Peroxide saves my Tank! With pics to Prove It!

[CriSpS]

Hey!

This thread has basically saved my tank! Thank you so much!

6 months ago i had a bryopsis outbreak while my water parameters were good and stable: my 30G ended up looking like that:

And this is what my tank looks like after a local peroxyde treatment:

(I removed my sand bed because I expected it to be overloaded with sediments)

 

These are before, just after and 24H after shots on one of my rock:

Prior to the peroxyde treatment i had tried Kent Tech M and Dino X without any result.

As we can't directly buy H2O2 in France, I ordered a bottle in England and then treated the rocks one by one and it just worked like a charm.

Again thank you and I hope it won't grow back in the future.

[brandon429]

Nice!! the outcome ranges among tanks, this bry is a tough item to have imported but I love the winning after pics, Id really like to use those as well on the reef2reef peroxide thread may I link them over with credit to you

[CriSpS]

Yes, no problem Brandon!

[brandon429]

CriSpS

 

our friends at R2R are wanting to know how you treated the tank

 

 

if you did dips or in tank work holler ill update for them

[CriSpS]

I did an external treatment for each rock using a syringe to spread the peroxide directly on the roots of the algae, i let it stand for 2 or 3 minutes and then rinse the rock in saltwater and hop! back in the tank. At first i was a bit worried because I knew that lystamas could suffer from the H2O2 so I decided to treat on several days in case treating all the rocks at the same time could entail some kind of instability. By the way, I treated a rock with a bubble anemone on it and the peroxide didn't harm it or anything so I am very happy. Plus I had a few valonias lurking around and they disapeared too thanks to the H2O2.

[D3monic]

I did another peroxide treatment, this time on the rock on the right. I diluted 2 bottles of 3% peroxide in about 2-3 gal of tank water. Soaked the rock for 3-5 minutes and then scrubbed with a stiff grout brush really good. The water looked pretty nasty by the time I was done.

 

 

Then I poured a few qts of tank water over the rock to rinse any risidual peroxide off and added it back to the tank.

 

I had also started an attempt at a smaller rock that was in the back where the red turf algae had originated but the entire rock was covered in it and decided to just toss the rock in the trash to open up a little space in the back for gorgs or what ever.

 

Here is the rock I kept, you can see some remnants of the red turf on the top as well as some red algae that I didn't mind so much (think red fachcea- spelling) that turned bright orange.

 

 

Turbo snails seem to really like that red turf and have been doing a better job eliminating that than the HA.

 

My rock on the left is starting to get some regrowth on it and may be due for another dip and scrub.

 

 

and a before pic for comparison

 

[SantaMonica]

Nice that folks do get results from this.

 

For anyone who is new and might not know, however, here is a little reminder that the nutrients that were inside the now-dead algae go into the water. Also, anything that kills algae also kills lots of Periphyton on the rocks. This might be what you want, but just simply increasing your Export will get rid of the algae without killing the periphyton. These bits of info here might help:

 

Nutrient Export

What do all algae (and cyano too) need to survive? Nutrients. What are nutrients? Ammonia/ammonium, nitrite, nitrate, phosphate and urea are the major ones. Which ones cause most of the algae in your tank? These same ones. Why can't you just remove these nutrients and eliminate all the algae in your tank? Because these nutrients are the result of the animals you keep.

So how do your animals "make" these nutrients? Well a large part the nutrients comes from pee (urea). Pee is very high in urea and ammonia, and these are a favorite food of algae and some bacteria. This is why your glass will always need cleaning; because the pee hits the glass before anything else, and algae on the glass consume the ammonia and urea immediately (using photosynthesis) and grow more. In the ocean and lakes, phytoplankton consume the ammonia and urea in open water, and seaweed consume it in shallow areas, but in a tank you don't have enough space or water volume for this, and, your other filters or animals often remove or kill the phytoplankton or seaweed anyway. So, the nutrients stay in your tank.

Then, the ammonia/ammonium hits your rocks, and the periphyton on the rocks consumes more ammonia and urea. Periphyton is both algae and animals, and is the reason your rocks change color after a few weeks from when they were new. Then the ammonia goes inside the rock, or hits your sand, and bacteria there convert it into nitrite and nitrate. However, the nutrients are still in your tank.

