Peroxide saves my Tank! With pics to Prove It!

[GTi]

Day 2. I decided to treat a different rock rather than the other half of the same rock for 2 reasons. 1) Less algae so less peroxide left on the rock when it goes back in the tank 2) give the Pink Lemonade a bit of a break (whether it needed it or not).

 

Removed rock from tank. Spray bottle, 3% peroxide. Wait 1 min. Reapply. Wait 1 min. Rinse with tank water. return to tank. The less dense areas changed colour quickest but all treated areas are changing now. Zoas fizzed a lot and look POd but are returning to normal already.

 

 

Part of the algae treated yesterday. Lighter colour. Some strands are clear/grey. Less dense.

 

For comparison: Yesterday- shortly after treatment

[Kellysnano]

Here are some pics - depressing because i was looking at pics from a year ago and everything was so much nicer. I have had 2 family deaths and my poor tank has been more neglected than i thought when I really started looking. in the full tank shot its the rock on the left that I dunked. Aside from the duncan not opening and the favia looking under the weather I think things are okay. The suns and dendros are not all open but they will be okay I think. The large mountain on the right has string white algae and hair algae. I can't remove the rock. I hate it because a) its too hard to attach coral I don't think it gets enough flow and c) I can't remove it. Any suggestions on what I could do would be appreciated.

 

 

 

 

[GTi]

Here are some pics - depressing because i was looking at pics from a year ago and everything was so much nicer. I have had 2 family deaths and my poor tank has been more neglected than i thought when I really started looking. in the full tank shot its the rock on the left that I dunked. Aside from the duncan not opening and the favia looking under the weather I think things are okay. The suns and dendros are not all open but they will be okay I think. The large mountain on the right has string white algae and hair algae. I can't remove the rock. I hate it because a) its too hard to attach coral I don't think it gets enough flow and c) I can't remove it. Any suggestions on what I could do would be appreciated.

 

 

How about getting some new rock and fragging the corals off the old one and on to the new one? Sounds like you really don't like that rock! Or remove the corals, break up the rock and dip it and then rescape?

 

Try to view it as an opportunity. I know how tough it can be when you lose someone close to you and it's easy to get behind on things. You can fix a tank! You have some nice corals in there and the tank isn't in a really bad state compared twosome that people have posted. You can do it!

[brandon429]

excellent pics and great sun coral!!

 

GTi as well thanks for great pics you guys made a great page of details and both tanks are easy fixes.

 

Kelly your up close shots seem to make a drain and treat like my tank requires the slam dunk. We factor what you apply goes into the tank and stays with this approach and your target will be in the air for access.

 

refill as wc with clean water, or put current back in, pour slowly creatively no kick up waste.

 

your corals are neither air nor peroxide sensitive but each time we work to avoid non target contact and we will keep getting predictable results. mind any shrimps with the drain and treat, relocate as needed. a time comes where overall ecosystem protection outweighs their lives but I never had trouble with my inverts in a much smaller tank send I'm using 35%, only 3% is needed for Kellysnano.

 

 

 

Neither one of these tanks has large scale algae issue, its rather localized, in spots. its not all over the glass, in the substrate, it's easy for a target run

 

grazers control algae on real reefs that would test ideal po4 on a hq digital tester.

 

 

I'm detailing here why I don't approach these featured issues as nutrient problems. ..its not widespread enough and the corals clearly appreciate the nutrients in both settings we just want that zero primary producer perfection and can easily cheat that into existence, you'll be surprised how well both these masses fade and hold after a couple rounds if needed.

 

months typically...we shatter the old statements not producing 60 page threads that say all algae problems will persist if you don't treat a source. That's the case for eutrophic tanks, these two are not.

 

Kellysnano on the drain and treats its a week long thing imo. Drain it once hit few test spots with only well placed dropper spots or tight pattern mist, let sit drained and treating for couple of mins, refill.

 

we are treating well under the limits for anything in your tank and can take a few easy drain and refill sessions to cover what's needed.

