Dr. Tims Waste Away is killing my fish

[Danroo]

look into the reviews on Amazon that’s what made me not use this product when I bought it by accident. As much as I agree that dr Tim is highly respected, my gut feeling tells me not to trust his products.

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

look into the reviews on Amazon that’s what made me not use this product when I bought it by accident. As much as I agree that dr Tim is highly respected, my gut feeling tells me not to trust his products.

Thats fine too

 

[areefer01]

I just want to say to anybody coming in here that this post is to tell my story. When I bought this product I did the same research on reef2reef. And tbh there is quite a few post on here that tell a story that is similar. I dont want to slander Dr. Tim and I dont mean to slander the product. I understand that Dr. Tim has done way more for this hobby than most. But I feel it is my obligation to tell exactly where I went wrong and exactly what happened so when the next person does his or her research they may see all the bad and good. Is it sad that I had the bad experience? absolutely. But I want to to warn whoever might be seeing this that something bad could and can happen. Obviously im talking through alot of emotions because some of these fish were my very first fish in the hobby. It hurts. And it hurts more that I caused this. Either way I just want others to know the danger that may happen if they are not careful. Even thought I thought I was extremely careful and not even reaching the recommended dose, the worst happened. I dont want this thread to be a "it worked for me" thread. This is just a thread about the bad experience I had. Thank you to everyone that took the time to respond.

But you did just the opposite. Look at your post title. You also took no responsibility.

 

[Sebastiancrab]

That does explain why Seachem products are amongst the deadliest.

Please elaborate. I have found Seachem products to work for their intended use. But I do not add unnecessary products to my tank like waste away.

 

[melonheadorion]

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.

i personally dont believe that it was ammonia. i could be wrong, but thats my thought. however, i do think lack of oxygen was probably the case. although you have aerated it, having a closed lid doesnt let the carbon dioxide, which is trying to escape, actually escape the tank. it would be somewhat equivalent to leaving a car running in a garage. eventually the oxygen that is there, will be overcome by the gases that are being produced. this is the logical explanation for fish death, that i feel was the cause. in the future, if you ever have to medicate fish, or do anything like this again, if you are aerating anything, make sure that there is good oxygen for the gas exchange to replace it with.

also, dont beat yourself up about it. whatever the death cause is, use it as a learning tool, and move forward.

 

[jda]

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.

Find the build threads of some people on here who you want to have tanks like - not the looks, but the care level and inhabitants. Read them and follow them for a while. Try and do what they do, don't do what they don't do. You can also ask for opinons and experiences, but you mostly have to discount some of the mob if you get responses from more experienced people - sometimes, who does not respond says as much as who does... if all of your responses are from noobies with "best XXX ever" then they probably don't actually know enough to help you.

Basicly, no supplements. If you want to jump start your tank, then order some real live rock from somewhere... 10-20 pounds is enough. Keep your salinity, temp, calcium and alk in reasonable levels. After a a few more months when things stabilize, then you can hone them in a bit.

 

[Mhuq1197]

Ive seen post out there about the warnings of overdosing but I dosed under the recommended dosage and has now killed 3 fish in my tank. Be very careful with this product. I have a 32 gallon tank and have dosed 3 times in 3 weeks. First two weeks I dosed one cap the first week and 2 the second week and saw my firefish die. I checked my params and the only thing I noticed is my ammonia went down from .15 to 0. I went to my LFS and told them what happened and they said no way it could have been the waste away and continue dosing, I dosed half of what was recommended again this week which is 2 caps of this product and now have 3 dead fish with my 4th that is on his way out. Im sure it depleted the oxygen in my tank as all my fish were hanging out at the top of tank the past two days. I know I should have listened to myself and stop dosing after the firefish died. Im writing this to warn people about this product and that not only overdosing can cause problems but even adding 1/3 or 1/2 of the recommended does can also do harm . I know alot of people have had success with it but I would recommend you consider some product other than waste away. Since I have only had this tank for a little over a year, this is my first big mistake and what a costly one it was. 2 clownfish and a goby have survived with my blenny not doing well at all. My take away from this product is that it might not be made for smaller tanks. All this tragedy for trying to get rid of gunk under my sandbed. Be careful with this product.

So sorry to hear about your fish! Such a bummer! I have success with this product for my Biocube 32 by using only half a bottle cap per month. I have a post today about the results after 2 months of use.