Ep.16 | ChemiClean Treatment Gone Wrong 

We were cruising along adding corals and then BOOM 💥. This tank has taught more lessons than all other builds combined. What I thought was a simple issue will become my biggest obstacle yet. Stay tuned as the battle continues.. be sure to take the poll on the top right #BeEazy

Thanks for the update. Still new to the hobby and watch this series helps a lot. Hopefully you will fight this and win. Looking forward to the next update. Best of luck.

Top of my mind: Diatoms. Check for silicate, nitrate, phosphate. GFO can work. Big skimmer time. Turn off light for couple days, then brush the remain off the rock. Feed less. It's a combination of multiple thing.

Hello CJ, I just want say here comes the new year, so ready or not, it will be fine in the end. Relax, breath and get your game face on. Been there done that. ❤💗🧜‍♀️

Goodluck with resolving this issue I’m sure you can knock this over and come out better than before

Hey CJ. Quiting is not an option. Start with the three day blackout. I will push it back and make you feel a little better. Then I would see if you need Dr Tims to finish it off. Tank will be awesome. Nice coral placement. We know where your going. You are the King of JBJ. Just a rough patch. Happy new year buddy.

Keep fighting my man, I look to your videos as a source of learning as well as looking for tips to improve my tank. I have the same issue, but it starts in one area and then spreads. Last time I reduced light, did water changes and eventually took the rocks out and scrubbed them in displaced tank water. It worked for about 3 months and now its back....😒

Hey CJ, I've used chemiclean before several times with success. I also beat DINO in the past with DINO X and even had it on my new 66 gallon build I have up now. Good luck!

Checking your rodi was a smart move. Are you currently running a refugium with chaeto? I used to have small issues like this then started using chaeto with a red light and it resolved everything for me. GL, looking forward to seeing what happens in the future.

struggling with it myself. looks very similar to yours, had no luck with chemiclean, so now im trying feeding really heavy. best of luck

Hey CJ Ive ran into something similar before. Have you checked your phosphate levels lately? And are you running GFO? I was and stopped running GFO and it cleared up very quickly.

I had cyano and bubble algae in my 20g long and the chemiclean worked right away I ended up dosing twice but probably only reallyy needed once! Also curious what type of scraper that was you using on the glass?

hey CJ, worked for me after 2 doses with water changes after 48 hours each. Did not lose any corals or fish - while running skimmer without collection cup. also noticed my ph was low 7.7 - 7.9 (from to much C02), once I had skimmer air intake connecting to outside air - the PH is now 8.2 and no signs of that type of algae. I read this type of algae loves high C02 levels. good luck with your tank!

Great channel

Do you have astrea snails? I have found that they eat some types of diatoms and won't die from it.

My tank used to have that. What I did I adjust the brightness of my lighting. Almost a year now I don't have this problem.

Sorry you going through this because I know the feeling , that definitely looks like Dino. I went through it and I started dosing nitrates and phosphates to my tank and 3 weeks later it finally started going away. Dino thrives from very low to no nutrients in the aquarium in my case my filtration was stripping the water off of nutrients even after not doing a water change in a month and a half and still no nutrients was showing on my tests. You can start dosing nitrates and phosphates or you can dose bacteria and don’t do water changes it just makes it worse I hope this helps and keep doing what you doing 💯👍💪

I am also dealing with this issue as of now. So far have been just blowing everything off the rocks and sand bed. I added a bottle of bacteria. Seemed to be a little less. I’m going to keep going this route. I will keep following your progress as well. Some people even recommended running all blues as Dino is photosynthetic. I will see what this next week brings with what I am currently doing. Then may add another bottle of bacteria and change my lights to all blues. Time will only tell and I am willing to take my time to defeat it. Good luck.

I had the same problem in my nuvo 20, seemed like the problem was worst in areas where lots of nutrients settled, I.e. back of tank. I never did find the source however I did remove my sand bed and went bare bottom which solved the problem...hope you find out and resolve the problem and it doesn’t cost u a sand bed like mine did...hang in there and happy holidays CJ👊🏾

I had Dino in my nano. I used DinoX and a 4 day blackout. Worked out well.

I'm waiting on chemiclean order now. Where did you get your lid?

Hey CJ, I have used it at least 6 times on several builds no problem except for skimmer overflow which. After 1 dosage I do a 20% water change.

I have the same issue bro. Did the same things as you and it still keeps coming back.🤦🏻‍♂️ been like this for a few months now. Can't wait till you drop the next vid..

