Peroxide saves my Tank! With pics to Prove It!

[sammiewags]

Well, I wouldn't recommend whole tank dosing. The only fatalities that have been recorded in this thread used dosing. Dips and target spraying seem to be just as effective, but safer because your corals aren't in contact with the peroxide for more than a couple of minutes.

 

Having polyps on your rocks shouldn't be a reason for not dipping. I have dipped zoas, palys, acan lord, sponges, snails, a couple types of mushrooms without losing any of them.

 

I have found that spraying the rock with a little spray bottle of 3% peroxide is easier to target your trouble spots and it uses a bit less H2O2.

 

my polyps have grown over all my rocks and I would have to cut them apart to pick the rocks up? How would I do that without damaging them? I mean literally take over my rocks lol

[brandon429]

you do the treatment in the morning when the polyps are withdrawn, and air exposure is harmless. I think ive left my frogspawn sticking up in the air for up to ten minutes before w no harm, it acts mad for a day then is just fine. Can we see pics of all these tanks before making a strategy tho, not being able to lift out the rocks is tricky but we can still work

[Reef Miser]

I have no experience with elegance. Frogspawn however (and other corals I have) have all retracted into their skeletons when out of water. Think of it as low tide. They only need to be out of the water for 2-3 minutes to perform a peroxide application. They stay wet and warm for that amount of time.

 

Brandon429 frequently drains his whole tank to hit trouble spots with H2O2.

 

If it eases your mind. I bought my frogspawn locally from a fellow reefer. We met in a parking lot and when the guy got out of the car to give me the frogspawn, the bucket that the coral was in had tipped over on the way to meet me. I quick paid for the coral, drove home and plopped it in my tank (obviously without acclimation). After a couple of hours, polyps were starting to extend, by the next day it was fine. My guess is that it was out of the water for at least 15 minutes.

Edited June 29, 2011 by Reef Miser

[Reef Miser]

my polyps have grown over all my rocks and I would have to cut them apart to pick the rocks up? How would I do that without damaging them? I mean literally take over my rocks lol

 

That's a tough one. I guess you have to decide what is more important to you. Dead algae or polyps that are perfectly intact. My guess is that your polyps will heal quickly if you want to give H2O2 a try.

[sammiewags]

I'll take some pictures of my tank and post them tonight and see if what you guys think... thank you for your help and repsonse so far

[clowe18]

would this method work to treat unwanted macro in a DT? im sorry if this question has been asked.. but its alot to read

[brandon429]

absolutely it will

 

 

any unicellular organism thats plant based...macros are single cells even though they are huge cells lol

[beyondcomp251]

Hmm, nerds unite, lets figure out a gel/paste peroxide product...cant be that hard, essentially the same gel material used to make coraffix liquid into the gel, may work for the peroxide?

[brandon429]

sure thats a great idea, to keep it from running. my idea was that one could make little 1x1 square towelettes to lay on the target organism, and you sell em for $1 per treatment lol but really it works, I did it with paper towel cuts. soaked in peroxide, layed down across some red tuft algae, it killed it without splashing all over my rocks. nice localizer, gel is a good angle too

[Linilou]

sure thats a great idea, to keep it from running. my idea was that one could make little 1x1 square towelettes to lay on the target organism, and you sell em for $1 per treatment lol but really it works, I did it with paper towel cuts. soaked in peroxide, layed down across some red tuft algae, it killed it without splashing all over my rocks. nice localizer, gel is a good angle too

did you do this in or out of the water?

[brandon429]

always out of the water. it just lays across the patch of algae. you can position it to curve around coral bases and such, it will just hold the peroxide on and burn the tips of the algae. It usually transmits to the rest of the colony and it dies in 3 to 4 days.

 

If any of the spots you can get to during a tank drain can be droppered with straight peroxide, thats better and it only takes a couple drops direct

[IrieReefer]

Hi Guys,

 

Well I have read through the entire thread and also some of the linked threads included. I want to give this a try for sure.

