Chemiclean versus Ultralive Redslime

[Poriferabob]

Can someone please tell me the difference between these two? It seems to be a fairly common question when searched but all anyone ever seems to say is all anecdotal. I want to know the actual difference if there is one.

 

[amps]

Neither company lists their ingredients but Ultralife seems to infer they take a biological approach whereas Chemiclean is rumored to be a low dose of erythromycin.

I can tell you from experience that Chemiclean just works and is a safe approach to cyano and brown jelly effecting LPS.

 

[Poriferabob]

I can tell you from experience that Chemiclean just works and is a safe approach to cyano and brown jelly effecting LPS.

Can you elaborate on your experience with its impacts to brown jelly?

 

[amps]

Can you elaborate on your experience with its impacts to brown jelly?

I lost a ton of euphylia and LPS about 2 years ago which cascaded into a complete crash. All the symptoms were the same as typical brown jelly post that pops up here all the time. Polyp bailouts, random gunk around the skeleton, brown goo under the heads of the torchs/hammers, etc.. A LFS owner I know specializes in really high end LPS (like $400-600 stuff) and when I asked him about it and how so many people around Toronto were losing corals to it, he told me to try Chemiclean. He doses it every 3-6 months prophylactically and he's never lost a coral to brown jelly.

As I was rebooting about a year later, I received an order of aussie LPS (about 60 pieces) and moved them into a new frag system. Two or three weeks in I noticed that some of the euphyllia were doing poorly and I had a few polyp bailouts on some hammers. They exhibited the same symptoms I had seen during my crash, namely a thinning of the tissue under the head where it connects to the skeleton. So I tried a normal dose of Chemiclean. A week later every single LPS in my tank was healthy and happy and looking better than when I received them. I shared my experience with a few other reefer friends and they all saw the same positive effects and they stopped losing their precious torches to the mystery disease known as 'Brown Jelly'.

Since then, I always keep it in my tool kit and make sure to stock up in case Health Canada decides to ban it (like they did to every other fish treatment). It's also a great compliment to Vibrant since heavy dosing can lead to cyano.

 

[Poriferabob]

Wow. Very interesting. This is actually my intention for its use. Prophylactically that is. I have heard Chemiclean does good things for zoas and can promote polyp extension with sps. The reason for my original question is I currently have 2 bottles of Ultralife Red slime on hand and I'm curious if it will offer the same benefits as well as not cause any bad side effects as well. I have safely dosed Chemiclean to my mixed reef before and did not see any negatives.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I think both are an antibiotic (erythromycin). ChemiClean certainly is.

Very misleading to claim it isn't erythromycin succinate when it is just a different form of erythromycin.