Also let's not forget phosphate, which comes from solid organic food particles. When these particles are eaten by microbes and clean up crews, the organic phosphorus in them is converted into phosphate. However, the nutrients are still in your tank.

So whenever you have algae or cyano "problems", you simply have not exported enough nutrients out of your tank compared to how much you have been feeding (note: live rock can absorb phosphate for up to a year, making it seem like there was never a problem. Then after a year, there is a problem).

So just increase your nutrient exports. You could also reduce feeding, and this has the same effect, but it's certainly not fun when you want to feed your animals

---- and ---

What is Periphyton?

Periphyton is what turns your rocks different colors. You know... the white rocks you started with in SW, or the grey rocks (or brown wood) you started with in FW. After several months or years, the rocks become a variety of different colors and textures. Why? Because the periphyton that has grown on it is a mix of different living things, of different colors, and thicknesses. And the important part is: It is LIVING.

That's right: The colored stuff that has coated your rocks is all living organisms. Sponges, microbes, algae, cyano, biofilms, and of course coralline. After all, "peri" means "around the outside", and "phyto" means "plant". Ever slipped in a slippery puddle? That's probably periphyton that made it slippery. It's a very thin coating on the rocks, sometimes paper thin.

There is a lot of photosynthetic organisms in periphyton, and this of course means that they need light; but they need nutrients too (ammonia, nitrate, phosphate). And as you might figure, they will be on the lighted portions of the rocks. And they will grow to intercept food particles in the water, based on the water flow. Just think about how sponges orient their holes for water flow; the micro sponges in periphyton do it too but on a tiny scale.

What about under the rocks, in the dark areas? Well these periphyton don't get light, so they are primarily filter feeders. So they REALLY grow and position themselves to be able to intercept food particles. And they don't really need to fight off algae, because algae does not grow in the dark, so they have no need for anti-algae tactics like plants in illuminated areas have.

Reef studies have shown that at certain depths, more of the filtering of the water comes from periphyton and benthic algae than comes from the phytoplankton which filters the deeper water. And in streams, almost all the filtering is done by periphyton. So, what you have on rocks that are "mature" or "established" is a well-developed layer of periphyton; and all the things that comes from it.

This is why mandarin fish can eat directly off the rocks of an "established" tank (tons of pods grow in the periphyton), but not on the rocks of a new tank. Or why some animals can lay their eggs on established rocks, but not new ones. Or why established tanks seem to "yo-yo" less than new ones. Even tangs can eat periphyton directly when it's thick enough. Yes periphyton can also develop on the sand, but since the sand is moved around so much, the periphyton does not get visible like it does on rocks. So thick periphyton on established rocks is your friend. And totally natural too. Keep in mind though I'm not referring to nuisance algae on rocks; I'm only referring to the very-thin layer of coloring that coats the rocks.

But what happens when you "scrape the stuff off your rocks"? Well you remove some of the periphyton, which means you remove some of your natural filter and food producer. What if you take the rocks out and scrub them? Well now you not only remove more of your natural filter and food producer, but the air is going to kill even more of the microscopic sponges in it. And what if you bleach the rocks? Well, goodbye all filtering and food producing for another year. It's an instant reduction of the natural filtering that the periphyton was providing.

However, what if you just re-arrange the rocks? Well, some of the periphyton that was in the light, now will be in the dark; so this part will die. And some of the periphyton that was in the dark will now be in the light, so it will not be able to out-compete photosynthetic growth and thus will be covered and die too. And even if the light stays the same, the direction and amount of water flow (and food particles) will change; sponges that were oriented to get food particles from one direction will now starve. So since the light and food supply is cut off, the filtering that the periphyton was providing stops almost immediately, due only to the re-arranging of the rocks.

Starvation takes a little longer. The periphyton organisms won't die immediately, since they have some energy saved up; but instead, they will wither away over several weeks. So on top of the instant reduction in filtering that you get by just moving the rocks, you get a somewhat stretched-out period of nutrients going back into the water. And after all this, it takes another long period of time for the periphyton to build up to the levels it was at before: 1 to 2 years. Even changing the direction of a powerhead will affect the food particle supply in the area it used to be pointed at.

So a good idea is to try to keep everything the same. Pick your lighting, flow, layout, and try to never move or change anything. It's a different way of thinking, but you should have a stronger natural filter and food producer because of it.

