Peroxide saves my Tank! With pics to Prove It!

[javisaman]

Been starting my full tank regiment myself. Currently there is no way I can remove any of the major liverock pieces. So I'm taking it slowly like the R2R thread. 1mL per 10 gal.

[brandon429]

I think thats fine its a conservative approach. that dosage was used by many as a systemic run in many threads online.

 

spot treatments can be used in the future when the reef is clean and some tries to pop up.

 

 

A neat thing about peroxide use is that it no longer matters what species your algae tank pest is, peroxide as a spot treatment when possible is an equal remover.

 

Watching the dynamics of a total algae free tank is showing that algae tufts and growths themselves are somewhat self-perpetuating in that they house floc and detritus that break down organic material, to lend fertilizer to the algae itself, the algae is a catch mit of refuse in its own benefit. something has to explain the fact my algae is not growing back faster, its not growing back at all. removing the biomass as the first option in algae battles, regardless of tank water params, is the ideal initial step I didn't even have to adjust my water params in some complicated manner like everyone not using peroxide said would happen.

[Reef Miser]

Been starting my full tank regiment myself. Currently there is no way I can remove any of the major liverock pieces. So I'm taking it slowly like the R2R thread. 1mL per 10 gal.

 

Be careful!! You could have some die off of the microfauna that could put a lot of nutrients into your water very quickly. I would watch livestock closely and keep up on waterchanges if you are treating the whole system.

 

Watching the dynamics of a total algae free tank is showing that algae tufts and growths themselves are somewhat self-perpetuating in that they house floc and detritus that break down organic material, to lend fertilizer to the algae itself, the algae is a catch mit of refuse in its own benefit. something has to explain the fact my algae is not growing back faster, its not growing back at all. removing the biomass as the first option in algae battles, regardless of tank water params,

 

I'm glad you posted this observation. I have seen the same thing. I would turkey baster my rock before a water change, and it was always amazing how much crap was stuck in the algae tufts compared to the bare live rock. It seemed to collect in a very short time too. I could have bastered the rock every day (and sometimes I did before the HP treatments) and stuff would always be in it.....fertilizing it and perpetuating the problem.

[IrieReefer]

well you asked for it and its here!!!!! (pardin me if someone has posted this) I have seen sprays and we on board have asked for sheets or squares to lay over the infected area.

 

this is what I found at CVS today...........a little pricy but perfect!

 

photo by DProffitt, on Flickr

 

I still have not treated but plan to soon...

[brandon429]

yep thats it.

 

as long as it you dont directly apply it to corals and only to the bad algae it will be very specific used as a killer. rinse well before re installing and its bulletproof

 

not for tanks that use macro, however. it is likely to kill an entire stand of chaeto in one pass.

[Reef Miser]

I'm excited to see these wipes in action. I imagine you can put them right where you need them and keep the peroxide off of the corals. I wonder how well they will hug uneven nooks and crannies in your live rock. Keep us posted.

[sanchez]

Evil, did you ever find a binder for your paste?

 

You could crush up some unflavored antacid tabs (CaCO2, calcium carbonate) or even some vitamin-c tablets.

 

The CaCO2 would act as a buffer, might mess with PH a bit, but that can be easily monitored.

 

You could also use Sodium Percarbonate (Na2CO3 · 1.5H2O2), which is kinda neat, when mixed with H2O, it releases H202 and Soda ash or Na2CO3.

 

Basically, the H202 would release and kill the algae, and the Na2SO3 (sodium carbonate) is the same thing that's in the PH buffers that we all add to our tank, so that wouldn't hurt anything at all. Might be a good thing for spot treatments as it wouldn't affect any surrounding stuff as everything would be either broken down or utilized.

 

The Na2CO3 · 1.5H2O2 dissolves slowly releasing the H2O2, so you could simply mix that with RO/DI and have a lethal algae destroying paste that can be evenly spread around as needed.

 

This thread was a great read and I totally plan on using H2O2 as soon as I get home on some patches of GHA that came with my tank when I got it off craigslist.

 

Thanks to everyone for brainstorming about this for so long and so intensely.

