Dr. Tim's Waste Away - Weekly Maintenance?

[William Morris]

Looking for other's experiences using Waste Away as part of a weekly maintenance program.
I have a little bit of diatom forming from placing a new rock in my 32G Biocube.
It was live rock from my LFS - but I allowed it to dry out for a month before adding it. User error.
Phosphate: .10
Nitrate: 15
Calcium: 415
Alk: 8.4
Tank has been running for 3 years.

 

[brandon429]

in my opinion we should just clean the tank vs pay for it repeatedly

in cleaning we remove fuel/whole particulate matter that fuels much worse expected invasions (gha) coming soon/cyclic

a little initial diatoms is no big deal, but neither is some deep cleaning practice when ready in the end that's what saves nano reefs should they get into distress, its not a bought item that runs nano reef rescue documentation threads. It indeed might zap them back, that first round of primaries is easily affected by most options.


but that method also begins compounding vs export, that light mass has now decayed and been left in system, clouding goes up one notch.

this is step one in that direction, cleaning is a step in the opposite direction, export- low waste high coral loading and man grazing until you get lucky with animals. because of the habit system it brings, I cannot advocate anyone using Dr Tims waste away as a recurring expense

cleaning will win in every case every single time. once we're dealing in tanks too large to manage by hand, dose away. a 32 g thankfully is not that size, so you have total say right now over what it does.

It is harmless to experiment with if you'd like, and lots of people are interested to see if it zaps mild diatoms.

 

[Dan_P]

Looking for other's experiences using Waste Away as part of a weekly maintenance program.
I have a little bit of diatom forming from placing a new rock in my 32G Biocube.
It was live rock from my LFS - but I allowed it to dry out for a month before adding it. User error.
Phosphate: .10
Nitrate: 15
Calcium: 415
Alk: 8.4
Tank has been running for 3 years.

I discussed this with @taricha many times. The data we have for our aquaria is that our aquarium bacteria kick all bottled bacteria butts in head to head digestion contests! But I do still wonder whether brand new aquarium could benefit.

 

[William Morris]

@Dan_P Can you direct me to the thread that details how to deep clean a reef? I saw it yesterday but can't find it today!

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

@Dan_P Can you direct me to the thread that details how to deep clean a reef? I saw it yesterday but can't find it today!

What does "deep clean" even mean? What are you trying to get rid of?

 

[brandon429]

nothing could be deeper cleaning that taking apart 200 reefs, washing all the sand in tap water for two hours then RO, cleaning the rocks in saltwater, and re assembling it all in perfect skip cycle order.

Official Sand Rinse and Tank Transfer thread

I am fairly worried about moving my freshwater setup as it is fairly overstocked (reduces aggression as no one fish gets singled out). I did fail to think about the toxicity of nitrite on top of ammonia toxicity... Here is my plan for the cichlid tank. I have gradually reduced my pH from 8.2 to...

www.reef2reef.com

*no foul call allowed lol here's my justification for amassing that many rip cleans: when people have to move homes, that's the only safe way to effect the move and not kill all their stuff. so if they want to implement the same actions in home, without moving, to rip out cyano then I cannot fault them... we just want the proof this mechanism can be infinitely ran without variation. 40 pages fair to say we're on the scent trail of something repeatable. the outcomes are that people really like it. I know how bad it sounds in theory, but in application its pure gold and we've saved about half a mil in tanks if my math isn't horrible based on those pics.

 

[William Morris]

What does "deep clean" even mean? What are you trying to get rid of?

Randy - just doing a little spring cleaning. Blowing off the rocks; scrubbing with a toothbrush, etc.
What prompted this is the appearance of diatoms on a new rock I placed in the tank a couple of weeks ago.
It was live rock from my LFS - however I didn't use it right away and let it dry out. (Operator error)

 

[Dan_P]

@Dan_P Can you direct me to the thread that details how to deep clean a reef? I saw it yesterday but can't find it today!

Looks like Brandon just provided a link.

 

[brandon429]

wanted to add that clearly not everyone wants to rip clean their system for starters.

by all means handle in increments if preferred

all we show there is if someone wants to take time to make the big job, then they stave off work for a long time and the glass runs as clean as a whistle, am assuming its because we've robbed literally every possible organic waste store in the whole system all at once.

I myself overfeed my reef. neglect it. fail to remove uneaten feed

then the sand starts getting grayish

then reds and greens and blacks develop in the cross section of sand, waste sinking.

water changes tend to stir up waste vs impart clarity

all signaling for a change...

tiny bits of algae start forming more often on the glass, eutrophication occurring.

instead of normal weekly maintenance I let it run down, then rip clean it and go another two years. the method isn't worthless as a care method... its just hard for large tanks to pull off.

when they move homes, they've no choice so we get the work examples anyway.

__________________________________________________

If all you have is light diatoms, then all that above may not be necessary.

as you can tell from the pics, about a third of people show up with advanced waste sinking and are having every common headache from it, we then force-reverse the condition and log outcomes.

 

[Dan_P]

nothing could be deeper cleaning that taking apart 200 reefs, washing all the sand in tap water for two hours then RO, cleaning the rocks in saltwater, and re assembling it all in perfect skip cycle order.

Official Sand Rinse and Tank Transfer thread

I am fairly worried about moving my freshwater setup as it is fairly overstocked (reduces aggression as no one fish gets singled out). I did fail to think about the toxicity of nitrite on top of ammonia toxicity... Here is my plan for the cichlid tank. I have gradually reduced my pH from 8.2 to...

www.reef2reef.com

*no foul call allowed lol here's my justification for amassing that many rip cleans: when people have to move homes, that's the only safe way to effect the move and not kill all their stuff. so if they want to implement the same actions in home, without moving, to rip out cyano then I cannot fault them... we just want the proof this mechanism can be infinitely ran without variation. 40 pages fair to say we're on the scent trail of something repeatable. the outcomes are that people really like it. I know how bad it sounds in theory, but in application its pure gold and we've saved about half a mil in tanks if my math isn't horrible based on those pics.

I did a “surface clean“, which is a ripoff of the “rip clean”.

I was pestered by a persistent diatom mat so I vacuumed it and the surface sand. The sand and tap water went into a small bucket. A power drill with paint stirrer attached stirred the bejeebers out it. I returned the clean sand to the aquarium. No miracles, but after a second surface clean diatoms are down to a mild blush here and there.

I did notice a slight increase in NO2 in the water, 0.07 ppm. Wild right? We wondered if deep cleaning was punishing the nitrification capability of the sand. Maybe the power drill can effect the biofilm, but human powered rinsing maybe not. There is potential here for an interesting study.

 

[taricha]

The data we have for our aquaria is that our aquarium bacteria kick all bottled bacteria butts in head to head digestion contests! But I do still wonder whether brand new aquarium could benefit.

It is certainly hard to show that bacteria from a bottle do something that native aquarium bacteria don't. The tests that seem obvious to a hobbyist keep pointing the other way.

Many hobbyists find bacterial additives to be helpful even in mature tanks (seems higher than placebo to me - but maybe I underestimate placebo) and I can't help but wonder if it's mostly the media in some products that are doing beneficial things.