 

Any single small spot you treat during a drain will be a win spot in 48 hrs and by not rushing we are making your tank see hardly any stressful peroxide. The drain and treat is undoubtedly order of operations #2 behind fullly removed treatment #1 GTi has featured above. dosing peroxide to a full running tank at top water is closer to 4 there's plenty in between.

[Kellysnano]

Thanks for the advice and encouragement! I will try the drain and treat and post some pics of progress along the way. There is a small patch of GHA in the middle of a monti cap - will it be okay to dab a little peroxide directly into that with a q-tip ? Thanks!

[brandon429]

y we have seen that way before. The area will likely have a little tissue insult area afterwards but it will overgrow with new cap tissue in time. better now to catch it before it grows

[GTi]

I pulled out the middle rock and dosed the left side with peroxide as described before.

 

The right side, treated 2 days ago, is looking much better. Algae is becoming grey or white and thinning out. I noticed the Colonista snails appeared to be eating the weakened algae. The Turbos appeared to be eating the untreated algae.

 

Photo of the right side - much less algae and very weak looking.

 

 

That's it for the treatments for a few days - I'm going to leave it alone and then I have a short work trip so it will be interesting to see when I get back!

 

I'll update again towards the end of next week.

[Kellysnano]

I did a drain and spray treatment - but only went about half way down. Things are looking better so far although a favia didn't make it and a chalice is a little off color but hanging in so far. I am going to leave it for a bit because to get to the bottom of the rock I would have to drain the tank entirely. Lots of algae die off. I also realized that I was getting a lot of sun in my window onto the tank so I changed the blind - I have decreased hours of lighting and have done extra water changes so all in all I hope we are on the road to recovery!

 

 

 

 

[brandon429]

Nice retrievers there! They look rested you must have worked them out good lol

 

tank looks great, the color is striking, all very clear. Had my eye on the gorg frag too glad to see it's open and ok

 

 

rarely does one get and sustain pure algae prevention without the occasional cheat most assured. ideally we fight po4 by doing the manual cleaning required for real export of detritus, and kill anything that shows up anyway.

 

gfo and po4 bandaids are for deep sandbed compensation, a little extra help for sure, but they are equal cheats to peroxide or algaefix marine or kent magnesium boosting and making sure our tanks are detritus free is the backbone.

[Kellysnano]

I was a little worried about the gorg too but it looks really good! Sorry the blues are on now but look at the polyp extention! I haven't had it for too long and almost as soon as I got it began shedding which I wasn't expecting. I definitely will add peroxide to my arsenal of goodies. I feel like at least the bit I have left on the bottom of the rock is manageable. I appreciate your help !

 

 

 

Re the dogs- they are old and lazy! Blue tick coonhound and redbond coonhound.

[brandon429]

The exact song that comes to mind is that one where the inmate uses a tick hound to trick the wardens dog for an escape I'm now googling lyric snippets

edit 6mns later

ol red, b shelton

[GTi]

Arrived back from my trip about an hour ago. I can not see any signs of the Gelidium except some white fuzz in one place on one of the rocks. I'm prepared to do more spot treating if any reappears.

 

I did notice a small patch of bubble algae on the anemone rock. This is also where the Clownfish lay their eggs. I don't think I can remove it so I may have to get a siphon going and gently brush at them, hoping the siphon catches them all.

 

[brandon429]

I couldn't be more thankful for the follow up pics from you both! We are ridding your tanks of easy non nutrient based obligate hitchhikers in the manner simple grazers would have done in the wild.

 

 

we keep our tanks low to free of detritus as good cleaning stewards, we know some algae is coming anyway, and we zap it then post excellence pics

 

 

 

Neither tank had nutrient issues or was eutrophic to indicate some. .. we simply had low level growth and stopped it from taking over by utilizing trace nutrients that will be there in every reef tank.

in its simplicity im not sure a better method currently exists. When one does, expect this thread to cease and 65 pages and five years of something else will take over lol.

 

it is ideal to strive for designs that balance grazers, nutrients and export to have no invasions. Those who pull that off and never need cheat plans should be sporting a 1% er badge on their avatar, its not common, don't fret if one's tank didn't pull that off... mine didn't, but its as algae free as a 1% ers tank so I'm fine w that outcome.