Hope that helps

 

 

[brandon429]

put this into google, its a cut and paste to get signature link click$ every two years even before in this actual thread

 

all additions to this thread must be a sincere attempt to help

"What is Periphyton?

Periphyton is what turns your rocks different colors. You know... the white rocks you started with in SW, or the grey rocks (or brown wood) you started with in FW. After several months or years, the rocks become a variety of different colors and textures. Why? Because the periphyton that has grown on it is a mix of different living things, of different colors, and thicknesses. And the important part is: It is LIVING.

That's right: The colored stuff that has coated your rocks is all living organisms. Sponges, microbes, algae, cyano, biofilms, and of course coralline. After all, "peri" means "around the outside", and "phyto" means "plant". Ever slipped in a slippery puddle? That's probably periphyton that made it slippery. It's a very thin coating on the rocks, sometimes paper thin.

There is a lot of photosynthetic organisms in periphyton, and this of course means that they need light; but they need nutrients too (ammonia, nitrate, phosphate). And as you might figure, they will be on the lighted portions of the rocks. And they will grow to intercept food particles in the water, based on the water flow. Just think about how sponges orient their holes for water flow; the micro sponges in periphyton do it too but on a tiny scale.

What about under the rocks, in the dark areas? Well these periphyton don't get light, so they are primarily filter feeders. So they REALLY grow and position themselves to be able to intercept food particles. And they don't really need to fight off algae, because algae does not grow in the dark, so they have no need for anti-algae tactics like plants in illuminated areas have.

Reef studies have shown that at certain depths, more of the filtering of the water comes from periphyton and benthic algae than comes from the phytoplankton which filters the deeper water. And in streams, almost all the filtering is done by periphyton. So, what you have on rocks that are "mature" or "established" is a well-developed layer of periphyton; and all the things that comes from it.

This is why mandarin fish can eat directly off the rocks of an "established" tank (tons of pods grow in the periphyton), but not on the rocks of a new tank. Or why some animals can lay their eggs on established rocks, but not new ones. Or why established tanks seem to "yo-yo" less than new ones. Even tangs can eat periphyton directly when it's thick enough. Yes periphyton can also develop on the sand, but since the sand is moved around so much, the periphyton does not get visible like it does on rocks. So thick periphyton on established rocks is your friend. And totally natural too. Keep in mind though I'm not referring to nuisance algae on rocks; I'm only referring to the very-thin layer of coloring that coats the rocks.

But what happens when you "scrape the stuff off your rocks"? Well you remove some of the periphyton, which means you remove some of your natural filter and food producer. What if you take the rocks out and scrub them? Well now you not only remove more of your natural filter and food producer, but the air is going to kill even more of the microscopic sponges in it. And what if you bleach the rocks? Well, goodbye all filtering and food producing for another year. It's an instant reduction of the natural filtering that the periphyton was providing.

However, what if you just re-arrange the rocks? Well, some of the periphyton that was in the light, now will be in the dark; so this part will die. And some of the periphyton that was in the dark will now be in the light, so it will not be able to out-compete photosynthetic growth and thus will be covered and die too. And even if the light stays the same, the direction and amount of water flow (and food particles) will change; sponges that were oriented to get food particles from one direction will now starve. So since the light and food supply is cut off, the filtering that the periphyton was providing stops almost immediately, due only to the re-arranging of the rocks.

Starvation takes a little longer. The periphyton organisms won't die immediately, since they have some energy saved up; but instead, they will wither away over several weeks. So on top of the instant reduction in filtering that you get by just moving the rocks, you get a somewhat stretched-out period of nutrients going back into the water. And after all this, it takes another long period of time for the periphyton to build up to the levels it was at before: 1 to 2 years. Even changing the direction of a powerhead will affect the food particle supply in the area it used to be pointed at.

So a good idea is to try to keep everything the same. Pick your lighting, flow, layout, and try to never move or change anything. It's a different way of thinking, but you should have a stronger natural filter and food producer because of it."

[brandon429]

CriSpS and D3 now that we can move on in reflection of what you've posted...

 

People are learning from your posts and pics (I've been busy cross linking R2R here recently to build that peroxide thread too) and they're asking questions about your details, well done both your after pics are post gold.

 

We are seeing the recurring theme about grazers taking notice in your posts. Apoptosed cells/greens are yummy apparently.

