Peroxide saves my Tank! With pics to Prove It!

[hannahs]

So I've got some sort of macroalgae taking over my tank. I think it may be a type of caulerpa but not sure. Today I tried putting a couple rocks in a 50/50 mix of 3% peroxide and tank water. I left the rocks in there around 5-10 minutes. It bubbled a lot while it was sitting in the mixture. It made the corraline algae turn pink, but I'm not sure if it helped with the algae or not. The algae looks pretty much the same to me.

When should I see some sort of change? Here's a pic right after the treatment:

 

[Enigma]

It may take a while to change. I would certainly expect to see a difference within a day or two.

[Enigma]

*sigh*

 

The bryopsis is popping up again after reducing the H202 dosage to 1ml per 10 gallons. GHA has picked up again, too.

[brandon429]

Stuff is pretty aggressive for sure. If you could underwater spot inject with pumps off it might help vs whole tank dosing

[x3thelast]

Stuff is pretty aggressive for sure. If you could underwater spot inject with pumps off it might help vs whole tank dosing

 

try that. i do it as SOON as i spot a tiny patch of algae. i use a pin point blaster to squirt some H2O2 to the sucker and watch it bubble up then wither away

 

also when you DO spot treat dont spot treat the WHOLE tank all at once, do small amounts every day or other day. watch your corals for signs that you might be adding too much at one time.

[hannahs]

So I've got some sort of macroalgae taking over my tank. I think it may be a type of caulerpa but not sure. Today I tried putting a couple rocks in a 50/50 mix of 3% peroxide and tank water. I left the rocks in there around 5-10 minutes. It bubbled a lot while it was sitting in the mixture. It made the corraline algae turn pink, but I'm not sure if it helped with the algae or not. The algae looks pretty much the same to me.

When should I see some sort of change? Here's a pic right after the treatment:

 

 

 

So the algae has turned white now, along with the corraline. I guess I have to manually remove it all though as it's still attached to the rock. I was hoping it would detach itself after dying. What is the easiest way to remove it? It seems pretty brittle now and just breaks apart so I was thinking about putting the treated rocks in a bucket and scrubbing them with a toothbrush.

 

Also, I dipped a rock that had about 5 heads of candy cane coral on it. The algae on this rock was growing all around the candy canes. The candy canes are not doing well at all. The outer tissue is all pretty much melted away, but somehow it's still alive and the feeder tentacles still come out, so I think in time it will recover. But I would not recommend dipping candy cane corals. They were damaged pretty bad.

 

Another rock had a big 4 inch mushroom on it and it is perfectly fine.

 

I have 2 other rocks I'd like to do but just haven't worked up the nerve yet. One of the rocks has about 10 ricordea yumas so I definitely don't want them damaged. The other rock has my zoa garden with like 5 different pretty good sized zoa colonies.

 

Here is an updated pic:

 

Edited July 18, 2012 by hannahs

[Enigma]

I think someone else reported that candycanes didn't take the treatment well. I think that was a systemic treatment.

 

There is so much information in this thread. It is hard to remember the details.

 

Stuff is pretty aggressive for sure. If you could underwater spot inject with pumps off it might help vs whole tank dosing

 

 

I will do that. Really, I will. I just have to decide where to start. I added 12 more Astrea today hopefully they'll help make things a little easier. They don't touch the bryopsis, but they do eat the GHA, so maybe if they eat enough of it I'll actually be able to identify all of the areas that have bryopsis.

 

I'm hoping to add my fish in a week, but I do want to hold off until I've got this dealt with.

Edited July 18, 2012 by Enigma

[brandon429]

Good deal enigma. Hanna also buried in the thread involving stony coral dips was keeping the peroxide off the polyp, only dipping the skeleton. Or using paintbrush/q tip to spot apply around the tissue areas

 

It will grow back though in time caulastrea will grow back slowly! Thanks for macro algae pics its on its way out

[Enigma]

An updated list of what is tolerating what.

 

 

Dosing schedule and observations:

 

[Enigma]

I'm still dosing 7.5ml a day. The treatments have not yet erradicted the algaes. I dosed 7.5ml twice today, as I was growing suspicious of one CUC members tolerance. I normally dose just before the lights come on, and I hadn't been able to see its reaction clearly.