Edited July 25, 2011 by sanchez

[brandon429]

more proof:

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?...p;#entry3471149

[PinkDamsel]

The most amazing thing just happened. Earlier I soaked some small frags & rocklets in a 50/50 solution of tank water/peroxide to get rid of algae. One was just a few bits of sandbed pieces (crushed coral?) to which a couple of zoas had attached.

 

A couple of hours later my pompom crab had carried the sandbits across the tank and looked like she was eating them! I was worried she was devouring the zoas, but under the magnifying glass she was "mouthing" the sand/cc pieces, holding the whole thing and bringing it up to her mouth parts. She left the zoas alone.

 

Here she is, let's see if I remember how to insert a thumbnail.

 

It's almost as if peroxide makes stuff taste good -- that thought would not have occurred but someone else mentioned animals ignoring algae but eating it after seasoning w. peroxide!

[brandon429]

people have consistently reported that the snails and hermit crabs attach onto the green hair algae they had been skipping after it started dying off. even the red algaes, the snails were attracted to them.

I don't think the tie would have been that strong for me between the change in chemical appeal had you not posted the same behavior from the l. tesselata thats really keen.

B

 

I agree, there is some chemical structure change and the animals can sense that. One thing in common among these animals is they are consumers of dead matter, they can sense the algae is dying somehow.

Edited August 12, 2011 by brandon429

[PinkDamsel]

Idle Speculations:

 

Maybe the algae is too tough for these animals, but the peroxide causes it to start disintegrating, and it’s now tender enough to be accessible to them. Peroxide as Tenderizer lol!

 

Or could it be oxygen is continuing to be released, and the animals want that? How does the O in our tanks compare to the ocean?

[Neya]

Idle Speculations:

 

Maybe the algae is too tough for these animals, but the peroxide causes it to start disintegrating, and it’s now tender enough to be accessible to them. Peroxide as Tenderizer lol!

 

Or could it be oxygen is continuing to be released, and the animals want that? How does the O in our tanks compare to the ocean?

 

Everytime I use peroxide on bryopsis it gets covered in snails/hermits/bristleworms by nightfall. Otherwise they do not touch the stuff.

[brandon429]

fascinating. I don't know how that works, all these ideas a great and viable~

[PinkDamsel]

Someone should test the Tenderizer theory. Take out a rock w. some algae being ignored by the CUC, instead of peroxide therapy, pound the algae with a tiny mallet until "tenderized", then put it back and see if anyone eats it!

 

[brandon429]

if thats what it takes to make a clean up crew actually work Ive got some hammers lying around lol

[sammy113]

I've been using peroxide for a few days to treat the algae. I have done most methods. Tried a very diluted solution on acans cause I was worried about the corals. Used very little peroxide to water ratio but worked well. I'm pretty sure it can use a lot more peroxide than I did. Acans didn't showed any negative reaction to it.

 

Also spot treated the top of my rocks with the tank half drained. Let it burn for a minute and repeat the process for 3 times in a period of about 5 minutes. In less than 48 hours there was no algae.

 

Now I'm dosing the entire tank cause I still have some in between a massive colony of zoas and I don't want to loose them. I read somewhere you can dose at least 1ml per gallon so I'm on that right now. This is my 5th day dosing it and also did a 3 day lights out to help. So far looking good. It's taking more time than direct dosing of course or even dipping. Don't know if I'm going to continue this to 8~9 days like the thread says...

 

So, is it safe to spray or apply 2:1 or 1:1 directly to zoas without harming them?

[brandon429]

that is a very coodinated approach, well thought out~

 

Ive applied direct h202 to zoas w no problem, left it on for 3 mins then rinsed

[imchee]

I've noticed that after several weeks since I've gotten rid of the bryopsis off one rock, other than tiny spots (that have remained small) here and there I have not seen any noticeable grow back. I haven't changed my tank in any way so I kinda expected the bryopsis on other rocks to continue growing but they've also diminished to nothing.

 

My method was removing a good sized rock and basically doused it with straight HP and rinsed it a little bit before returning to the tank. Perhaps some significant amount of HP was released back into the tank that killed off the rest??