I had cynao & all I did was up the flow a little towards the bottom of the tank & stir the sandbed up every 2 days & within a week it was gone

What type of siphon is that you have? Looking for something with a wide/long siphon tube like that.

CJ, do you have seachem purigen in your filtration ?

Definitely raising nutrients will help. I would stay away from dosing and worry about feeding more or tossing a few pellets in extra after you feed your typical frozen. Also turning off skimmer for about a week or so might help too

I’m sure you will get it under control. You think it might be a nutrient issue?

Beautiful tank bruh

Hey CJ. Great update. Sorry to hear that the Chemi clean didn't work for you. I have used chemi clean before and it worked very well and very quickly. I have a Cobalt aquatics c-vue 40 gallon tank. My problem was after using it as well. I had not made the necessary changes to deal with my overall nutrient issue. So it open the way for another algae to take over. I was finally able. To deal with that as well. The brown stuff that i saw in your video looks very similar to what I dealt with in my Innovative marine 40 cube. I dealt with it by doing water changes. I did an initial water change of 20 gallons. I then started doing 15 gallon water changes every 4 days or so. Then went to once a week. I also did alot of manual removal. It gotten into the sump area and I had to remove it from there. I also cut back on my feeding. Then after a few weeks it just melted away really quickly leaving the sand bed and the rock work. For me once i got my nutrient issue under control it went away. My tank was not a new build but had been up for months and doing well before it. Good luck.

Try using vibrant! You have to be patient with it but for me it started to burn all the algae turning it white and eventually getting rid of all of it. It did take over a month dosing every week after water changes.

Use Vibrant product it works well for that. I had the same issue it works.

Fritz turbo start & Aqua Forest salt in my opinion causes algae issues! When switched over to Red Sea Salt my multi algae problems went away. I cycled my tank with fritz turbo start don’t think I’ll ever use it again!!

That stuff worked PERFECT for me! Just follow the instructions! I did the amount of my display tank only. I didn't add in the sump bc I couldn't find anything saying otherwise. It worked perfectly! And I have an all SPS tank. Everything, including crabs and snails were unharmed.

What up CJ you know I’ve had the same issue for about a year and all I kept doing was 15 gallons of water changes and sometimes even 20 and clean my Sand I noticed by adding a Sand sniffing starfish and conch snails Has helped overturn my sand then I added Blenny fish within a couple of weeks it’s all gone I’ve never used anything else. I don’t like to add chemicals to my tank. it looked exactly like what you got going on hope this helps.

Its dino. I used oversized jaboa uv with the outlet into a filter sock and raised nutrients. I have a before and after video on my channel. The dino eat up nutrients fast so when you add more nutrients it takes a while to register on test kit. Good luck

Have you tried using vibrant brs did a video on it

"Vibrant Reef aquarium cleaner" - bacteria mix tested by BulkReefSupply showing great results. Hoping for clean rocks in 6 weeks. I'm giving it a try, first dose today.

Dang bro. I'm dealing with the exact same issues in my tank. That's definitely dino's. Mine was more stringy without the bubbles. From what I researched the best way of defeating this is with beneficial bacteria. I don't see it heavy on my sandbed as of now but its possible its still on my rocks. I'm praying for you lol. BTW this killed all my corals because it chokes it out smh

Damn the bad luck! Chemi-clean has always killed my cyano every time. Good luck with it brotha.

I had that about a year ago...I used Fritz algae clean out every day.. worked for me and I kept stirring the sandbed also...after about a couple of weeks it was gone...

Raising nutrients always worked for me with the exception of a strain I had years ago in my old 125. I tried everything, eventually beating it by elevating ph to 8.5-8.6 by constant drip dosing of kalk about a gallon every 12 hours for 6 days, dino was gone on day 5. Slowly brought ph down to 8.3 over the course of 3 days. Dino can be beat you just have to be persistent and be willing to try different courses of treatment.

It killed my same problem as you but then it came back and then it did not work after that .I think mine dino and iv been told cover up the tank for 3 days .feed the fish but no lights and cover the tank for 3 days is what iv been told .if you come up with the answer let me know . Having same problem .

I got rid of it through patience and natural processes. Cut back lights, increase flow, use small micron filter socks or pads. Fed more and added coppepods and amphipods

Chemiclean worked great for me on a nasty Cyno outbreak, I only did a half dose to be cautious, took almost two weeks but I finally cleared up all of the Cyno. I did the water change after the two weeks not after 48 hours.

