Using Chemi-clean for the first time ever.

[Sophie"s mom]

Hey everyone! So I have had a thread going here about my bout with cyanobacteria. I am going to do the Chemi-clean treatment starting tomorrow. This will allow for the water change on Saturday when I am off work. So my question here is, can I still dose Tropic Marin Elimi NP while using the Chemi-clean? I know to stop activated carbon, and UV. And to keep the skimmer on without it's collection cup. Just wondering about my use of Elimi NP. Thank you to everyone in advance for this.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I think the elimi NP would be OK to keep using.

I never really did a water change except my regular 1% daily. I'm not sure I see the great benefit of the recommended 20% change (it leaves 80% of whatever one is trying to remove), and in my case that would be 50 gallons and not worth the effort.

 

[Sophie"s mom]

I think the elimi NP would be OK to keep using.

I never really did a water change except my regular 1% daily. I'm not sure I see the great benefit of the recommended 20% change (it leaves 80% of whatever one is trying to remove), and in my case that would be 50 gallons and not worth the effort.

THank you for the response Randy! Yeah I was thinking the same thing about the water change.

 

[Fish Fan]

I think the elimi NP would be OK to keep using.

I never really did a water change except my regular 1% daily. I'm not sure I see the great benefit of the recommended 20% change (it leaves 80% of whatever one is trying to remove), and in my case that would be 50 gallons and not worth the effort.

I used Chemi-Clean some years ago before I was aware that some people warn against using this product. I'm curious if you know what the active ingredient in Chemi-Clean really is? I think it's commonly thought to be Erythromycin, but I believe the company specifically denies this?

And would you have any idea how long the active ingredient would remain active in the tank if one does not choose to do a large water change after the treatment?

Personally, I don't think Chemi-Clean did anything terrible to my tank back then, and I have been a little surprised by the push-back on this product I sometimes see.

Thanks, Randy!

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Chemiclean is the antibiotic tylosin, according to an expert analytical chemist friend of mine who tested it himself.

It will remain active for some time, and may still be active in my tank. It (or the changed microbiome) may also have been a contributor to the final demise of my magnifica that was having issues. But it did a great job on cyano in my tank, albeit slower than expected taking multiple days. Still no cyano well after treatment.

It may be skimmed out, and it will bind to particles such as organics and mineral surfaces. That may be the primary way it is removed from the bulk water.

It also chemically degrades in water through a variety of different natural processes.

 

[Fish Fan]

Chemiclean is the antibiotic tylosin, according to an expert analytical chemist friend of mine who tested it himself.

It will remain active for some time, and may still be active in my tank. It (or the changed microbiome) may also have been a contributor to the final demise of my magnifica that was having issues. But it did a great job on cyano in my tank, albeit slower than expected taking multiple days. Still no cyano well after treatment.

It may be skimmed out, and it will bind to particles such as organics and mineral surfaces. That may be the primary way it is removed from the bulk water.

It also chemically degrades in water through a variety of different natural processes.

Thank you for your help!

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Thank you for your help!

You’re welcome.

Happy Reefing!

 

[Sophie"s mom]

Chemiclean is the antibiotic tylosin, according to an expert analytical chemist friend of mine who tested it himself.

It will remain active for some time, and may still be active in my tank. It (or the changed microbiome) may also have been a contributor to the final demise of my magnifica that was having issues. But it did a great job on cyano in my tank, albeit slower than expected taking multiple days. Still no cyano well after treatment.

It may be skimmed out, and it will bind to particles such as organics and mineral surfaces. That may be the primary way it is removed from the bulk water.

It also chemically degrades in water through a variety of different natural processes.

So you say it took multiple days? Did you just do the one treatment? Also, did you siphon out as much as possible first? Just curious as to your approach cuz I sure don't want to get it wrong. I have a bunch that I plan to siphon out as mcuh of as possible this evening before doing the Chemi-clean tomorrow.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I did one treatment. It took a number of days for cyano to really disappear. I think it was about a week before things looked really good.

I overdosed by a small amount, adding a whole container that said it treats 300 gallons to my 250 gallon system.

 

[Tahoe61]

Approximately 10 days ago I used Chemi-clean on both my tanks. I have used the product multiple times over the yrs without an adverse effect. I mix the powder in a small container of tank water and just dump it in. Remove skimmer cup and charcoal. Normally I see the best results in 3 to 4 days. Typically I do a water change after 7 days, and I add charcoal.

The skimmers will dramatically over foam, other than that it's an easy and effective treatment.

I do notice a decreased utilization of the basic trace elements so I temporarily adjust dosing.

There seems to be a lot of reluctance to use the product which never made sense to me. I think you will be happy you did, I always am.

 

[Dread Pirate Dave]

Hey everyone! So I have had a thread going here about my bout with cyanobacteria. I am going to do the Chemi-clean treatment starting tomorrow. This will allow for the water change on Saturday when I am off work. So my question here is, can I still dose Tropic Marin Elimi NP while using the Chemi-clean? I know to stop activated carbon, and UV. And to keep the skimmer on without it's collection cup. Just wondering about my use of Elimi NP. Thank you to everyone in advance for this.

I just resorted to using this about 2 weeks ago. I should have used it sooner. After many tank cleanings, along with DIY coral snow + microbacter 7 and multiple cleanings with Cyo-Control, I threw in the towel. I didn't do any blackouts though so that might have helped. I just didn't want to put my corals in the dark for 3 days.

