Dr. Tims Waste Away is killing my fish

[i cant think]

Get a gravel vac and suck that up during a water change.

If it's stuck to the glass, push the gravel away from the glass to the reach bottom and then use an old credit card, finger nail, WHY to scrape it off.

Reef life is highly chemo-sensitive. Always opt for the non-chemical route whenever possible.

You can always make one aswell - If you don’t mind getting salt water in your mouth haha. I’ll fish mine out in a few minutes and grab a photo of it. I completely understand why you won’t dose anything in the tank from now on - I haven’t dosed anything in my nano in 1 year. It was just some boost for the fish & coral in cycle but other than that nothing else. I went through many blooms, one of the most infamous being my cyano bloom (2 years of fighting it over two nanos just to have it vanish randomly).

 

[ying yang]

Get some kind of trim to hide the sand and also no light will hit the sand where you showed in picture so no algae can grow there.( well less will grow,only near where sand meets glass at top layer)
Not sure on your cuc but sand dwelling snails like nasarious and cerith are good scavengers and help aerate your sandbed everytime they go down and up and through your sand.
Good luck with your tank and sorry about your fish,its a shame a good intention led to the death.
Meds and bacterial products need extra 02 either from surface agitation,air stone,skimmer or all combined ( not saying you didn't add any extra as you ovbiously did as you said you researched the product first)

 

[Nano sapiens]

Im never ever using any chemical or anything resembling a product like waste away. Sucks that I had to learn my lesson by losing most of my fish. More awful i put them through that agony for nothing. I hope i can be a better reef keeper moving forwards. I hope my 2 clown fish and goby survive. My blenny passed away rn. I feel awful

The keeping any type of life in captivity requires a learning curve and reef keeping is one of the more complex endeavors. Don't beat yourself up too bad since even with the best of intensions we all loose animals along the way to one thing or another. What's most important for any of us is to learn from our experiences to become more accomplished reef keepers in the future.

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

Yea after this last dose i noticed it was alittle cloudy at the top. And from what the label said i knew i was in trouble. Moving forward im not going to use any product.

I use dr tims eco balance, it will make the water a little cloudy for a day with no issues at all, in fact the p.e looks better while its cloudy, its a bacterial product. I cant say for the waste away and its effectiveness, but I've never used it, I assume if the directions are followed it is completely safe, after all its got his name on it.

Also I dont consider this a "chemical " product, and everything is some sort of chemical, periodically checking the periodic table, there are some procedures to keep in mind when using his products and aeration is one, he mentions several times, and is stated on the bottle. A protein skimmer is recommended to aid aeration if overdosed or water gets very cloudy.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

this isnt a post asking people if it worked for them or not. Im here to tell people what happened to me. If you read my post i clearly said this product has had alot of success for people. Congrats on not having issues. But no need to come in here and Say what you said. Period.

Disagree entirely. The strong implication, if not outright claim from you is that the waste away killed your fish (directly or indirectly).

If it did (which is not clear to me) then it is important for other reefers to know if this is a one a million event or something that is more common. The only way to know that is for people to give heir experiences.

 

[PigFarmer]

We must always try to remember that product marketing is the biggest killer in our hobby

 

[vetteguy53081]

One thing I do is add it to sump and not tank for disbursement but it should not
I would suspect water (ammonia-phosphate-ph-salinity issue)
What test kits are you using ?

 

[jda]

Please go back to the basics and learn more about what is happening in your tank.

First, that stuff in the sand is no issue whatsoever and it is actually good.

Second, if you have a healthy tank with a good amount of bacteria and microfauna (mature with some real live rock or other seeding of stuff), then any "sludge" in your tank is likely already inert since your current inhabitants would have stripped anything of use out of it. ...so adding new bacteria would not do anything.

Third, do not ever, ever, ever, ever believe what you read on a bottle. Some of them do an OK job of being honest and accurate, but most are exaggerations at best or lies at worst. You can have a great reef tank without ever using anything from a bottle beyond the big-3 and some water changes. In fact, if more folks strictly took this route, most tanks would likely be better.

 

[Malcontent]

We must always try to remember that product marketing is the biggest killer in our hobby

That does explain why Seachem products are amongst the deadliest.

 

[Al Shellpone]

Please go back to the basics and learn more about what is happening in your tank.

First, that stuff in the sand is no issue whatsoever and it is actually good.

Second, if you have a healthy tank with a good amount of bacteria and microfauna (mature with some real live rock or other seeding of stuff), then any "sludge" in your tank is likely already inert since your current inhabitants would have stripped anything of use out of it. ...so adding new bacteria would not do anything.

Third, do not ever, ever, ever, ever believe what you read on a bottle. Some of them do an OK job of being honest and accurate, but most are exaggerations at best or lies at worst. You can have a great reef tank without ever using anything from a bottle beyond the big-3 and some water changes. In fact, if more folks strictly took this route, most tanks would likely be better.

im definitely still a newbie and very influenced by other people tanks on how well their appearance looks. I know I need to stop that. I just wish this wasnt how I learned my lesson.

 

[Al Shellpone]

One thing I do is add it to sump and not tank for disbursement but it should not
I would suspect water (ammonia-phosphate-ph-salinity issue)
What test kits are you using ?