Miss you CJ. What's up. I just raise the magnesium level slightly which promotes the coral feeding and alk consumption. Algae thrive in the lower mg level for some reason

You did the same thing I just did. I dosed Chemiclean for what I thought was Cyano, then the bubbly snot came and I realized it was Dino. Dino X is working for me, almost at the end of my treatment now. Mine was thicker than what I see you have in your tank.

What intensity do you run your xr15s at?

Used chemi-clean many times. Usually took two treatments, but always worked without issue.

This looks like dino to me as well. I've had it creep up on the sand bed a few times, and I beat it every time by dosing inorganic phosphate. After testing it made sense, my Hanna ULR was showing 0 every time I've seen dinos on the sand bed. Keeping phosphates above 0.03 and having nitrates stay above 2 cleared this up on its own.

I used the dr. Tim's method for dinoflagellates and it worked great! Waste away and refresh. Good luck!

I'm trying Microbacter clean with 48hrs dark blacked out tank. I'll try to let you know if it works

I'm going through the same thing with my new frag tank . I have both in my tank I got red slime and dino . I usually let them get out of control i have carpet of red slime and dino . When they grow thic I take tooth brush clean off the rock and vacuum the sandbed . After water change I start getting my nitrate up. About 2 week both disappeared. Other thing u can try is sand sifting starfish with regular water change and rise nitrate . I try not to use any chemicals in my system . Water change and time is the best cure .

I've had this before in my old tank tried all sorts chemiclean higher ph, bacteria, hydrogen peroxide, adding live rock, lots of carbon, etc what worked for me is time.

I’ve got the same crap in my tank. I thought it was Cyano. It looks really close. I’ve used chemi clean in the past (on Cyano and it worked great!) I done two different treatments thinking it may have been expired and I ordered more. Still didn’t work. I then realized it wasn’t Cyano. My guess now is diatoms. I added a few nice chunks of dead rock to my tank without cleaning it and I believe that may have caused the problem. Dino’s is long and stringy with a bubble at the end. I’ve had it before. If that’s what it is, I can tell you how I got rid of it.

CJ, I feel that is the same thing that nearly killed everything in my tank. Smothered them out over time. I used Dino X from Fauna Marin which helped a lot. Follow their instructions very carefully (from the website because on the bottle instructions are useless). It’s bad don’t be complacent. I did. If you have time check some of the Dino treatment videos on my page. I documented the entire process almost day by day. Good luck.

I’ve beat this exact thing with dosing nitrate and phosphate. Once i was able to keep those numbers stable within the redfields ratio it went away. I would also do a 100% blackout for 3 days. That will knock it back. No need to feed fish or coral during this time they go into mini hibernation.

Oh my... I'm been battling with a horrible infection in my reef tank. A neon green slime expanding all over. Right next it started a brown and red slime stuff. I've been trying to explain Marine Depot and BRS without any success. My tank looks exactly like yours.

You need Dino X and lights out for 3 days I had it. Took me 4 months to get over it. Including taking out the sand bed and let it dry out for 5 days in the sun. Good luck

WTF Man!!! This build seems to have issue after issue... Sorry :( Watching all your stuggles is makes me feel blessed!

Add gfo to your reactor and start dosing vibrant.

If it helps I purchased a cheap 24w green Killing Machine UV steriliser and within 48hrs the dinos had gone from my 30 gallon and I had tried many things prior to this over the weeks.During lights off the dinos enter the water column and get sucked through the UV,just slow the flow down a little so they get more contact with the bulb.Anyway 100% worked for me and no dinos since.Oh and stop doing water changes they just love them new added silicates, and raise nutrients,nitrate to around 5ppm.

I used it before but only for red cyno and it worked really good It should actually like work over night and you do a water change after 48 hrs

CJ if you go bare bottom and you worry about the wrasses don’t mine when I went bare bottom bc of diatoms not going away always on my sand bed it got use to sleep under rocks now no problem

dinox will do but beside that you could use ROWA po4 so4 removal but dont pump your return pump directly to your coral when u use rowa make sure water is circulating do not feed frozen food just flakes or pallets feed small but different timing should solve your problem

What I did to resolve mine was raising nutrients keeping uv running, and hydrogen peroxide dosing, all of those together helped me defeat it and all without a 3 day blackout which some people also recommend

I had the same issue with my EVO 12. I tried Chemi-Clean and it didn't work. What ended up working for me was not feeding the tank for a few days, adding more flow, and adding a bottle of ATM Colony bacteria to out-compete the cyano.

It will go away on its own with what ever you do. Just don't ignore it and work it out.

