work, I'm going to buy unicorn dust dipped in snake oil or whatever else folks are peddling these days.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Wow, that’s quite an antibiotic regimen. lol

 

[p1u5h13r4m24]

I’ve only ever had bad experiences with chemiclean. And usually it caused Dino’s. Someone in my chats posted this about it once.
Chemi clean is antibiotic. It’s erythromycin cetyl sulfate, which is an antibiotic.

Think of it like chemo therapy for your tank, and use with caution. It will absolutely wipe out many bad and good bacteria and will disrupt your tank’s micro biome.

You can use it as a hard reset if you’re having issues with bacterial infections as well as for red spirulina that sometimes is mis-identified as cyano, but does not go away with the usual cyano counter measures.

It’s a tool of last resort, IMHO, and if you DO decide to use it, know that you need to really keep track of your tank while doing so.

It will typically stop your corals’ alk consumption in its tracks for a few days so monitor alk and reduce dosing accordingly.

Likewise, it will deplete oxygen and lower ph, so aeration is key. Air pump, and/or let the skimmer overflow or adjust to low speed/low bubble height.

Once your dosage period is up, get lots of carbon in the sump to remove and change lots of water. The times I’ve used it, I didn’t do a huge water change at once, but instead did a little twice a day for a week or so until alk consumption bounced back.

Watch nutrients during the dosage and supplement no3 or po4 as needed to avoid bottoming out.

Finally, try to re-seed with healthy bacterial sources afterward so you out compete the nasty stuff. I like to use some AF life source or healthy live rock from another reefer during the rebound stage. Microbacter 7 is fine for nutrient reduction but is terrestrial bacteria that won’t build a healthy sustained micro biome.

Anyhow, good luck! Use chemi clean as a last resort, but don’t be too scared to use it if the situation warrants it. Just be aware of what it is doing and how to keep your tank stable while it’s being treated.

 

[Miami Reef]

Can I suggest a different treatment for Cyano?

 

[Lavey29]

Are you sure you have cyano and not something else hence the reason the multiple harsh chemical treatments have failed.

 

[p1u5h13r4m24]

I’d like to add that I battled cyano for years. The solution was cutting my lights down to 8 hours. I was running them for 12-13 previously.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I’ve only ever had bad experiences with chemiclean. And usually it caused Dino’s. Someone in my chats posted this about it once.
Chemi clean is antibiotic. It’s erythromycin cetyl sulfate, which is an antibiotic.

Think of it like chemo therapy for your tank, and use with caution. It will absolutely wipe out many bad and good bacteria and will disrupt your tank’s micro biome.

You can use it as a hard reset if you’re having issues with bacterial infections as well as for red spirulina that sometimes is mis-identified as cyano, but does not go away with the usual cyano counter measures.

It’s a tool of last resort, IMHO, and if you DO decide to use it, know that you need to really keep track of your tank while doing so.

It will typically stop your corals’ alk consumption in its tracks for a few days so monitor alk and reduce dosing accordingly.

Likewise, it will deplete oxygen and lower ph, so aeration is key. Air pump, and/or let the skimmer overflow or adjust to low speed/low bubble height.

Once your dosage period is up, get lots of carbon in the sump to remove and change lots of water. The times I’ve used it, I didn’t do a huge water change at once, but instead did a little twice a day for a week or so until alk consumption bounced back.

Watch nutrients during the dosage and supplement no3 or po4 as needed to avoid bottoming out.

Finally, try to re-seed with healthy bacterial sources afterward so you out compete the nasty stuff. I like to use some AF life source or healthy live rock from another reefer during the rebound stage. Microbacter 7 is fine for nutrient reduction but is terrestrial bacteria that won’t build a healthy sustained micro biome.

Anyhow, good luck! Use chemi clean as a last resort, but don’t be too scared to use it if the situation warrants it. Just be aware of what it is doing and how to keep your tank stable while it’s being treated.

Chemiclean is an antibiotic, but I think you have the name wrong. Cetyl sulfate is not an antibiotic, but a surfactant, as in shampoos.

 

[Saltyanimals]

Wow, that’s quite an antibiotic regimen. lol

Gone nuclear!

All those WCs were to physically remove as much as I can. I tried the bacter7 + DIY Coral Snow. I've dump a crap ton of variety of bottle bacs. I've killed my T5s and running less light with LED only.

NO3 10-25
PO4 0.04
Alk 8s
ICP came back with a gold star

I'm all ears for anything else to try. =)

 

[Gone Reefin’]

Here is my cyano story. Tank transfer 3 months in and cyano started. I’ve had it before in many other tanks, just part of the uglies. Let it go for a month, only got worse. Siphoned and blew off for a month, always back the next day. Coral snow with microbacter for a month, notta….

Noticed all nutrients began bottoming out as cyano got worse. Corals started to STN and suffer. Always Birdsnest first when phosphate zeroes. Pulled the trigger on chemiclean, glad I did. Used 75% dose, cyano gone in 48 hours. Big water change and supplemental bacteria. Nutrients immediately spiked, especially phosphate. Came back lesser 3 months later, treated at 50% dose and gone ever since.