Boyd's Chemiclean -How does it work???

[greenstarfish03]

Hello,

As a general rule I'm not a fan of adding any chemicals to my tank and haven't done so in many years. Recently I had an issue w/ Cyano that I wasn't able to clear up through the traditional methods and I really didn't want to add an antibiotic type product for sure. Aftera little reading I broke down and added about a half a dose of Boyd's Chemiclean. It really worked well I was surprised. The Cyano went away and what was more impressive my water became clearer then it was before by alot. To the point I didn't even realize it wasn't clear before until I seen it after. Corals started growing better immediately after the treatment as well, especially the SPS's.

It got me thinking about what chemicaly this stuff was doing o my tank and I've decided that I'm not smart enough to answer that question on my own Is there anyone out there that understands the chemistry behind this stuff and why it made my water appear so much clearer? I figure knowing this may help me keep my water clearer on my own in the future.

FYI: I have a 120G cube, it been up for about 2 years my previous tank was up for about 5 years. I run the 120, w/ a 100g sump, carbon and ferris oxide reactors, mixed reef, reef octopus extreme skimmer, 7 T5s, digital aquatics controler, ATO, PH, and salinty, temp probes and probably some other stuff I'm not thinking of.

My water params were good before and after treatment. PH 8.3, Nitrates, Nitites, phospates, ammoniua all zero, CA ~400 etc.

Thanks for your input.

[Chris]

The thing that I think makes it make the water clearer would be that like vodka/ vinegar dosing it probably bonds to the organic wastes, detrius and whatever other gunk you may have in your water and makes it a bigger molecule for your skimmer to more efficiently remove..... other then that I have no clue...but it did the same for my water clarity when I tried it.

[larryandlaura]

I've never used it. I have great clear water with a gfo and carbon reactors. Good to hear it worked! I had a minor cyano issue and the reactor and daily 10% water changes with manual removal worked!

[jimsflies]

I am pretty sure the main ingredient is erythromycin.

Cyano bacteria is gram positive bacteria and erthromycin is highly effective in treating gram positive bacteria. Fortunately, the bacteria that we rely on to deal with nutrients in our reefs (primarily Nitrosomonas and Nitrobacter bacteria) are gram negative and are largely unaffected by erythromycin. Thus, using it isn't devastating to our biological filtration.

For a little more info about what "gram negative vs gram positive" means read below:

Gram positive and gram negative is one of the ways that microbiologists classify bacteria. The procedure is based on the chemical and physical properties of their cell walls. It refers to how a bacteria reacts to a gram stain. If it takes the initial stain, it will be purple and be considered gram positive. If it doesn't take the initial stain, it will be pink and gram negative. The difference is the outer casing of the bacteria. A gram positive bacteria will have a thick layer of protein that the stain can penetrate. A gram negative bacteria has an outer membrane covering a thin layer of protein on the outside. The outer membrane prevents the initial stain from penetrating.

[larryandlaura]

Great write up Jim.

[purerebel]

I've used it once with no negative results couple of months ago. As Chris said my water has never been clearer. Been thinking about following their recommendations an use it monthly.

Sent from my SPH-M930 using Tapatalk 2

[greenstarfish03]

From the company web site

"Chemi-clean helps clean and remove this problem algae through its own unique process. Most other red slime removers use purely antibiotics, namely erythromycin to take care of the algae. The use of such substances with in your aquarium can have disastrous effects upon your nitrifying bacteria and cause your tank to crash, killing the inhabitants of your aquarium"

I'm pretty sure its not antiobiotic based and that is why I asked the question. If it was Erythromycin based the process would be pretty straight forward. Other products like red slime remover etc. are erythromycin based and to me can be bad news for a reef aquarium.

---------- Post added at 08:53 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:51 AM ----------

Originally Posted by larryandlaura

I've never used it. I have great clear water with a gfo and carbon reactors. Good to hear it worked! I had a minor cyano issue and the reactor and daily 10% water changes with manual removal worked!

I thought my water was clear too until I seen the difference it made. I really had no idea it could get that much clearer.

---------- Post added at 08:54 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:53 AM ----------

Originally Posted by chort55

The thing that I think makes it make the water clearer would be that like vodka/ vinegar dosing it probably bonds to the organic wastes, detrius and whatever other gunk you may have in your water and makes it a bigger molecule for your skimmer to more efficiently remove..... other then that I have no clue...but it did the same for my water clarity when I tried it.

Chort I figure it has something to do w/ this, but the thing that doesn't add up is my skimmer is off for at least 48 hours after treatment and th water is perfectly clear before I even turn the skimmer back on.

[greenstarfish03]

Originally Posted by purerebel

I've used it once with no negative results couple of months ago. As Chris said my water has never been clearer. Been thinking about following their recommendations an use it monthly.

Sent from my SPH-M930 using Tapatalk 2

Hey John. Nice to meet a fellow reefer in my basic neck of the woods.

I had the same thought but I'm not comfortable putting something in my tank if I don't understand how it works or what it affects. So I was trying gather some more info. I emailed the company but my guess is there not going to tell me how their secret product works at a chemical level

[jimsflies]

Originally Posted by greenstarfish03

From the company web site

"Chemi-clean helps clean and remove this problem algae through its own unique process. Most other red slime removers use purely antibiotics, namely erythromycin to take care of the algae. The use of such substances with in your aquarium can have disastrous effects upon your nitrifying bacteria and cause your tank to crash, killing the inhabitants of your aquarium"

I'm pretty sure its not antiobiotic based and that is why I asked the question. If it was Erythromycin based the process would be pretty straight forward. Other products like red slime remover etc. are erythromycin based and to me can be bad news for a reef aquarium.

Great marketing for sure...throw a little calcium filler in with erythromycin and you have a unique process that isn't "purely antibiotic".

[Tropical Buff]

Good info I to am dealing with a Cyano issue currently