 

D3 we can see the neon orange death phase coloration in rhodophyta clearly in your shots. I like how you are going easy and working up slowly, I would not want to sterilize that fine rock diversity but rather pick off targets slowly.

 

 

We are seeing the undeniable benefit of rather immediate mass arrest, communities of any invader confer actual benefits and resources to the community, fostering growth and + mass adding, independent of water nutrients many times, and mass reduction begins to remove these shared benefits and resources over time. That's one extra benefit to acting on the target, not the water.

 

By removing the mass instead of leaving it in the tank, you can now judge preventative efforts more accurately and those can be any form of nutrient control you'd like to try...that's acting on the water at the right time, when there is no invader presenting a challenge. By removing mass that was plugging porosity in your live rock you just upped your filtration and redox potentials for the tank to a small but accumulating degree.

 

Never expect a one off treatment of peroxide to arrest a community allowed to seat in and build resources for months, regrowth work is tied to a few variables but as you can see page after page, 48 hours ain't a bad restart time as needed either until the effective preventive can be found.

Thanks tons for those sets of after pics you both gave our threads a helpful jolt with those posts

[martinicu]

Hi reefers and Brandon lol. I might have missed this topic. I do treat my rocks with 3 %. Out of the tank. Algae keeps coming back. So can take out the rock and scoop out gravel and rinse with peroxide (straight or. Diluted) and the replace in tank . I will do a huge water change at same time. It is a 12 long. I have one coral beauty and one lawn mower. My corals are acan frag ricordea frag a favia frag and small zoas on a tile. I can remove them when I treat. Also have snails the usual so.

Thanks

[cruiZe]

Hi reefers and Brandon lol. I might have missed this topic. I do treat my rocks with 3 %. Out of the tank. Algae keeps coming back....

sorry it's not working for you martinicu - what is your method? I'll show you mine.

 

random rock in my sump had a lot of GHA... here is the rock out of the water before treatment

during first treatment, in small bucket - i poured 3% peroxide all over the rock and let it sizzle like you can see for about 5 minutes. I also basted it with peroxide in bucket during this time- it was not submerged, but constantly wet. about 10-15 pods exploded off the rock immediately, most of them died, but I tried to quickly put them back in the tank. Large bristle worm did not like the peroxide but survived I think. The large pink sponge got very foamy.

After first treatment- back in the tank, rock is very bubbly - as you can see, GHA remains- I did not manually remove much

4 days later the rock looks nicer, but still has some GHA - lets do it again!

after second treatment, back in tank - bubbling away.

I believe the GHA dissolved and or fell off and went into my filter floss. The sponge is smaller and bleached around the edge.

[martinicu]

Thanks for your answer . Maybe I just need to do more frequent peroxide treament and not let it start up on the rocks again I think I will try several treaments in a row. Two things though. I feel there is some in the sandbed that why I asked about removing sand bed and treating it outside of tank and then rinsing in salt water.. Also I never get any "live rock" appearance . Its either bleached clean with peroxide, Or has hair algae. I never get coraline or any other growth that looks like live rock.I started with Marco rock and honestly have had algae since the cycle was over about 14 months ago .Thanks

 

What do you think is the problem? Thanks

[cruiZe]

...Maybe I just need to do more frequent peroxide treatment and not let it start up on the rocks again ...

 

What do you think is the problem? Thanks

 

Yeah, slowing down the GHA somehow. Just a quick treatment as you see I did helped, but didn't get it all - so even if you had to do it once a week - it's something to try. So you have no pink, purple or red growths on the rock? Maybe you need to seed the tank with a piece of LR that has these on it. I started with mostly dry rock too, but eventually the coraline spread from existing LR to the dry rock and it became "live looking" I understand that coraline will help prevent the GHA (not completely, but it helps) it makes sense that if your rock is naked, its easier to get taken over by bad algae.

[coolblueatx]

I'm so glad I found this thread. I have been battling GHA for awhile now but I can not get it all out. I have three large rocks that forms a cave that my pair of clownfish decide to call home. They are laying eggs on the bottom rock. I can take the top rock out to treat but any suggestions on treating the two bottom rocks?

 

I'm afraid to take it out of the tank since it might mess up the clownfish home and will stop their breeding.

 

Can I take a syringe with some diluted H2O2 and squirt it over the GHA? Would that brief exposure to H2O2 have any effect? Maybe turn off the pump for a little bit?