 

My blue Tuxedo Urchin is definately sensitive to h202. As soon as the h202 entered the tank it started to drop its collection of "ornaments." It then rapidly moved down to the sandbed and stayed there for a 1/2 hour or so. Within an hour it was moving around the tank again, and eating algae. It hasn't picked up anything else, but it is cruising around on the rocks where there isn't anything for it to pick up.

 

I'm psyching myself up to pull and dip the rocks. They're big and heavy: three rocks (one of which is three glued together) weighing around 30 lbs. Also, the braces that we put across the top of the tank to help prevent bowing are in the way a bit. It is going to be a production, but I don't want to drain 30+ gallons of water.

 

I've noticed some red turf algae of one of my frags: my Mohawk pallys. These have already been dipped, so I'm at a loss. One snail (one of my first Mexican Turbos, that i've had for months) appears to have something that closely resembles Neomeris growing on its shell. Interestingly, the high magnesium levels in the tank (1750ppm: signature chart hasn't been updated) knocked that snail out for almost a week and it was during that time that this new algae appeared.

[brandon429]

What about the spot injection method to concentrate what you are using, pumps off etc

[Enigma]

What about the spot injection method to concentrate what you are using, pumps off etc

 

It is everywhere. Seriously. I figure that it would take several weeks to go that route, and i'd just wind up running in circles having to treat places over and over. I stared at the tank for 1/2 an hour today trying to determine where to start with spot injection. I figure that dipping the rock is the way to go, and then using spot injection for anything that is missed or pops back up would be most effective.

 

I did do some manual removal today when I was trying to figure out exactly how I was going to approach this. I definately have two types of bryopsis. One is not as coarse as the other. The thinner one is very widespread, but the really coarse one is only in a few places. The coarse one shows more of a bleaching response to the h202.

[brandon429]

Peroxide is an inducer of pedal fission in mushroom corallimorphs

Over time with constant exposure they seem to reproduce out of stress...could be helpful in aquaculture settings.

 

Extended peroxide use shows increased new buds after each treatment run, and slower growth in between runs

 

In a submerged treatment the patches don't grow back like you'd think

Some missed areas might need a touchup...but mostly it saves you an extended treatment run its worth the targeting effort

[Enigma]

Wow! Great info, Brandon.

 

I bet that explains why some of my coral growth has exploded. A couple of the corals I've dipped (my Mohawk pally, and blasto wellsi in particular) have erupted in new heads.

 

I started with submerged spot treatments this morning, plus I pulled out what can be easily dipped and dipped them.

 

I've boosted my treatments, since I had three days in a row off. I've done 10mls twice a day (and haven't left the house, and have checked everything regularly). This morning I did 10mls via syringe: split between two areas. One area bubbled like crazy. I'm surprise how large an area I was able to cover.

 

I'm feeling like I'm back on the winning team this morning.

[metrokat]

Hello.

Update on my buddy's tank.

History: 29G. Set up for 1.5 years, low bio load (3 fish), he did WC every 2 weeks but has never siphoned the sand bed or checked phosphates. Feeds his twice daily. Very low CUC numbers. Substantial detritus and crud everywhere, major problem: GHA. Everywhere

 

Before (everything that is green is GHA, the back wall has a mat of it)

 

30 minutes after a huge peroxide treatment, took out every rock, dipped, rinsed, replaced

 

Next morning (2 shrimp and 1 fish dead)

 

24 hours later (actinics make it look worse but you can still see the density of the water with the gunk in it)

His stock filter is too weak to filter much out

 

This morning

 

Right now, about 48 hours after treatment

 

Last night he says he tested 0 phosphates 0 nitrates 0.25 ammonia (he has API kits, god knows how old so I don't trust these numbers)

But he added PRIME and zeolite ammo chips and a little baggie of rowaphos.

 

Total WC since treatment: 50%

 

All the rocks are clean BTW.

[metrokat]

Wanted to update you guys, my friends tank is fully recovered and doing well, his rocks are clear. He is scraping the back wall today with a razor blade. Will send me pics when he's done.