CJ, I have been with the tank for a while and I just remembered I used vibrant after the 3 day blackout and it removed all Cyanobacteria. Not sure how that will work for Dinos but I really liked the vibrant. used a very small amount of the bottle with great results.

The way I did it is, take out carbon, turn off skimmer, and turn off the UV light for 2 or 3 days. Worked for me. Idk why you have your skimmer on, maybe to air the water but I just pointed my gyers to the top and added 2 power heads at the bottom pointing up.

I have the same problem. I’m dozing Dino and cyano remover and it’s still not working. I’ve also done water changes consistently blew off the rock and removed all the sand. Funny thing is my coral is thriving all these changes I’m doing is not affecting the coral or fish.

Did u downgrade from the 120 by choice or was u forced to? I think the smaller tank and sump is why u getting so many issues in that tank...

I battled cyano for the first year and a half chemiclean worked well but kept coming back but now I haven't had it for a year it was a new tank also never had any problems with chemi hurting corals or fish

Almost sure that’s Dino. Could be because your elements are too high, phosbate and nitrates are off..too low of something and or too high of the other or vice versa. Sometimes because of low nitrates too.

Adding microbatier 7, and slowly continue to add. And use reef flux from reef hd. And continue the water changes. Cyanobacteria is blue green in fresh water, and in saltwater is red. This was just a missed call. But reef flux can treat wide group of algae and it can help with bacteria out breaks in fish. So it a two for one.

This is an indication of having extra amount of carbon in the system so if you are dosing some source of carbon you need to reduce it. Also you can try Vibrant will took 9 weeks to clean your system. By the way always use half dosing even with chemiclean

I have had both cynobacteria and I dino. Chemiclean did work for the cyno, but it took probably three weeks for it to completely disappear. For dino I blacked out the tank for 3 days. It did still have small amounts when it was back in the light but I kept sucking it out. Turn my lights down. I think good bacteria would be really helpful. Blackout for 3 Days won't kill the coral but Dino will

When I used chemiclean on my tank it got rid of cyano effectively but then let Dino’s take over. Took a while to get stable again. IMO if you have cyano just wait it out or find the problem. The most effective thing for any alage is weekly water changes and scrubbing said alage away. Again imo results may vary

I just finished the month plus long battle with dinoflagellates after I added a uv sterilizer only took a few days and its was pretty much all gone

Dude I definitely know the struggle. Been reefing for 12 years with never any huge issues. Tanks have had high nitrates etc. but have all been fine. This last tank I set up better than my others. High end equipment with great maintenance routine. I first fought bryopsis which I treated with magnesium tech m by kent. Then had dinos and bubble algae plague. Killed many corals off. Treated that with vibrant. Then got cyano bad. Used chemiclean. Which led to hair algae which i am now treating with fluconazole. I have learned since that my issues have primarily been from to low nutrients. I couldn't cultivate good bacteria because bad were stripping little nutrients from water and algae phosphate. I've been running without skimmer and overfeeding and I have seen an increase in amphipods and copepods. Still havent gotten off zero nitrates but algae is receeding. Another thing is I took my carbon offline which really can strip system. I talked to George at pure reef which I saw you know too. We discussed how high end technology is somewhat hurting the hobby. They are too efficient sometimes as well as most aquarist starting scrapes with dry rock instead of live rock. This creates lack of biodiversity thus more plagues of cyano and dinos worse than previous years. I've almost wanted to give up several times. But my new goal is to keep elevated nitrates of 5 or more to prevent this stuff. Prior to dino plague nitrates were at 20 ppm but they brought them down to undetectable. Love your channel. Keep creating!

Ive used chemi clean to get rid of cyano in my last 2 systems. The first time i used it it worked after 1 dose and didnt cause anything after. The 2nd time i had to do 2 doses and after the cyano was gone i noticed some diatoms on my sand bed. But after a 25% water change the tank looked amazing and the diatoms were gone in about 3 days.