 

I only have rics and a frogspawn in the tank. So not a lot of corals to worry about.

[D3monic]

Rock front left had algae growing back on it so yesterday while doing water changes I gave it another peroxide soak and scrub. Looks much better now. Also scraped majority of it off the back wall.

 

 

My pom pom crab must of been hiding inside it. I went to dump the muck bucket and he was in the bottom still alive somehow. I put him back into the tank immediately and so far has continued to survive. I seen him come out and snatch a bunch of food shortly after.

 

 

Getting ready to feed again, hopefully it lure it out and can determine if it's still doing ok.

[seabass]

So I've been taking my rock out and dipping it in 3% peroxide (with salt mix added) weekly, since the end of January. The problem hair algae is gone and the rock looks pretty good at first glance.


However, when you get up close, there is a different species of algae that seems immune to this treatment.


Can anybody ID this species? Do I need to go stronger and locally treat this algae so that I don't have to subject my anemones to a more concentrated peroxide solution?

[brandon429]

Martinicu if you do choose to rip clean I hope you'll document it here. I just did mine

 

I literally rinsed my whole sandbed in tap until it was so clean you could eat off it, final rinsed in full saltwater, put back all together and my rocks have zero detritus too, now three days later it looks brand new. The impact is a full tank restart and no recycle if done right. Every tank in this thread could benefit from a rip cleaning done right if staving off algae is a beneficial side effect. Never mentioned taking down ones ATS, or taking a GFO filter offline, we don't mind the preventative angles.

 

Just talking sandbed management for tank longevity, if someone has a sinked up bed lets either replace it or blast clean it here, to show how it's done with no recycle. One can feed less by stocking fewer living animals in a reef system which has less buildup, then rip cleanings won't be needed....sandbeds aren't bad they just are allowed to store waste in all cases no matter the input rates and most people are overstocked, those beds especially need cleaning

 

Removing all detritus from a nano reef sandbed is wise and dangerous. I do them all the time, they aren't dangerous in my old tank

 

They are only dangerous to web posters who might leave some pocketed detritus in the system after it being highlighted as the sole cause of all recycling. There is an order to parting out a tank that works all the time, every time if needed. I don't even give mine the courtesy of being underwater. My corals set on dinner plates and the live rock, about 20 mins. I'll squirt the corals a few times while sitting. No recycle

 

People can house their corals and rocks underwater and amplify safety 100%, all my work is done in the air very hard on things--I'm conditioning my pico like kick boxer kicked cane stumps for a reason, pico natural selection. Getting fit

 

Live rock and corals rinsed in clean matching saltwater before put back in...put back on very clean sand, the reef is like new.

 

My live rocks are always detritus free. Many times a hidden recycler in parted tanks is someone's filthy rock that gets moved between tanks

 

Which is internal detritus store transfer, and detritus causes all cycles with transferring tanks barring animal loss first. Move detritus, even hidden detritus, get a cycle.

 

Move no detritus, get no cycle. I have laid my tank out for work many times it's so easy.

 

Try 35 % on problem areas external spot test...on a test rock. Sometimes that can stop regrowth, better percentage spot burn. If children are present throw it out when done never store 35% around kids not worth it, it would be illegal fridge stocking if my child was little, not even worth the risk. But for adult spot treat growback issues? It's racer octane vs 88 knock and ping, a true swing vote, it's all I use 3% is waste of time but it works well here for safety, storing 3% is acceptable in a home with children, 35% is not

 

 

Sea bass I do not know, looks macro in form to me how interesting. Yours looks rasp worthy for a test...holdfast scraping. I'm doing it as we speak. With valonia I don't just spot treat, I rasp and treat. I take caco3 substrate with me, holdfast targeting, then I peroxide

 

That's a change up invented in my ReefBowl because I do not, will not, play with valonia I've come too far. Valonia in my reef is destroyed easily, I imported some by not quarantining a frag.

 

I first hit it with 35% on the area with water drained let sit one min, that alone would likely kill it

 

But with valonia still in place, I now rasp the bottom with a dental profi angle tool I bought from pharmacy I plaque dislodge the vacuoles...leaving none and digging in a little without destroying surrounding tissue, but I know now to de anchor the types of invaders you show...holdfast types

 

Then I hit the barren spot with 35 wait a min, then rinse off and that's done, no growback in that area. It's literally working for me

 

You know why our thread is so lacking on accurate generic and specific IDs

 

It's outcome only driven. My valonia wasn't fully red or green like normal, it was odd elongated tubes who knows what it was. But upon managing jjust the test area I found tissue rasping to be ultimate in substrate deposition control. No valonia allowed, rasped. With my two part dosing the coralline w plate back in two mos. two part dosers will for sure boost coralline, for me c balance is best.

