melonheadorion
Well-Known Member
i wanted to put this out there for anyone that has considered any of these products, or had concerns.
for starters, i was battling a hair algae and bryopsis issue that wasnt going away. the hair algae was easy to remove, but bryopsis was getting worse over time.
my phophates were in a good spot at .05 or so, with nitrates being on the higher end of about 20. since the algae was feeding off of it, it would be safe to say that my levels were probably higher than .05 and 20. i read many people using fluconazole with success, and no ill effects, so i gave it a shot. it got rid of the bryopsis easy. hair algae, it changed a little, but it actually seemed to have increased teh growth of it at the end, and seemed to have introduced another type of algae. that was after the 3 week recommendation of the reef flux, and doing a 30% water change.
not saying that it didnt work, because it did work, but didnt work enough for me as it had for others. perhaps i needed to do another dose of fluc. ive read that sometimes it has to be done a second time for a multitude of reasons.
to try to fix what was causing the worsening algae that was coming out after the fluconazole, i tried battling it with bacto balance to bring down my phosphates and nitrates. i didnt want to bottom it out, obviously, so i got it to a .03 phosphate and 15 nitrates, so i was happy with where the two were at, at that point, but i still had an ever increasing issue with whatever algae i had going. it was similar to hair algae, but a little more coarse. taking rock out of the tank, and scrubbing was an option, but that option was short lived because it would just come back stronger. after doing this a couple times, i decided to go with the dr tims route to try to battle whatever is feeding it.
ive had a bottle of dr tims re-fresh and waste away for a while, that i never opened. the directions worried me. most specifcaly, the part where it says it may harm shrimp and inverts. i didnt want to kill anything, so i shelved it. i decided to give it a go because i was getting tired of the algae that was just getting worse.
i followed the directions to a T for both re-fresh and waste away. ive head horror stories of people not following, and they paid dearly for it.
for those that are going to use re-fresh. it did NOT harm any inverts. i did the recommended week of dosing for my tank, and there were no casualties, nor slight signs of anything bad. however, i didnt see much taking place with re-fresh either. it did a little, but not enough where i can say it was working. from what the directions say, my assumption is that it gets rid of mostly film algae type of stuff from rockwork and surfaces. my rocks are still quite green, so i may need to continue doing dosing of the re-fresh? anyhow, what i did notice is that with the dosing of re-fresh, any time i scrubbed away long hair algae (or whatever it was), it wasnt coming back strong like it would have before.
the waste away, because of the really bad stories of this, and people not following instructions, i did exactly as the directions said, and was more cautious. i started with a 1/4 dose, and then increased by another cap 48 hours later, and then another cap 48 hours after that.. i wasnt at a full dose, but it didnt seem that it was doing much, from what i could see. based on the instructions, it says to me, that it is supposed to break down the organics so that it can be skimmed out. my skimmer wasnt "freaking out" as many claimed would happen. i barely got any skimmate to be honest. what i did notice during the time from going from one, to the other was that i noticed that i was starting to get dinos. the treatment somehow seemed to have bottomed out my phosphate to 0. this shouldnt have happened, but somehow it did. so, for the last week, ive had the start to a dino outbreak, but as of yesterday, when i completed the 14 day refresh/waste away cycle, i did my partial water change, and dinos dont seem to be coming back. they are there a slight amount, but not like they were. my phosphate is still undectable with a color chart. i would assume i have some, but i the color chart seems to be 0. through the last week, i kept up with turkey basting the rock, and dosed phosphate in small amounts, so maybe it was all of that, but it seemed to be right after my water change, so i will chalk it up to the water change. i dunno.
another thing to mention during this, about half way through, i noticed my zoas, hammer, and dragon soul torch closed/retracted. after i completed the 15% water change yesterday, they have completely turned around. i think it was even just before the water change that they started coming around, but i dont recall.
the dr tims treatment seems to have done a little, and is keeping the scrubbed areas of the rock from coming back, like it did in force previous. i do give it the benefit of the doubt in which the instructions really dont get you up to a full dose of the waste away, if youre being cautious. myself, i went cautious the whole way. for a full dose of waste away, it would be 10 caps. the first dose was 1.5 caps. the second was 2.5 caps, and the last was 3.5 caps. i decided to follow the instructions and do the water change as recommended. i may follow through and do a second cycle of it, but want to see how things react, seeing as how im trying to eradicate this dino issue first.
my next go 'round, i will definately try to get to a full dose, if i decide to do the whole regimen again, but may just do as weekly doses to see what that does.
in all, im not entirely impressed. it seemed to have done something, but not to the extent that i expected. more specifically for removing surface algae. the "what does it do" examples dont really give a clear picture as to what you can expect. im having to make assumptions, and my assumptions may be wrong. my expectation of the re-fresh was that it would get rid of the nasty green that my rocks have (where there isnt hair algae present), but its had no change to that at all. maybe it just comes down to having to do regular doses of it.
i would love to hear stories and whatnot from others that have used it.
for those that have thought about using either of these, i hope this is useful to help you decide. in no way am i saying that these products dont work. i definately saw changes, but my system didnt get the outcome i hoped for. i almost lean toward an issue with skimming, since i didnt get the skimmate that others raved about, but my skimmer is more than adequate for my system, so im at a loss
for starters, i was battling a hair algae and bryopsis issue that wasnt going away. the hair algae was easy to remove, but bryopsis was getting worse over time.
