Peroxide saves my Tank! With pics to Prove It!

[brandon429]

its much much safer as a systemic in freshwater tanks. try some youtube searching on it, the dosage isn't even that specific for some reason the fw animals are hardier towards it. for a betta tank literally I would put in a quarter teaspoon and wait a few days after the initial bubbling to see if its enough to kill the algae. Wont hurt the fish at all.

 

I use it in my planted terrarium which is half water half land, its about 10 years old now and completely uncared for. The dosing is so forgiving on freshwater tanks I just dump a random small amount of peroxide in the tank, about two gallons of water total in the submerged part, once or twice a month and it keeps the hair algae out of my plants. I have your standard complement of fw plants established-elodea, crypts, java ferns and moss, swordplants, anubias etc etc and not one mind even huge doses of peroxide but to be safe just add a little and work up.

 

or drain and do a spot treat, that w get it fast. do pics on here if you can fw is no problem, this thread Reefmiser made is all about the h202

[reeftankguy]

I now have an RO/DI unit so hopefully that will stop any algae from growing.

 

Ummmm.... No.... No it won't

 

:facepalm:

[brandon429]

reeftank he's meaning the elimination of total dissolved solids/nutrients for algae etc from topoff water, like compared to tapwater its commonly referenced as a starting point for algae control

[metrokat]

Don't laugh

My cat loves Schmoopy the Betta (Schmoopy was a present for the cat)

[brandon429]

heres some green hair algae that popped up behind some coralline. hadnt looked at the spot in months but I saw its green tint during a water change. put down a coat hanger wire, scraped a viewing window clean of coralline and look what we have here.

 

How long should we give it, till Sunday...one drop applied right now to the algae during a drain and fill run.

Edited December 17, 2011 by brandon429

[Reef Miser]

I think it will be gone faster than that. It looks tiny. I tank the "under"

[dmarkham]

I have been using this for years in my large tank.

[brandon429]

thats good do you have any before or after pics? were you dosing the whole tank or dipping the rocks

I have been unable to find any other threads about using it in nano reefs other than this one but was able to find some threads on large tank use ranging back to 2007

[dmarkham]

thats good do you have any before or after pics? were you dosing the whole tank or dipping the rocks

I have been unable to find any other threads about using it in nano reefs other than this one but was able to find some threads on large tank use ranging back to 2007

 

Unfortunately I have only have done this on 110 gallon tank with a 55 gallon sump. It would be on the same lines just smaller. I doses in the water directly.

[brandon429]

Ok heres my pic submission 25 pages later in order. Treatment time from thursday to sometime friday nite when the algae fell off or was picked off by my coral banded (I saw it this morning at 8 am and took pics of the clean spot)

 

again we see the activity of detritivores and herbivores increased exponentially on the algae after treatment, something about peroxide burning makes it more appealing to the organisms. Perhaps the release of cellular fluids/breakdown is sensed and a feeding mechanism is elicited in the invertebrates charged with keeping a tank free of algae. I think my cbs picked it off clean, although they don't eat algae they do pick the communities that live on algae patches and as such he was a proxy algae eater for the nite.

 

Left alone this patch is the beginning of any standard "algae problem" thread if it was allowed to creep all over the rocks. see how fast I acted? spot was the size of a pencil eraser. no other spots in the tank. I am doing nothing to my water quality, changing nothing about what grew the algae, because its not necessary. merely removing the initial biomass is enough as long as that treatment thoroughly removes it and water changes keep the corals happy, peroxide is very thorough

 

shot 1 is the reefbowl and the delivery tube, a pipette with some airline tubing on the end so I can work it down into the bowl. the bowl is drained and then the treatment is applied to the spot. sits 3 mins, tank filled up. a couple drops peroxide lands on my favites brain, blastomussa and an acan directly on the polyp and it too sits for 3 mins, again no problem. I don't know if my corals are becoming more conditioned to peroxide presence and are building up metabolic complements to deal with this or what, but nothing in my tank minds even when direct peroxide 3% is accidentally dripped on it.

 

Great call Reefmiser it was a short time

Im not proud of the fact my entire lighting system is held together with zip ties and you all can see that prominently. Im proud of what my mouthwash does for my reef.

Edited December 17, 2011 by brandon429

[brandon429]

10 hours later the algae had brown tips and was reduced in mass 50% from the original tuft. I was not expecting it to be gone that fast...it was completely free off the rocks in another ~10 hours, overnite.

[brandon429]

and sometime overnite the spot was wiped clean. as if it was never there.

