Chemi-Clean makes me happy

Last week when I got back from my trip to Atlanta, my tank sitter told me he was ready for me to get the cyano bacteria situation in my tank under control. I prefer not to treat the tank when I'm about to travel, so I don't put the reef in a bad spot when I'm 1000 miles away for a few days.

When it comes to using a product for this issue, Chemi-Clean has always been the one I've recommended. I've used it countless times with great results. About two years ago or so, a new liquid version came out in addition to the powdered-typed. I had to dig through my bins to find the bottles I still had, and dosed enough of the product to treat 300-350g of water. After turning off the skimmer and the carbon reactor, I dosed my tank with about 20 ml and let it do its magic.

Within 24 hours, the areas that were red were vastly improved. Another day later, it was all but gone. I had my Vortech pumps in Nutrient Export Mode for the full duration to get any trapped stuff off the rockwork. My tank has plenty of flow, and oxygen levels are good enough that I didn't add an airstone & pump to the reef.

Normally, after the treatment is completed you need to do a 25% water change. The mixing pump on my saltwater vat is broken so I've been waiting for any news on the replacement. I could mix up 50g in a barrel, or drop a Mag pump into the vat for the time being, but I was busy with preparations for Next Wave. Instead, I turned on one pump to my skimmer rather than both, and let that one pump fill the collection cup with foamy skimmate. I had the skimmer dialed in so the cup wouldn't overflow, and let it work out the DOCs over the next day. Adjusting the gate valve on the skimmer the next day, I was able to export more, and after another day I was able to turn on the second pump and adjust the water level in the body of the skimmer for normal operations. I'm actually impressed that I was able to avoid the volcano effect that usually occurs after using Chemi-Clean.

The sand is clean, the red is gone, and the tank looks better. Win-win-win. Or should I just say winning.