Dr. Tims Refresh and Waste-Away (battling cyano)

[AquAttila]

So I have been battling cyano and have used products like chemiclean as well as ultralife's red slime remover, which are great products. However, I feel like it is just a band-aide to an underlying problem. Once again the red slime is back on some of the rocks and have been reading quite a bit about the Dr. Tim's method by using Refresh and Waste-Away - the 14 day process. I have read mixed reviews and some say that it actually wiped out their entire tank - once they started to dose waste-away. Although it does give a warning about using 1/4 of the recommended dose, there is a huge concern - plus it does say that it can kill shrimp and clean up crew. Although not much of a concern about shrimp as I would be treating my FOWLR, plus if it kills of some of my clean up crew I will get more ... but I have many quite expensive fish so wanted to know if anyone has used with success and if you had any negative impact.

One other important questions is that the instructions say something about underlying problem maybe running skimmer 24 x 7. I do run my skimmer 24 x 7 so should I maybe schedule to run 12 hours / day? honestly if there is another option to try before trying the Dr. Tim method, I would prefer it.

Thanks!
Attila

 

[Spare time]

What are you nitrate and phosphate at?

 

[brandon429]

I would also add: if this tank is near ~40 gallons or so I have on file for forty pages a much better way of beating cyano, most cures in one thread in fact. Much better than Dr Tims. It's a way to simply clean the tank to fix the cause and symptom

but if the tank is really large this way won’t work as well

how many gallons

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

One other important questions is that the instructions say something about underlying problem maybe running skimmer 24 x 7. I do run my skimmer 24 x 7 so should I maybe schedule to run 12 hours / day?

Sounds like a very bad idea to me, with nothing at all that I can think of to suggest it being useful.

Unlike most other photosynthetic organisms, cyano can consume organics (which skimmers export).

Shutting it down will also remove a very beneficial aspect of skimmers, the aeration.

 

[AquAttila]

What are you nitrate and phosphate at?

My Nitrate and Phosphates are fairly low. NO3 is at around 10 and PO4 is .2

This is a 210 gal tank and do have an algae turf scrubber and dose Microbacter7 on a weekly basis. Initially my nitrates were higher, 25ish... but have not been adding fish and slowly have come down quite a bit.

 

[AquAttila]

Sounds like a very bad idea to me, with nothing at all that I can think of to suggest it being useful.

Unlike most other photosynthetic organisms, cyano can consume organics (which skimmers export).

Shutting it down will also remove a very beneficial aspect of skimmers, the aeration.

The only reason I mention the skimmer is that many say if skimmers work too good then it can remove beneficial bacteria. I am obviously wrong and maybe read wrong info ... I thought it was strange too. Thanks

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

The only reason I mention the skimmer is that many say if skimmers work too good then it can remove beneficial bacteria. I am obviously wrong and maybe read wrong info ... I thought it was strange too. Thanks

Skimmers may remove bacteria that will act as a food source for filter feeders, but there's nothing but wild speculation that one can drive "good" bacteria levels below "desirable" levels, even if one knew what was a "good" bacteria and what was a "desirable" level in this context.

 

[Chihiro 062]

I would also add: if this tank is near ~40 gallons or so I have on file for forty pages a much better way of beating cyano, most cures in one thread in fact. Much better than Dr Tims. It's a way to simply clean the tank to fix the cause and symptom

but if the tank is really large this way won’t work as well

how many gallons

Hi Brandon

Can u give me link to ur file. My tanks is about 45 gallons and I want to check it to prevent Cyanobacteria for my tank.

Many thanks
Chinh

 

[brandon429]

Official Sand Rinse and Tank Transfer thread

If you are reading this thread to cure a tank invasion from a link I sent you, we do not need to identify your type of invasion here we do not need you to test anything at anytime regarding nitrate, phosphate etc Above all, we do not need to see a microscope slide picture of your invasion at...

www.reef2reef.com

Chinh we can make a remote custom run for your setup here, live time for sure. It would be very fun to order out the biology in steps and get after pics so we can add to our list of works!
if you’ll post a full tank shot we can plan your move based on its specifics and for sure it will work.


that above shows the patterns we use which is basic wastewater filtration science scaled down for the home aquarium:

- no bottle bac needs purchasing, trust the natural bacteria. It makes us more effective and thorough as reefers to require natural bacteria to step up to our demands. They will.


- the number one step above all, hundreds of jobs, even when we are moving homes or just staying in place, and killing cyano —is tap water rinsing of the sandbed for as long as it takes to be perfectly clean. As the reef is literally taken apart carefully


exactly like medical surgery, but on a reef tank.

the sand is accessed alone we see, rocks and fish and corals held elsewhere, the sand only rinsed in tap for an hour or two if you want

last step is the RO rinse on the sand, to evacuate the tap, it is now cloudless sand. This cloudless sand is the sole linking factor in half a million dollars worth of collective reefs moved above


*it doesn’t matter if this initially sounds bad, or scary, there’s too many outcomes shown above to doubt

they‘re trusting that rinsing doesn’t harm, they simply set back cleaned rocks and coral and fish and all new water back on cloudless sand its really not a huge deep plan.

the trick is we know that handling the live rocks in saltwater, carefully, preserves the needed bacteria

because of that rule, that live rock is always enough, we are free to replace the sandbed immediately or we are allowed to rinse it and blast it to the moon with tap water


sandbed bacteria are expendable live rock bacteria aren’t. In those jobs above, we blast rinse the sand ( and cyano leaves with it ) and we saltwater lightly clean the rocks, so each tank never recycles.


ok that’s the plan for when you want to run it, post pics

 

[brandon429]

You don’t have to run that above


but when ready, that’s literally a roadmap to beating any invasion. We simply do not permit invasions there because surgical access for 45 and smaller tanks is easy not hard.


you’ll see many large tanks there too, some 200 gallons. When they move homes, it’s a big job


but we can use that same method in a tank not moving homes, and it’s equally safe. Deep cleaning a reef free of cyano, or dinos, is no different than moving that reef to a new home and skipping the cycle as we do there hundreds of times.


notice all those pages, we didn’t discuss parameters. That’s a hesitation...what we do is blast rinse and not wait. We did not ask about parameters, we blasted cyano right out.

 

[Lovefish77]

The skimmer is not a must when using drtims refresh and waste away for cyano. I just emailed them about a nano with cyano and no skimmer. They said it can work but would take longer....