 

My question is that if I have to take the rocks off the sand bed will it cause any kind of problems other than a bunch of debri? I have no problem taking out the rocks above but the ones on the sand I was kinda skeptical about. I would drain and spray but I cant take the water level down low enough for me to spray all the rocks.

 

If it is no big deal to unburry the bottom rocks and cause a little stir up then I just prefer to dip them rinse them off and put them back. Thanks for your input!! I have tons of different types of macroalgea growing and also a little bit of GHA that i want to clean up. The macroalgea is cool but I was hoping to control it a little better. All started growing on its own.

[brandon429]

we need pics!

nice to meet you, glad to have you on board

 

the detritus needs to be remedied, its a cause likely of some of the problem

 

if you don't want to kick it up or do a thorough tank cleaning, the best long term option, this may be a candidate for systemic treatment but we need pics first

 

I expect the macro to be wiped out, not just controlled, is that ok?

[IrieReefer]

we need pics!

nice to meet you, glad to have you on board

 

the detritus needs to be remedied, its a cause likely of some of the problem

 

if you don't want to kick it up or do a thorough tank cleaning, the best long term option, this may be a candidate for systemic treatment but we need pics first

 

I expect the macro to be wiped out, not just controlled, is that ok?

 

Thanks Brandon429.......you can click on my sig for some tank pics, just go to the last page. The rocks were from sealife and were full of all different types of growth. Including a rather large worm (you will see). I don't mind getting rid of the macro's cause at the end of the day I can always add when and where I want.

 

I was loving all the growth until I was trying to place a coral and couldn't find a spot. lol. So you think I would kick up too much detritus if I moved the rocks off the bottom? I do weekly water changes and always try to suck out any bottom debri I can. Thanks again!

 

Current FTS

DSCN2244 by DProffitt, on Flickr

 

I recently moved the rock on the top right.......there was a pretty big colony of some kind of macro up there, you might be able to see in my tank thread if you want to look.

Edited July 7, 2011 by IrieReefer

[IrieReefer]

The Halimeda algae I have I like.........I have a big version that you can see in the front and the top right colony I mentioned before was a bunch of cool looking tiny halimeda. I guess I can part with that too. I imagine one will pop up again sometime.

[brandon429]

NICE tank!~!~

 

am working up a prescription lol w be right back, at work

 

NICE tank no systemic dosing its really cool

[IrieReefer]

Thanks Brandon! Yea i didn't want to make it seem like it was out of control but I am kinda like you when it comes to a clean tank. I want the coral to be the highlight and I will let some macros fill in the gaps. As I type spot treating sounds better and better...lol. Ok Ill wait for your RX

[brandon429]

one recommendation w be to get ready by having a siphon hose ready and some change water...turn all pumps off...get a helper if possible (!) as you remove the rock for dunking outside the tank, have that siphon already started and a dry thumb on the other end to stop it. As the rock slowly lifts up, helper sucks detritus lol with just a gallon or two you'll catch it all, it won't be kicked up

 

that will negate any being thrown up into suspension

but this detritus is partially fueling your current algae (which isn't too bad)

 

your bed looks really clean compared to others Ive seen it may not be that bad, what you are describing. could be a normal amnt of detritus, but suck it out if u can

Edited July 7, 2011 by brandon429

[IrieReefer]

one recommendation w be to get ready by having a siphon hose ready and some change water...turn all pumps off...get a helper if possible (!) as you remove the rock for dunking outside the tank, have that siphon already started and a dry thumb on the other end to stop it. As the rock slowly lifts up, helper sucks detritus lol with just a gallon or two you'll catch it all, it won't be kicked up

 

that will negate any being thrown up into suspension

but this detritus is partially fueling your current algae (which isn't too bad)

 

your bed looks really clean compared to others Ive seen it may not be that bad, what you are describing. could be a normal amnt of detritus, but suck it out if u can

 

Thanks man! I will post before and after pics when I am ready to dip. It should be interesting. I'm looking forward to it!

 

One more thought I had and I didn't read anybody talking about this is................the zooxanthellae that has a relationship with the coral. How do you think it is affecting this. I would assume you are killing this too if you get too close to corals.....even if they seem unharmed. Just a thought.