I was thinking you had diatoms and not cyano. Sorry you're dealing with Dino's. I got a bad case of diatoms 2 years into my tank build. Then it turned to bad hair algae which bottomed out my nutrients killing most of my coral. Now it's happening again. 😟

Dino x works really well I have use it multiple times and works in 5 to 6 dose and you can dose up to 15 or 20 doses and when it clears leave it in the tank for a week and do go water change and put new carbon gfo purigen and you should be good

Ive used chemi-clean a few times. Makes the skimmer lose its mind but works for cyano and what you had is definatly NOT cyano.. Best of luck

This looks exactly like my system used to look. I had it for about 16 months, tried black outs, reducing nutrient levels had my phosphate reading zero and nitrates steady at 5 ppm but it would not go away. Right before I was about to give up I saw the excellent article on Bulk REEF about Vibrant, so I thought I'll give it ago as I had run out of ideas. BRS and the manufacturers recommend using it for 9 weeks or so following the specified dosage. I got mine delivered and unfortunately miss read the instructions and gave my tank 110ml for the first dose when it should have been 10ml, I panicked at first but decided to just keep my eye on what was happening. One week later no fatalities, thankfully, but I could definitely see a reduction in the brown dino/algae. I have been dosing the recommended 10ml per week now for the last 3 weeks and it has been reduced by 90 per cent only a few patches on my flow pumps, the water has become much clearer and my coraline algae is spreading (previously it could not compete with the dino/algae issue). I am going to continue with this until I run out then get some more and reduce the dosage as per recommendations. The only downside I would say is that it has started to kill off the algae in my reactor but I'll replace that shortly. I have increased my nutrient levels and allowed my phosphate and nitrate to increase and the tank has never looked better. IMO it is definitely worth giving it a go. Good luck with whatever you do go with.

I think is dinos as diatoms don’t have those bubbles attach to everything. CJ check on mike palleta’s videos he talks on a easy way to get rid off that stuff

old video but ive recently started a tank this way for the first time with life rock and some bacteria in a bottle and im having all kinds of headaches ill never start a tank this way again never had any issues with dry rock and a good ol 6 week cycle looks like i started getting dinos im about 3 or 4 weeks in right now

For dino all I did was let it run it course. I mixed up the sand some and had a sifting star. All new tanks kinda go through this stage with dry rock. I also added micro bacter I believe and after like a week or two it was gone. My new tank is now almost a year old I get little break outs on the sand bed from time to time but doesn’t last long at all. My rocks did it too really bad at first I turkey basted those and it’s all gone as well. It won’t last to long it’s just ugly

I’ve had this before what I use to get rid of it was DR Tim’s waste away it took a few days but it went away right after

i tried it it worked for me

CJ, I did a blackout for 3 days, covered the tank so no light would get in. It went away, no harm to corals and fish, no more Dino’s.

I have had Dino 2 times and the things I did or think that beat it was I added dr Tim’s one and only big bottle, bubble scrub about 3 hours while brush the rock , used finer filter socks and change everyday, used double the carbon for my tank ,and then I did a 50% water change once a week. In the 2 times I have had it took about 2 weeks for it to disappear. As long as your not losing corals or fish I wouldn’t use any chemical products as they are for last resort.And I only run a Cheeto, skimmer, and carbon.

Think chemi clean is more suited to an established system, I have had my new tank up and running a few months and was battling the same, I've just been dosing microbacter 7 weekly and its slowly been improving and clearing up algae, cyano and most likely diatoms but they were brown and bubbling slime, but I just have a little cyano left now, am wondering if chemi clean works by killing bacteria and has affected too much good bacteria as it didnt look like cyano in your system, think its just patience needed and waiting for your system to stabilise, boosting good bacteria helps out compete other problems and if its dino, good maintenance and nutrients stabilising will take care of it

Been battling Dino’s for 4-5 months now? Lost every coral lost lots of inverts and my goby. Glad my local lfs could really care less. They got there money selling me a tank and more then 3 thousand in equipment and corals etc. used Dino x but no luck with that tried using it 3 different times still no luck.

I bet you get this thing figured out. 👌🏼

I was having a similar problem and it turned out to be the salt .wen I mixed the salt some how it was full of nutrients so I was putting nitrates back in to my tank I was using to water and check out water was perfect but was I put the salt in left it for 24 hours with a pump mixing it the nitrate was off the scale

Some months ago I had the same problem, after trying every recomendation and useless products the only thing that really works was a biopellets reactor, all cyano and dinos went away after 2 weeks, you should stop your water changes, just one per month

I beat Dino’s before naturally. Cut some poly filter out( pillow stuffing from Walmart). Stick it in a fish net. Turkey baste it off rocks to get it suspended. Swirl the net around and gather it in the net. Also put the floss where you used it during your treatment. Expose of the floss, and use fresh everytime you do it. This worked for me. Mine was really long and string and detached from the rocks easily.

Have you thought about vibrant

Use the dino regiment from Cruz of elegant corals, i believe you live streamed with him a few times with Rico. It works and you will not lose your corals. Good luck