my phophates were in a good spot at .05 or so, with nitrates being on the higher end of about 20. since the algae was feeding off of it, it would be safe to say that my levels were probably higher than .05 and 20. i read many people using fluconazole with success, and no ill effects, so i gave it a shot. it got rid of the bryopsis easy. hair algae, it changed a little, but it actually seemed to have increased teh growth of it at the end, and seemed to have introduced another type of algae. that was after the 3 week recommendation of the reef flux, and doing a 30% water change.
not saying that it didnt work, because it did work, but didnt work enough for me as it had for others. perhaps i needed to do another dose of fluc. ive read that sometimes it has to be done a second time for a multitude of reasons.
to try to fix what was causing the worsening algae that was coming out after the fluconazole, i tried battling it with bacto balance to bring down my phosphates and nitrates. i didnt want to bottom it out, obviously, so i got it to a .03 phosphate and 15 nitrates, so i was happy with where the two were at, at that point, but i still had an ever increasing issue with whatever algae i had going. it was similar to hair algae, but a little more coarse. taking rock out of the tank, and scrubbing was an option, but that option was short lived because it would just come back stronger. after doing this a couple times, i decided to go with the dr tims route to try to battle whatever is feeding it.
ive had a bottle of dr tims re-fresh and waste away for a while, that i never opened. the directions worried me. most specifcaly, the part where it says it may harm shrimp and inverts. i didnt want to kill anything, so i shelved it. i decided to give it a go because i was getting tired of the algae that was just getting worse.
i followed the directions to a T for both re-fresh and waste away. ive head horror stories of people not following, and they paid dearly for it.
for those that are going to use re-fresh. it did NOT harm any inverts. i did the recommended week of dosing for my tank, and there were no casualties, nor slight signs of anything bad. however, i didnt see much taking place with re-fresh either. it did a little, but not enough where i can say it was working. from what the directions say, my assumption is that it gets rid of mostly film algae type of stuff from rockwork and surfaces. my rocks are still quite green, so i may need to continue doing dosing of the re-fresh? anyhow, what i did notice is that with the dosing of re-fresh, any time i scrubbed away long hair algae (or whatever it was), it wasnt coming back strong like it would have before.
the waste away, because of the really bad stories of this, and people not following instructions, i did exactly as the directions said, and was more cautious. i started with a 1/4 dose, and then increased by another cap 48 hours later, and then another cap 48 hours after that.. i wasnt at a full dose, but it didnt seem that it was doing much, from what i could see. based on the instructions, it says to me, that it is supposed to break down the organics so that it can be skimmed out. my skimmer wasnt "freaking out" as many claimed would happen. i barely got any skimmate to be honest. what i did notice during the time from going from one, to the other was that i noticed that i was starting to get dinos. the treatment somehow seemed to have bottomed out my phosphate to 0. this shouldnt have happened, but somehow it did. so, for the last week, ive had the start to a dino outbreak, but as of yesterday, when i completed the 14 day refresh/waste away cycle, i did my partial water change, and dinos dont seem to be coming back. they are there a slight amount, but not like they were. my phosphate is still undectable with a color chart. i would assume i have some, but i the color chart seems to be 0. through the last week, i kept up with turkey basting the rock, and dosed phosphate in small amounts, so maybe it was all of that, but it seemed to be right after my water change, so i will chalk it up to the water change. i dunno.
another thing to mention during this, about half way through, i noticed my zoas, hammer, and dragon soul torch closed/retracted. after i completed the 15% water change yesterday, they have completely turned around. i think it was even just before the water change that they started coming around, but i dont recall.
the dr tims treatment seems to have done a little, and is keeping the scrubbed areas of the rock from coming back, like it did in force previous. i do give it the benefit of the doubt in which the instructions really dont get you up to a full dose of the waste away, if youre being cautious. myself, i went cautious the whole way. for a full dose of waste away, it would be 10 caps. the first dose was 1.5 caps. the second was 2.5 caps, and the last was 3.5 caps. i decided to follow the instructions and do the water change as recommended. i may follow through and do a second cycle of it, but want to see how things react, seeing as how im trying to eradicate this dino issue first.
my next go 'round, i will definately try to get to a full dose, if i decide to do the whole regimen again, but may just do as weekly doses to see what that does.
in all, im not entirely impressed. it seemed to have done something, but not to the extent that i expected. more specifically for removing surface algae. the "what does it do" examples dont really give a clear picture as to what you can expect. im having to make assumptions, and my assumptions may be wrong. my expectation of the re-fresh was that it would get rid of the nasty green that my rocks have (where there isnt hair algae present), but its had no change to that at all. maybe it just comes down to having to do regular doses of it.
i would love to hear stories and whatnot from others that have used it.
for those that have thought about using either of these, i hope this is useful to help you decide. in no way am i saying that these products dont work. i definately saw changes, but my system didnt get the outcome i hoped for. i almost lean toward an issue with skimming, since i didnt get the skimmate that others raved about, but my skimmer is more than adequate for my system, so im at a loss
