Foxface breathing rapidly, shedding, and black spots have appeared after chemiclean treatment

[trexodore]

So I started my chemiclean treatment on Saturday which included adding 2 air stones and leaving the skimmer on to let it overflow back into the sump. Sunday all fish and coral were fine but this morning when I woke up everything looked ticked and the foxface was breathing super rapidly. I did not overdose the chemiclean, I underdosed if anything based on other trace element doses I have been doing to estimate net water volume.

I immediately did about 25% water change this morning and threw carbon into a media reactor about 2 hours ago to try and remove as much chemiclean as possible.

I did a ph test and it came out to 8-8.1 and an ammonia reading of 0.

The foxface is now showing black spots on his upper back (second image) which do not look like his camouflage to me and is actively, what looks like, shedding skin (first image). Most other fish look completely fine save for a clown who is hiding which is also very abnormal for him, but again the coral looks ticked for the most part. There are quite a few microbubbles in the tank due to the skimmer's reaction to chemiclean but they have subsided a bit after water changes.

Parameters
Net Water Volume: 150g
Alkalinity: 8.2
Calcium: 415
Nitrate: 8.2
Phosphates: 0.04
Magnesium 1320
ph: 8
Ammonia: 0

I also just got an ICP test back this morning and there are no concerning pollutants in the tank at the time the test was taken (about a week ago).

 

[Jay Hemdal]

You may have seen this thread:

Chemiclean Nuked tank!

In 48 hours chemiclean has almost ruined my entire tank. Sps are whiting out zoas may be ok but closed. Used 8 spoon fulls for a 75 gallon tank with 30 gallon sump. All I was trying to do was clean things a little, no major outbreak of anything! I'm absolutely sick

www.reef2reef.com

Jay

 

[trexodore]

I hadn't actually, just a myriad of threads saying "chemiclean did X" and everyone else saying that chemiclean was not the cause of it cause they used it with no problems.

however, I don't see how anything else could have caused this. I got the foxface out and put him in fresh saltwater with an airstone but he is already well on his way out and will likely be dead in the next half hour.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

I hadn't actually, just a myriad of threads saying "chemiclean did X" and everyone else saying that chemiclean was not the cause of it cause they used it with no problems.

however, I don't see how anything else could have caused this. I got the foxface out and put him in fresh saltwater with an airstone but he is already well on his way out and will likely be dead in the next half hour.

I've never used chemiclean, but I have used erythromycin to control blue green algae many times. I've never had a reaction like they discuss in that thread......

Jay

 

[trexodore]

I've never used chemiclean, but I have used erythromycin to control blue green algae many times. I've never had a reaction like they discuss in that thread......

Jay

Yeah I admittedly used chemiclean early last year with no issues. I have no idea what would be different this time. If anything I provided more aeration than the first time and used the same dose per gallon.

I do have similar symptoms to the OP in that thread, though I did have a fish die obviously. SPS are definitely the most ticked in the tank, looks like 2 acro frags are fried and the montis have their polyps in tight

 

[jimsflies]

A few questions:

Was the foxface in the system when you treated last time? Is that the largest fish in your system?

Did you have a lot of cyano, hence this treatment? More than cyano last time? Was your dosage the same?

A lot of times when doing these treatments, the issue is depletion of oxygen. The treatments require the skimmer to be off which right there is potentially a significant change. There's also the reaction of the medication in the water which likely consumes oxygen and the die off of whatever you intended to kill (if your lucky) and that which it also kills.

Obviously turn your skimmer on, which you indicated you did, and work on getting the stuff out of your water. Do a 10-20% water change and add carbon.

 

[trexodore]

A few questions:

Was the foxface in the system when you treated last time? Is that the largest fish in your system?

Did you have a lot of cyano, hence this treatment? More than cyano last time? Was your dosage the same?

A lot of times when doing these treatments, the issue is depletion of oxygen. The treatments require the skimmer to be off which right there is potentially a significant change. There's also the reaction of the medication in the water which likely consumes oxygen and the die off of whatever you intended to kill (if your lucky) and that which it also kills.

Obviously turn your skimmer on, which you indicated you did, and work on getting the stuff out of your water. Do a 10-20% water change and add carbon.

Pretty good amount of cyano where it was starting to become an issue but I wouldn't say the tank was overrun with it. Probably slightly more than last time but the dosage per gallon was the same.

Not the largest fish in the system, I have a purple tang and powder blue tang that are a bit bigger than he was.

The treatment actually says to keep the skimmer on, which I did and let it overflow into the sump. I've done about 25% in water changes so far and have activated carbon in a media reactor. I'm thinking of doing significantly more of a water change in an hour or two, maybe another 25% so it'd be 50% all in today.

 

[AC indochinese]

So I started my chemiclean treatment on Saturday which included adding 2 air stones and leaving the skimmer on to let it overflow back into the sump. Sunday all fish and coral were fine but this morning when I woke up everything looked ticked and the foxface was breathing super rapidly. I did not overdose the chemiclean, I underdosed if anything based on other trace element doses I have been doing to estimate net water volume.

I immediately did about 25% water change this morning and threw carbon into a media reactor about 2 hours ago to try and remove as much chemiclean as possible.

I did a ph test and it came out to 8-8.1 and an ammonia reading of 0.

The foxface is now showing black spots on his upper back (second image) which do not look like his camouflage to me and is actively, what looks like, shedding skin (first image). Most other fish look completely fine save for a clown who is hiding which is also very abnormal for him, but again the coral looks ticked for the most part. There are quite a few microbubbles in the tank due to the skimmer's reaction to chemiclean but they have subsided a bit after water changes.

Parameters
Net Water Volume: 150g
Alkalinity: 8.2
Calcium: 415
Nitrate: 8.2
Phosphates: 0.04
Magnesium 1320
ph: 8
Ammonia: 0

I also just got an ICP test back this morning and there are no concerning pollutants in the tank at the time the test was taken (about a week ago).

Well this happened to my foxface a few months ago. The exact same thing happened to me, used chemiclean for cleaning out cyano and foxface developed black spots around his body, only got worse overtime until he passed away afterwards shortly. Originally was thinking that he came in with diseases (he was a new fish), but after reading this thread I can safely say that this was probably caused by chemiclean.

 

[trexodore]

Well this happened to my foxface a few months ago. The exact same thing happened to me, used chemiclean for cleaning out cyano and foxface developed black spots around his body, only got worse overtime until he passed away afterwards shortly. Originally was thinking that he came in with diseases (he was a new fish), but after reading this thread I can safely say that this was probably caused by chemiclean.

Maybe they have a sensitivity to it or oxygen levels in general over other fish? I'm not sure but if it was the oxygen levels then I'm not sure what I was supposed to do differently, add 5 airstones instead of 2??

All I know is I'll never use chemiclean again

 

[AC indochinese]

Maybe they have a sensitivity to it or oxygen levels in general over other fish? I'm not sure but if it was the oxygen levels then I'm not sure what I was supposed to do differently, add 5 airstones instead of 2??

All I know is I'll never use chemiclean again

I think it may be related to the fish being more sensetive to the chemicals than being deoxygenated. Because the rest of my livestock was fine at that time (including corals and inverts), and that the foxface developed the black spots after around a week I stopped using the airstone.