Waste Away... what does it do..

[DWill]

I'm about 2/3 of the way through a 32oz bottle of Waste Away, I've gone through a smaller bottle already, a 16oz bottle I think.

My tank is about 10 months old. I started dosing Wast Away about 2 weeks after my tank cycled. I went through the early stage which wasn't as bad as I anticipated it would be. I had one cyano about 2 months after the tank cycled and haven't really had any big issues since. My nutrient levels fluctuate a little but never do they get very high. My Nitrate has averaged 5.5 over the last 30 days (my target is 5.0) and Phosphate has been averaged .055 over the same period (my target is .04).

So my question.... what does waste away actually do. Am I just pouring money into my tank, or, are my nutrient levels being helped by using it... what would I see if stopped using it...?

 

[Jekyl]

I treat chemicals as a last resort. Not sure what it does but I'm sure there is a natural way to do the same thing.

 

[saltybees]

If you’re keeping up on your regular maintenance you probably can stop using it.

 

[Jekyl]

I use NoPox and a skimmer to manage my phosphate and nitrate

 

[Dan_P]

I'm about 2/3 of the way through a 32oz bottle of Waste Away, I've gone through a smaller bottle already, a 16oz bottle I think.

My tank is about 10 months old. I started dosing Wast Away about 2 weeks after my tank cycled. I went through the early stage which wasn't as bad as I anticipated it would be. I had one cyano about 2 months after the tank cycled and haven't really had any big issues since. My nutrient levels fluctuate a little but never do they get very high. My Nitrate has averaged 5.5 over the last 30 days (my target is 5.0) and Phosphate has been averaged .055 over the same period (my target is .04).

So my question.... what does waste away actually do. Am I just pouring money into my tank, or, are my nutrient levels being helped by using it... what would I see if stopped using it...?

Probably a waste of money. I compared WasteAway (WA) to aquarium water bacteria ability to consume fish food flake. Aquarium water bacteria out performed WasteAway all the time. It was usually difficult to get WA bacteria to grow. @taricha did a study of WA much more thorough than my study and found a similar lackluster trend in WA.