[Reef Miser]

The zoanthella are in the tissue of the coral and I don't believe are effected by the treatment. If you do spray a coral out of water, it will fizz like a cut on you would. It is the coral's slime coating getting hit with the peroxide. It is my guess that the coral slimes while under stress and keeps the peroxide out of direct contact with the tissue of the coral itself.

[brandon429]

I also read that peroxide in small amounts is common to many living/breathing organisms, its formed in many tissues of animals that respire oxygen/carbon dioxide as a by product of cellular metabolism- so corals develop countermeasures to offset that.

 

who knows what degree of natural resistance they have to small amounts of peroxide as additional help

 

 

 

spot treatments simply don't touch a lot of coral tissue plus only a drop or two goes a long way, easy to control its spread, I do it in that packed vase in my avatar.

 

good call on the slime barrier, they use that to locate bacterial populations and reject sand and all kinds of things, why not chemical insults too...when you mention slime and coral tissue it makes me wonder what other barriers there may be.

 

 

 

I spent a lot of time in the last couple months googling enzyme systems like:

 

catalase (primarily)

 

super oxide dismutase

 

peroxidase (very common in human cellular systems, we produce peroxide in our cells)

 

 

the benefit it reading up on those systems was to highlight what kind of bacteria are directly and indirectly affected by peroxide use (why it doesn't kill filter bacteria) why some bacteria boil in its presence while others do not (bacteria on your skin, peroxide acts like water in the palm of your hand, no boiling till you get a cut)

and why peroxide targets unicellular photosynthetic organisms (all the macroalgaes and pest algaes we have) like white on a zoot suit. The stuff is interesting, I have yet to find a negative outcome in my own trials with it.

Edited July 8, 2011 by brandon429

[newone2009]

Several months back I found out why you have to replace lights before they burn out... algae started

growning all over the tank. I replaced the bulbs but couldn't get rid of the hair algae on LR with GSP. Tried Algae fix - no luck. Tried suction with small tube and manual removal with forceps - no luck, it just came back and I ended up damaging some of the GSP.

 

After reading about successes with hydrogen peroxide, I decided to dip the LR w GSP during a water change.

 

I used 4 cups of water from the water change, added 3 capfuls of 3% hydrogen peroxide - soaked the LR in the treated water for 10 minutes - rinsed it in salt water and put it back in the tank. I thought I was either gonna kill it or cure it!

 

So far (two days), it's doing great. The only green I see on the rock is GSP - it's opening again and looks better than it has in months. Yeah!

 

Pics didn't show much - crappy camera. This is a before picture. Most of the GSP is damaged. The hair algae can be seen on the upper part of the LR.

****************

newone2009

BioCube 14 gal

lighting - stock - 24 actinic 03 blue

24W 10K daylight

lunar lights

filtration stock - floss and carbon insert in chamber 3

stock - bioballs in chamber 2

added carbon pad in chamber 3

added phospure, 1 teas in bag in chamber 3

 

pump stock - 137 gph - chamber 1

added tank - Pico Evo-Mag Circulation Pump 180

 

added heater - Marineland Stealth Pro Submersible Heater 50-watt - chamber 1

 

Using Coral plus and 2 part B-Ionic - every other week.

Edited July 12, 2011 by newone2009

[brandon429]

Im happy for you man! In the past I took down tanks due to algae invasions...red brush algae or green hair algae, wish I'd have known this trick, its too good to be true. The best part is there is zero bad side effects to the dip you used, the algae will simply die, it won't come back with a vengeance like so many people guessed, its just a perfect method of algae killing glad you contributed to the proof that RM started in this thread.

[Reef Miser]

Glad that you gave it a try and that it worked for you too. It is so good to have this tool to kill the algae in those pesky spots that you can't get to with other methods. It is almost too easy.

[newone2009]

All is well with the GSP - no algae is growing. I have another LR with some type of red/brown algae that grows in a mat. It actually began to climb the wall where the rock was located. I don't know what it is. Anyone have any experience with this type. Thinking I'm going to dip the rock. It has a few green mushrooms that have been struggling for a while. Here's a before picture.