[1.0reef]

No pics, but I killed some bryopsis/red turf algae with some peroxide, in about 48 hours about 50-75% is gone.

[brandon429]

no pics is tragic, like that guy in that one baseball world series red sox game who let the last hit go through his legs and they lost and everybody hated him just for a sec.

 

 

not really its not that bad about one level lower lol

[Enigma]

Wanted to update you guys, my friends tank is fully recovered and doing well, his rocks are clear. He is scraping the back wall today with a razor blade. Will send me pics when he's done.

 

Kat, any idea why he had the livestock losses?

[albertthiel]

Hello.

Update on my buddy's tank.

History: 29G. Set up for 1.5 years, low bio load (3 fish), he did WC every 2 weeks but has never siphoned the sand bed or checked phosphates. Feeds his twice daily. Very low CUC numbers. Substantial detritus and crud everywhere, major problem: GHA. Everywhere

 

Before (everything that is green is GHA, the back wall has a mat of it)

 

30 minutes after a huge peroxide treatment, took out every rock, dipped, rinsed, replaced

 

Next morning (2 shrimp and 1 fish dead)

 

24 hours later (actinics make it look worse but you can still see the density of the water with the gunk in it)

His stock filter is too weak to filter much out

 

This morning

 

Right now, about 48 hours after treatment

 

Last night he says he tested 0 phosphates 0 nitrates 0.25 ammonia (he has API kits, god knows how old so I don't trust these numbers)

But he added PRIME and zeolite ammo chips and a little baggie of rowaphos.

 

Total WC since treatment: 50%

 

All the rocks are clean BTW.

Wow nice improvement indeed

[brandon429]

I had asked her in pm. There was a notable ammonia spike as they moved things around/cleaned, thats my suspect since she had done external treatments I couldn't figure out how the peroxide got into the tank where the shrimp was.

 

I suspect ammonia from heavy detritus deposit disturbance/mass protein liberation into the water column which was then acted on by aerobic bacteria degrading that protein into first step ammonia...it didn't last long until they hit it with prime, but that may have been enough to cause stress.

 

its also not out of the realm of possibility peroxide/resultant o2 level increase was a stress and then combined with the above that might have done it.

 

 

On a quick note, spot treatment zo rock for simple green hair algae, shows new tank keepers can roll the treatment just fine:

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=308779

 

I will be happy when we see the update shot that shows the toadstool back to normal PE, hope its coming along nicely!@

Edited August 16, 2012 by brandon429

[metrokat]

Kat, any idea why he had the livestock losses?

 

E, as Brandon just mentioned, my friend did not have enough water in hand to do a hug water change. Dying and decaying algae and bringing out socks that have been in there untouched for 1.5 years stirred up detritus. He had an ammonia spike that really really ed at 0.25 The next day after nearly 40 percent change . These were likely causesbof his livestock loss of 2 inverts and a fish.

 

Excuse the typos, my nexus Tablet is new

[TeflonTomDosh]

E, as Brandon just mentioned, my friend did not have enough water in hand to do a hug water change. Dying and decaying algae and bringing out socks that have been in there untouched for 1.5 years stirred up detritus. He had an ammonia spike that really really ed at 0.25 The next day after nearly 40 percent change . These were likely causesbof his livestock loss of 2 inverts and a fish.

 

Excuse the typos, my nexus Tablet is new

And here I was thinkin you were an iPad kinda girl

[Enigma]

And here I was thinkin you were an iPad kinda girl

 

Kat is far too fashionable for that!

 

(that was typed on my horribly "so 2010" iPad 1 )

 

Thanks for the details on the ammonia spike, folks. I suspect the assessment is bang on.

[metrokat]

And here I was thinkin you were an iPad kinda girl

I have that too, just trying a new toy which I tend to do when I'm travelling. Best way to learn a new device and also to learn about the limitations it has. I'm a hardcore android AND Apple girl. I have both, I won't give up either. My iMac is my macdaddy and I won't replace it! But for my phone I'm an android girl. I need my business tools at my fingertips and android does that.

 

Kat is far too fashionable for that!

 

(that was typed on my horribly "so 2010" iPad 1 )

 

Thanks for the details on the ammonia spike, folks. I suspect the assessment is bang on.

NP