Does chemiclean degrade?

[Theulli]

Question - the instructions say wait 48 hours and then do a 20% water change. Is the 20% water change to remove possible nutrient spikes from cyano die-offs, or is the 20% water change to dilute some sort of residue from the chemiclean?

If I don't observe a phosphate or nitrate spike after 48 hours, can I stop aggressively aerating, toss in my carbon media, and call it good? I ask because I only have the ability to do about a 5% water change at a time. I'm still going to do some water changes, but there may be a 12-24 hour lag between hitting 48 hours of chemiclean, and when I've actually changed out that much water (yes, acknowledged that 4 5% water changes < 1 20% water change). Trying to figure out what I should do in the meantime.

Thanks!

 

[KrisReef]

I don't think the instructions say why. I don't think your tank will suffer if you do 4 5 gallon changes. My skimmer always foams a lot after a treatment so I use the skimmer to pull the water change out and usually I am at 10 gallons of wet skimmate before the skimmer settles down. hth/

 

[Theulli]

I don't think the instructions say why. I don't think your tank will suffer if you do 4 5 gallon changes. My skimmer always foams a lot after a treatment so I use the skimmer to pull the water change out and usually I am at 10 gallons of wet skimmate before the skimmer settles down. hth/

Interesting about the skimmate - I put in Chemipure and Purigen and I wonder if it will just pull out whatever needs to be pulled out

 

[KrisReef]

I have heard folks claim that Chemiclean is an antibiotic. Chemipure should get that out if that is what it is. Purigen might as well?

 

[Courtney Aldrich]

Question - the instructions say wait 48 hours and then do a 20% water change. Is the 20% water change to remove possible nutrient spikes from cyano die-offs, or is the 20% water change to dilute some sort of residue from the chemiclean?

If I don't observe a phosphate or nitrate spike after 48 hours, can I stop aggressively aerating, toss in my carbon media, and call it good? I ask because I only have the ability to do about a 5% water change at a time. I'm still going to do some water changes, but there may be a 12-24 hour lag between hitting 48 hours of chemiclean, and when I've actually changed out that much water (yes, acknowledged that 4 5% water changes < 1 20% water change). Trying to figure out what I should do in the meantime.

Thanks!

Chemiclean is the antibiotic erythromycin and can be easily removed with activated carbon. I think the recommended 20% water change might be useful if you have extremely high cyanobacterial loads, but otherwise it doesn't make much sense. I add carbon after ~ 7 days of Chemiclean treatment to make sure all of the cyanobacteria are gone. A good carbon reactor should be able to completely remove the Chemiclean within 24 hours. Carbon is also effective for many other chemical treatments and much better than any water changes that will only remove a fraction of the drug.

 

[Theulli]

Chemiclean is the antibiotic erythromycin and can be easily removed with activated carbon. I think the recommended 20% water change might be useful if you have extremely high cyanobacterial loads, but otherwise it doesn't make much sense. I add carbon after ~ 7 days of Chemiclean treatment to make sure all of the cyanobacteria are gone. A good carbon reactor should be able to completely remove the Chemiclean within 24 hours. Carbon is also effective for many other chemical treatments and much better than any water changes that will only remove a fraction of the drug.

Excellent - I didn’t have much cyano just enough to annoy me so I will go on the assumption the Chemipure is pulling it out and I am good.

thanks!