[GTi]

I couldn't be more thankful for the follow up pics from you both! We are ridding your tanks of easy non nutrient based obligate hitchhikers in the manner simple grazers would have done in the wild.

 

 

we keep our tanks low to free of detritus as good cleaning stewards, we know some algae is coming anyway, and we zap it then post excellence pics

 

 

 

Neither tank had nutrient issues or was eutrophic to indicate some. .. we simply had low level growth and stopped it from taking over by utilizing trace nutrients that will be there in every reef tank.

in its simplicity im not sure a better method currently exists. When one does, expect this thread to cease and 65 pages and five years of something else will take over lol.

 

it is ideal to strive for designs that balance grazers, nutrients and export to have no invasions. Those who pull that off and never need cheat plans should be sporting a 1% er badge on their avatar, its not common, don't fret if one's tank didn't pull that off... mine didn't, but its as algae free as a 1% ers tank so I'm fine w that outcome.

 

Thanks for the help - it made a surprisingly simple solution for a fairly widespread problem that would only have become worse!

[brandon429]

Gti would you and Kelly holler back in 3 ish mos end of summer time and update us? The largest row made as other forums watch what we do (I link this many places and its universally rejected as a valid approach) is that this is a total waste of time and your invader will be back too fast to make the treatment valid

 

I've already rid my tank of all green invaders and gelidium but thats a clear bias and only public feedback will carry weight.

 

If too quick regrowth is the case I really want the outcomes known, from anyone posting here, and - I don't recall ever saying in these threads I'm promising a one off run (we still get a lot though heh)

 

Most decent invasions take some dedicated runs to counter as we get them presented after months in place establishing holdfasts, self feeding nutrient micro reserves etc. we are mostly always evaluated on the first outcome and thats really an unfair standard compared to trends we see in reef tanks. The fact we get so many single run cures still speaks to the power of this method...imo

 

 

I'm asking for any bad news, bad status updates from these 60 pages to come back and report (as if the masses need to be prodded into reporting a shortcoming from someone promoting something like this)

 

 

 

If we had some cases of bryopsis not respond to 3% my feelings aren't hurt~thats why I don't waste time with anything under 35 but its so dang dangerous we are safer off saving the rocket fuel for the meanest cases. I'm not sure keeping 35% in a house with small children is even safe unless someone has a pad locked fridge

 

Kelly yours is a variant of green hair algae or minor calcareous/spiral/strand algae species too numerous to Id accurately, but these are second place to cyanobacteria in terms of being found everywhere marine so even a few to three repeats in your areas isn't bad, its expected, and where we differ from nearly all algae references available is that I'm claiming your regrowth w slow much faster than expected.

 

I'm claiming that you may find reasonable but not obsessive tank cleaning, and occasional target zapping of a small scale in the order of every few mos, a completely acceptable reefing method instead of owning a phosphate test kit and constantly chasing params. I'm claiming after a few decent, thorough in air treatments you won't have to fret over cleanliness since the biomass was simply rejected.

 

Can't wait to see these and any updates pan out.

 

 

Here's my own update, I haven't spot treated a single algae target in so many months I can't recall, maybe 8. I'm neglecting my tank more than ever since it runs with no invasions and peroxide was the tool that allowed me to rid my tank of invaders having nothing to do with nutrients which are now worse than ever, but we knew I was going to say that

 

B

[brandon429]

Reefmiser this is your 2015 thank you kindly for making your thread and turning me onto the only known method I can personally guarantee can rid a tank of gelidium. If I would have read your initial post here in 2001, I'd have a 14 yr old pico not a ten yr old one. Lost that first one at 4 to gelidium and in hindsight a 75 cent cure was in the cabinet the whole time.

 

I bet we fix about ten thousand tanks here as long as my thumbs can ipad type so what a legacy you enacted man.