I followed the directions exactly. Livestock acted normally during treatment. If there is a next time, I wont play whack-a-mole for 6 weeks before bringing in this heavy gun. lol

Your skimmer will go absolutely nuts. To get mine back to a dry skim I had to do a couple of water changes (20% and 50%) and I also ran some rox .8 carbon. My nitrates also spiked and this helped get them back down too. I normally have to dose N and P. I'm still dosing P for now.

Good luck!

 

[Sophie"s mom]

Approximately 10 days ago I used Chemi-clean on both my tanks. I have used the product multiple times over the yrs without an adverse effect. I mix the powder in a small container of tank water and just dump it in. Remove skimmer cup and charcoal. Normally I see the best results in 3 to 4 days. Typically I do a water change after 7 days, and I add charcoal.

The skimmers will dramatically over foam, other than that it's an easy and effective treatment.

I do notice a decreased utilization of the basic trace elements so I temporarily adjust dosing.

There seems to be a lot of reluctance to use the product which never made sense to me. I think you will be happy you did, I always am.

thank you for the reassurances! You have eased my mind.

 

[Sophie"s mom]

I just resorted to using this about 2 weeks ago. I should have used it sooner. After many tank cleanings, along with DIY coral snow + microbacter 7 and multiple cleanings with Cyo-Control, I threw in the towel. I didn't do any blackouts though so that might have helped. I just didn't want to put my corals in the dark for 3 days.

I followed the directions exactly. Livestock acted normally during treatment. If there is a next time, I wont play whack-a-mole for 6 weeks before bringing in this heavy gun. lol

Your skimmer will go absolutely nuts. To get mine back to a dry skim I had to do a couple of water changes (20% and 50%) and I also ran some rox .8 carbon. My nitrates also spiked and this helped get them back down too. I normally have to dose N and P. I'm still dosing P for now.

Good luck!

Thank you! Did you need to add aeration? I have a power head and a gyre pointed at the surface for agitation.

 

[Sophie"s mom]

Approximately 10 days ago I used Chemi-clean on both my tanks. I have used the product multiple times over the yrs without an adverse effect. I mix the powder in a small container of tank water and just dump it in. Remove skimmer cup and charcoal. Normally I see the best results in 3 to 4 days. Typically I do a water change after 7 days, and I add charcoal.

The skimmers will dramatically over foam, other than that it's an easy and effective treatment.

I do notice a decreased utilization of the basic trace elements so I temporarily adjust dosing.

There seems to be a lot of reluctance to use the product which never made sense to me. I think you will be happy you did, I always am.

Did you need to add any extra aeration? I have a power head and a gyre aimed at the surface for agitation.

 

[Tahoe61]

Did you need to add any extra aeration? I have a power head and a gyre aimed at the surface for agitation.

No because the skimmer was running, tons of micro bubbles. But yrs ago I used an airstone because I didn't have a skimmer.

I don't have a lot of fish either. My Fire Shrimp, snails, anemones, corals and fish never missed a beat.

I think you should be fine with what you have but I always error on the side of caution.

If you had a lot of cyano coating the sandbed a rock work that would concern me. A lot of die off leads to increased bacteria activity which can decrease O2.

 

[Dread Pirate Dave]

Thank you! Did you need to add aeration? I have a power head and a gyre pointed at the surface for agitation.

I didn't add any extra.. What I did was remove the skimmer and then I put the skimmer pump back in by itself. The needle wheel + air intake whipped plenty of oxygen into the water. During treatment, it looked like I had put dish soap in there with it. It was crazy foamy. lol

 

[Biokabe]

The one thing with ChemiClean - you really need to be sure that you understand the source of the cyano and have mitigated it as much as possible. If your cyano is nutrient-driven, then using Chemiclean can often get you trapped in a back-and-forth cycle between cyano and bryopsis or other hair-like algaes.

That's what's happened with my tanks and why I personally don't use ChemiClean very often - in the past, I think decaying food trapped in the rockwork fueled my cyano outbreaks. When I deployed ChemiClean, the cyano died but the nutrient sinks remained, which were then co-opted by bryopsis and fueled an explosion of hair algae. When I think used fluco to kill the bryopsis... again, the nutrient sinks remained, and they were then colonized by cyano.

I'm not saying that's what will happen to you, and I'm also not saying that ChemiClean causes that situation. Just that it's a risk if you haven't already made sure that you're not setting the stage for something else pernicious to take hold.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

FWIW, i detail my use and experience with chemiclean in my build thread starting here:

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/randys-tank-and-learn-thread.1103636/page-143#post-14246392

 

[Sophie"s mom]

I think the elimi NP would be OK to keep using.

I never really did a water change except my regular 1% daily. I'm not sure I see the great benefit of the recommended 20% change (it leaves 80% of whatever one is trying to remove), and in my case that would be 50 gallons and not worth the effort.

Hey Randy, a quick question. I just started my chemi-clean, and even without the collection cup, my skimmer is overflowing in a big way. So I unplugged it. The question is do I HAVE to run it, or can I leave it off ? And if off, will the chemi-clean still do its job.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Hey Randy, a quick question. I just started my chemi-clean, and even without the collection cup, my skimmer is overflowing in a big way. So I unplugged it. The question is do I HAVE to run it, or can I leave it off ? And if off, will the chemi-clean still do its job.

If you can run it without the cup so the water goes back into the tank, that is best to keep oxygen up. That's what I did, though mine did not really overflow much.