Edited August 19, 2011 by imchee

[sanchez]

Another success story:

 

I had a frag of some Zoas that were infested with GHA. Got it from the LFS with a tiny patch on it, tried to remove it and a couple months later the whole plug was a green bush.

 

I did a 50/50 dip for 2 minutes and 3 days later the GHA is almost completely gone!

 

Cheers to whoever figured this out, it works wonders.

[brandon429]

Ive researched online where it started, I can see it for marine use back into early 2000's

I heard about it in about 2007 but never tried it.

this thread is ReefMiser's and he convinced me to use it per this thread...then I studied the crap out of and use it exclusively

 

all props to rm lol

 

the outcome of peroxide use is not well studied, this thread is changing that. Look how many positive reports...the number one claim non users of peroxide make is that without changing tank params the algae will just come back. its not true, like so many things in pico reefing worked out in actuality vs theory

 

we don't know why it works so awesome as written, I think what you said about small amounts getting back in the tank is a likely scenario. either way, its the smartest reef technique Ive ever used in my whole career, and thats a lot of picos. Best ever.

B

[jestep]

Let me just give an update to my peroxide experiences. Dips work the best for frags. 50/50 for 2 - 5 minutes. Kills GHA, cyano, and Bryopsis for certain. I got a foxface so my Caulerpa was gone in a matter of hours and can't comment on peroxide and Caulerpa .

 

Corals that have survived peroxide dip.

Palys

Zoas

Acans

Blastos

Caulastrea

 

I haven't dipped any SPS. Apart from minor stress that lasted from a few hours to a few days, I have had zero coral loses from peroxide dipping. Once recovered, corals have all regained more color and health than prior to dipping. Have had absolutely no relapse of Bryopsis on any dipped frag.

 

As for treating live rock, it's a little more tricky. Since Bryopsis and GHA are likely to be well rooted, it's tougher to get at them without full dipping. While this would work, and wouldn't necessarily be prohibitively expensive, I'm not sure I would like the collateral damage it would cause. I counted over 50 pods from a single zoa frag, so you could assume some major die off and loss of beneficial live from fully dipping large pieces of live rock. It just may take multiple applications to completely eradicate algae on live rock if it is well rooted.

 

Also, anyone reading this shouldn't ignore the underlying cause of the algae. If your nutrients NO3, and PO4 are high, you first need to address the problem, or this will just be a temporary fix.

[Neya]

For those like me with bryopsis roots deeply imbedded where full strength h202 directly applied(outside of the tank) does not work long term I'd suggest directly applying Kent tech M instead outside of the tank. It worked wonders because it was thicker/ran into crevices better than h202.

 

concerning h202 vs caulerpa - I had a rock I ripped off as much pieces of it as I could, I then used h202 directly to the rock and let it sit outside the tank. The caulerpa did not grow back on that piece (whereas previous manual removal only it would grow back) so it can work on the roots, it just takes a high stregnth and removal of as much plant of the possible.

Edited August 23, 2011 by Neya

[Reef Miser]

all props to rm lol

 

Thanks man. I only tried it out of sheer desperation and as an experiment. All other options had been tried and none had worked. I just wanted to help somebody else by sharing my success/experience this as another method for algae removal.

 

I have found that persistence pays. Multiple applications definitely keep it at bay. I think the H2O2 has a hard time getting to the "roots", because the algae grows as such a thick bush. Once you mow down the majority of the algae, subsequent dips will allow the peroxide to get in closer to the rock and kill it for good. As others have noted in the thread, it seems that once the algae starts dying, cleanup crews are more likely to get rid of it/ keep it at bay.

[MitchReef]

How often are you guys doing the dips? I did a first dip on a couple of pi$$ed off zoa colonies the other day and they are still a bit shy, but I want to follow up appropriately.

 

Thanks,

Mitch

[jestep]

I haven't need to re-dip anything, but I would probably wait 7 - 10 days before dipping the same frag again. Maybe more just to be sure they're recovering OK. Even a short dip should substantially weaken any algae on the frag so if there is anything viable left it will take some time to make any recovery.