 

B

[Exodus]

So being we are back on the topic, I just broke out with a nasty case of Dino's that I finally decided to fight with Peroxide. I did the 72 Hour blackout and added chemi pure elite and have dosed 1mL (12g w/ 10G Net Water Volume) daily for the last 7 days. I have not done a water change as I quickly realized that fueled the bastards, but my debacle is as follows: The dinos are close to gone but not completely, I add 3% daily but should I be doing a water change soon? I would most certainly think with enough peroxide dosed it will become toxic to the inhabitants, or how safe is doing the water change and continuously dosing the peroxide?

 

Note: All livestock (clown, Garamma, Pep Shrimp) And all Corals look just fine and some even doing better so I have not seen a single negative reaction from the dosing.

[DurocShark]

Is this where we share our H2O2 experiences?

 

I had 2 patches of nasty hair algae. One on a small zoa rock, the other on a larger piece of my live. I dipped both with a 1:2 solution of peroxide to tank water for 5 minutes. The large rock had an orange monti I wasn't able to get loose, it had attached itself pretty tightly.

 

The dip did the trick! I did regret the losses of some pods and bristle worms, but it was worth it. The only bad thing that happened was the monti bleached. It didn't die, it's still growing. It's just much paler.

Before:

 

 

After:

 

(This one was immediately after placing back in the tank.)

 

 

 

[GTi]

Gti would you and Kelly holler back in 3 ish mos end of summer time and update us? The largest row made as other forums watch what we do (I link this many places and its universally rejected as a valid approach) is that this is a total waste of time and your invader will be back too fast to make the treatment valid

 

I've already rid my tank of all green invaders and gelidium but thats a clear bias and only public feedback will carry weight.

 

If too quick regrowth is the case I really want the outcomes known, from anyone posting here, and - I don't recall ever saying in these threads I'm promising a one off run (we still get a lot though heh)

 

Most decent invasions take some dedicated runs to counter as we get them presented after months in place establishing holdfasts, self feeding nutrient micro reserves etc. we are mostly always evaluated on the first outcome and thats really an unfair standard compared to trends we see in reef tanks. The fact we get so many single run cures still speaks to the power of this method...imo

 

 

I'm asking for any bad news, bad status updates from these 60 pages to come back and report (as if the masses need to be prodded into reporting a shortcoming from someone promoting something like this)

 

 

 

If we had some cases of bryopsis not respond to 3% my feelings aren't hurt~thats why I don't waste time with anything under 35 but its so dang dangerous we are safer off saving the rocket fuel for the meanest cases. I'm not sure keeping 35% in a house with small children is even safe unless someone has a pad locked fridge

 

Kelly yours is a variant of green hair algae or minor calcareous/spiral/strand algae species too numerous to Id accurately, but these are second place to cyanobacteria in terms of being found everywhere marine so even a few to three repeats in your areas isn't bad, its expected, and where we differ from nearly all algae references available is that I'm claiming your regrowth w slow much faster than expected.

 

I'm claiming that you may find reasonable but not obsessive tank cleaning, and occasional target zapping of a small scale in the order of every few mos, a completely acceptable reefing method instead of owning a phosphate test kit and constantly chasing params. I'm claiming after a few decent, thorough in air treatments you won't have to fret over cleanliness since the biomass was simply rejected.

 

Can't wait to see these and any updates pan out.

 

 

Here's my own update, I haven't spot treated a single algae target in so many months I can't recall, maybe 8. I'm neglecting my tank more than ever since it runs with no invasions and peroxide was the tool that allowed me to rid my tank of invaders having nothing to do with nutrients which are now worse than ever, but we knew I was going to say that

 

B

Hi Brandon

 

I'll try to remember to post any developments, good or bad, but I'm kind of hit and miss with the forums so if I am AWOL, drop me a PM and I'll make sure to post some info!

 

Thanks.

[brandon429]

W do and thanks to both of you for such great pics and activity tracking!

 

Adding to the mix

A little 4 day run we just took for friends over at thereeftank with tankwide GHA persisting months:

 

http://www.thereeftank.com/forums/f77/defeated-by-gha-please-help-230181-2.html#post2549397

 

fought some unid'd invasive macro, 80% tank coverage here

http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/361542-neomeris-annulata-and-peroxide/

[Kellysnano]

Hi Brandon - I will keep you updated with any changes, currently everything is good. It's nice to be able to watch my tank and just enjoy it instead of spending all my time trying to pull clumps of algae out. My chalice that I thought I had killed in the dip is actually alive. It's starting to get back some color. Assuming that all continues to look Good am going to start adding some more coral over the summer months.