Edited December 17, 2011 by brandon429

[metrokat]

Brandon, I posted pics of the betta tank on the previous page. I added one capful of peroxide that day.

[brandon429]

metro do you have the update ones I would really expect that low lying algae to bleach out and die pretty fast

[metrokat]

Okay, before and after photos, 3 days gap in the middle. I don't see any difference yet.

[brandon429]

oic that at least shows we are in a safe margin better too little than too much

 

a capful in that size tank I thought sounded like plenty. Id do a partial water change and repeat with no increase in dosage, being slow with it is safe.

[BLoCkCliMbeR]

oic that at least shows we are in a safe margin better too little than too much

 

a capful in that size tank I thought sounded like plenty. Id do a partial water change and repeat with no increase in dosage, being slow with it is safe.

i did a 1/4 cup dose on my 5.5. betta is no worse for the wear. i came home to an outbreak of HA

 

im sure its the one 18watt HOT5 i got over the tank. probably take a step down and start running a 27watt PC.

[metrokat]

it could also be the food. I switched to pellet food many months ago, Schmoopy lost his color and became and old brownish looking dude. I switched to frozen blood worms last week and already his blue is back.

[Reef Miser]

How long should we give it, till Sunday...one drop applied right now to the algae during a drain and fill run.

 

 

I think it will be gone faster than that. It looks tiny. I tank the "under"

 

What do I win Brandon?

[aklee987]

I've got some green hair algae growing on my sand. Anyone have recommendations on how to use peroxide in this case?

[OceanFlyer]

I used a small fish net and gently ran it along the sand just deep enough to get it. Then followed up with the siphon I use for water changes and and ran it along the same area to suck up the "snow".

Edited December 19, 2011 by OceanFlyer

[brandon429]

ReefM you win peroxide prognoticator of the year award! you called it about 30 hours faster than I would have guessed and Im so happy my reef is the winner

 

 

That growth above I posted is the exact kind of outbreak that used to make me do all kinds of funny things to the bowl if I couldn't get a flame down to it (which I can't on the side)

 

-I would put up multiple strips of black duct tape on the side and block out the right half of the bowl for like 3 months, that usually didn't even kill it off all the way and it would stress blasto corals.

 

-would take my red and green dj lasers and point them at the spot for so long I wondered if it was weakening the glass, who knows. it would actually bleach the tips a little but again not very thorough. There is a popular thread at RC on laser use but those are the kind that can make you blind with one mis step or refraction off your window while using, they require lab grade procedural care, Im just talking regular dj lasers you can put on a fixed setting. waste of time at that freq and wattage.

 

-would angle down some paste made from kalk and set on it, hoping to heck not to spill it on my other corals which always happened, and was not a pH booster welcomed...

 

now with one drop an algal disaster is averted, again, its my every 3 mos procedure taking all of five seconds.

 

 

Block and metrokat thats a nice variability of dosing to note for freshwater use, that algae growth didn't look unnatural from what my tanks do pretty much anything you are feeding is fine but good call it could be from a switch. I notice algae boosting when I switch name brands of flake feed for my planted globe as well.

 

Yesterday again in my two gallon tank I dumped some in by squirting it from the bottle, a good two second stream and today the algae is melted white its such a fun cheat. that was prob half ounce liquid into 2.0 gallons fw planted tank for comparison

Edited December 19, 2011 by brandon429

[brandon429]

but its always recommended to do far less and not try to hurry it. my planted sphere takes literal abuse well so this was a walk in the park.

its a bog terrarium and using peroxide in it shows that a huge huge range of terrestrial and aquatic plants tolerate even large doses well. the submerged part is prob about 2 gallons of water depending on my last topoff of the tank and the emersed part has prob 10 species of plants ranging from ferns to mosses, all have peroxide direct contact at some point as Im aiming it into the bowl to hit the right side water level where pond scum develops.

 

I use japonicum shrimp in the aquatic part, they are unaffected by peroxide use unlike lysmatas who are just looking for a reason to keel over from it

Edited December 19, 2011 by brandon429

[PinkDamsel]

Does anyone know if peroxide changes the water's pH?

 

Also, has anyone had GSP act funny after peroxide treatment?

 

My GSP went "stiff" for awhile: tentacles not all the way out and held rigid instead of flowing. Then after a month of being stiff it was normal again. There's a thread in the coral forum. Someone suggested that GSP might be reacting to changes in pH and I'm trying to eliminate possible factors.

[brandon429]

its mildly acidic Id be impressed if spot treatments lowered any notable pH measures

 

we are still finding susceptible animals (lysmata, macros) I would love to know if GSP is one, awaiting more responses thanks for your detail PD