I actually bought the Marine Master Multiparameter Checker

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

I’ve read through all the replies and am surprised no one else has asked…. You said you ammonia went from .15 to 0. Is that correct or did you mean nitrate, phosphate, or some other param? If you had ammonia in your tank, your fish may have already been dying before you added the Waste Away.

 

[Al Shellpone]

I’ve read through all the replies and am surprised no one else has asked…. You said you ammonia went from .15 to 0. Is that correct or did you mean nitrate, phosphate, or some other param? If you had ammonia in your tank, your fish may have already been dying before you added the Waste Away.

Yea exactly. Very weird I didnt have any problems when my ammonia was that high. I was definitely concerned cause i know any ammonia can kill my fish. But for some reason my fish were fine. Originally I suspected my first fish died from the drop in ammonia.

 

[melonheadorion]

i had purchased this product, but i luckily never had to use it. when i purchased it, the LFS was very clear with their own explanation to me, in addition to what the instructions say, that doing something to maintain gas exchange is going to be important while using this. it is not uncommon for many things, including different medications that you may have to use during your time in the hobby, that additional aeration to maintain gas exchange is going to be very important. you can never have too much aeration, so if you run into an instance where you need to use this again, or have to use medications, a skimmer would be beneficial, if possible, heavy surface agitation with a wavemaker, and/or an air pump/air stone. the medications generally eat up a lot of oxygen, so you need ways to keep your livestock from suffocating.

in addition, you could run into an ammonia spike, from what ive read, because of teh die off of different things that were killed with the dosing. the instructions also mention that, but nothing that your beneficial bacteria shouldnt be able to take care of. i always go a little less with dosing something, especially when its the first time

 

[Al Shellpone]

i had purchased this product, but i luckily never had to use it. when i purchased it, the LFS was very clear with their own explanation to me, in addition to what the instructions say, that doing something to maintain gas exchange is going to be important while using this. it is not uncommon for many things, including different medications that you may have to use during your time in the hobby, that additional aeration to maintain gas exchange is going to be very important. you can never have too much aeration, so if you run into an instance where you need to use this again, or have to use medications, a skimmer would be beneficial, if possible, heavy surface agitation with a wavemaker, and/or an air pump/air stone. the medications generally eat up a lot of oxygen, so you need ways to keep your livestock from suffocating.

in addition, you could run into an ammonia spike, from what ive read, because of teh die off of different things that were killed with the dosing. the instructions also mention that, but nothing that your beneficial bacteria shouldnt be able to take care of. i always go a little less with dosing something, especially when its the first time

Sad part is i have everything you mentioned above. Skimmer, air stone, wavemaker and still had trouble. i did leave the lid closed for a day after which i think lead to improper aeration. Also have never used medication in my tank. I think i just had horrible luck.

 

[zdrc]

Honestly, it's more likely that the ammonia killed the fish than the waste away IMO. It might've just taken a few days to kill them. What was ammonia doing in your tank anyway? You said it was ~1 yr old? It should be well cycled at this point, and ammonia would be a sign that you're cycle's been damaged. Have you tested for ammonia again?

 

[csund]

Why was ammonia present?

 

[Al Shellpone]

Honestly, it's more likely that the ammonia killed the fish than the waste away IMO. It might've just taken a few days to kill them. What was ammonia doing in your tank anyway? You said it was ~1 yr old? It should be well cycled at this point, and ammonia would be a sign that you're cycle's been damaged. Have you tested for ammonia again?

Yea it was zero after my first inital dose. And its been zero since. Also the test kit i had before was really hard to read. So maybe i read it wrong? I bought a way better test kit now that read zero so really who knows if i had more or less than .15 ammonia. But all my fish died when i had zero ammonia. Look i know its hard to understand that my fish died from this product but trust me they did. They were all hanging out of the top of the aquarium after this last dose. Gulping for air. I saw what i saw and i know it was from oxygen deprivation. Some of these fish i had from the very beginning and i know how they acted.

 

[Al Shellpone]

Why was ammonia present?

Like i told someone else i dont know. I had a cheap ammonia checker and it was one of those compare color ones. When i bought the better test recently is when it read zero. So I really dont know. .15 was the closest to zero so maybe i didnt have ammonia. I know it was milky white so maybe i read it wrong. Also i had zero nitrites so maybe i had zero ammonia. Maybe it was zero or maybe it was worse. I get my fish can die immediately if i had any ammonia.

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

Look i know its hard to understand that my fish died from this product but trust me they did. They were all hanging out of the top of the aquarium after this last dose. Gulping for air.

Well some harsh truth since your putting it like that, theres nothing hard to understand, thousands of people have used this product correctly with out killing their live stock, due to lack of knowledge or understanding of procedures and overall processes of the reef aquarium resulted in the loss of your live stock.

Dr.tims wast away and all other products by this manufacturer have been known to work when directions are followed, and have been successful for many including myself, I would have no hesitation to use this product correctly, and as directed. This one instance is due to misinformed actions and testing, and in an upset is lashing out at a product because thats easy to do

I get it, its hard losing live stock but use this as a learning experience, not a product bashing opportunity.