[GTi]

Brief update. I noticed a couple of small patches of Gelidium on my centre rock earlier this week. This morning I removed the rock and treated with 3% peroxide again. I don't know if this came from a snail shell (I'm checking them all out to make sure none is spreading the misery) or just that a small amount was left behind from the previous treatment.

[seabass]

I don't know if this has been discussed before or not, but I just recently learned that the typical 3% bottle of antiseptic hydrogen peroxide contains stabilizers that are not listed in the ingredients (don't be comforted by the listed ingredients, which lists only hydrogen peroxide and filtered water).

 

The stabilizers include things like: acetanilide, phenol, tin, sodium stannate, colloidal stannate, 8-hydroxyquinoline, tetrasodium phosphate, organophosphonates, sodium pyrophosphate, and nitrate.

If you are considering dosing your tank with peroxide, stick to food grade (whether it be 3% or 35%), which doesn't contain stabilizers. 35% solutions can be kept stable in the freezer (it will not freeze, although 3% solutions will freeze). Keeping 3% solutions in the refrigerator should help extend its self life.

 

Caution should be used when handling 35% solutions (eye protection is strongly recommended). Thoroughly rinse any unprotected skin which might come in contact with it (the skin will likely turn white, but should return to normal after a half an hour).

 

I wonder if some of the negative reactions to peroxide are a result of these stabilizers (which are obviously not intended for use around food, or in an aquarium) versus the peroxide itself.

[hwk7072]

H2O2 to Eradicate Dino: Let's see if this works

 

Very helpful thread. So without reading all 60 pages, I'm going to post my situation, ask some questions, and update my progress.

 

Questions are in red.

 

Tank and livestock: 32g Mr. Aqua, est. November 2014, sump. Lightly stocked with no fish, 6 acans, 4 zoas, 3 xenia, 1 hammer, 1 toadstool, 1 candy cane, 2 blastos, 1 torch, 1 gsp, 3 ricordia.

Problem: Dinoflagellates

Probable Reasons: Overfeeding (when I had fish, which I donated before the outbreak) and not enough flow. Low PH. Not enough water changes.

Remedial Actions to Date (when I thought I had cyano): 100% water change in the past 10 days. Took all rocks out and swished them, stirred the sand while siphoning, over and over, two days lights out (x2), Red Slime Remover, bought an MP10. All clean, then came back with a vengeance, worse than ever. They seem to love whatever is in the Red Slime Remover that I used when I thought it was cyano.

 

It seems there is hope with H2O2. Thanks to brandon429 for pm'ing me and urging me not to give up!

 

What I am planning to do, with questions

1. Dose the tank with food grade peroxide.
   1. Should I get 3% or 35%?
   2. What is the ratio I should use?
   3. How often?
   4. Assuming it works, for how long after there is no visible evidence?
2. Dip a few hardy corals to move to my recently cycled 5g. The reason here is that I am in the final stages of acquiring everything I need for an IM Fusion 30L build, and I want to know if I can transfer anything in there without infecting that tank.
   1. Which corals would be best for this experiment (from the list above)
   2. What ratio? I'm seeing 50/50 on other sites (that's with 3%).
3. If it works, never let it get to this again. Set up my mixing station with larger containers, organize and streamline the process so it's not a pita, and feed lightly when I get fish again, same with target feeding coral.

The following images are after taking everything out and putting it back in, so it's not exactly aquascaped.

 

FTS:

 

Coming back - not as bad as it was

 

 

Hospital Tank

[brandon429]

I just love challenges and i love before pics and that much detail even more. however one inserts that little dancing man icon id do that, were i keen to know how.

 

Who ID'd this as invasive dinoflagellates, i dont think it is, and thats good for you imo

 

the poster Pants is the right id reference we could easily seek him out for pic reference