[brandon429]

 

 

 

 

 

35% is the best wield able algaecide inside a reef tank I've ever seen. How many posts on here remark about spot growback after 35

 

As rasp area cleanup it's astoundingly powerful on growback and makes the rasp not needed, or just excellent overkill, many times.

 

Why all sand even live sand should be rinsed initially and even rinsed as maintenance if one chooses (initial rinse being the prime offer, post setup rinsing still hotly debated)

http://reef2reef.com/threads/the-official-sand-rinse-thread-aka-one-against-many.230281/#post-2681445

 

 

The method in that thread is how one moves the sandbed in a reef tank, to avoid a recycle. One option is to move no detritus, have no recycle.

 

 

in reading this page of posts my takeaways were:

 

-not advocating rasping your whole tank. this should all be test rock assessment. Im seeing a few problem peroxide posts where no details about test rock responses are given, that means the gauge was the whole tank, which is risking growback after doing a bunch of work (although knocking down mass is never bad). Use test rocks before you begin in the display

 

make a test rock fully comply, no growback, go through your amplifiers to see what works.

 

when you discover what works, the scale up to more rocks. this order is preferable to an initial whole tank run.

 

 

for the few times peroxide will not help, a growback so fast it wasn't worth it, there's no need of doing X to your whole tank only to have the whole tank regrow as a first round run. Knocking down mass that was allowed to set in, and develop holdfast and communal support, takes rounds if we're using the weakest possible percentage of peroxide available (and this is safer for your non targets and generally is enough we can see) rasping is an amplifier. so many times we're finding ways to amplify the weakness of 3%, this is one.

 

-Anyone here experiencing growback should consider contacting Santa Monica via public thread in the general forum, put nine stars by the title, and have him personally reset your tank to zero display tank problems using only an algae scrubber. Everything possible should be done to render peroxide use obsolete. Working against it in that manner is the only way to validate its use

 

Read any thread ever posted about algae scrubbers and see if a weakness is implied. Whats implied in his writing is that periphyton will cure your growback, ask him to make a custom approach for your thread and you build the scrubber and document display tank fixes. winning against algae is the goal, not the tool we use to get there, you need to do what works to save your investment

 

-new readers need to see right here the price of delay and inaccessible rock scapes. When I had mushrooms invade my tank I delayed 3 yrs, I didn't want to part out my tank (which also gave a heck of a cleaning option too)

 

but eventually I was driven to full tank loss, or give up the weekend doing a tank reset/skip cycle and after it was completed a new decade opened back up, without invasive mushrooms. Same for any algae here, do not leave it in the display tank when you see it tiny and controllable, or these choices for big tank impacts eventually come about. When you have algae in your display tank, kill it. Leave your preventative that should have been working in place, or make adjustments to it only after display tank algae is killed, don't leave display tank algae in place to wait to see if it starves<---entire point of this thread.

 

I see very few times where people re adjust their lighting during full tank algae runs, this algae is getting full production lighting that's its adapted to anyway, this is fueling regrowth. to the degree that corals/anems allow it, go back to cloudy day simulation and lower par while battling algae, ramp back to full production when your ecosystem allows it. less whites for sure.

 

You may have to move corals up while compensating for this if your corals are movable, or make brighter single area in the tank and put the neediest corals there, the rest is pretty dim, anything that's a creative amplifier. I saw another poster who did have a nice large tank but no corals were seated in place yet, they were mainly frags. set up holding tank, move frags into it, week of taped blackout for the tank along with power spot treats, another amplifier it ranges between tanks but each tank has some boosts we could employ

 

Seabass I also like to see alternate fluids tried as spot treats. algaefix marine as a spot treat, not a full tank additive, followed up with 3% would be quite the plant insult...easy test rock ideas. amplifier=using two moderately safe tank additives as direct algae liquid spot on target non diluted, the runoff from such an application doesn't destroy our system unlike spraying the rocks with roundup/we catalog reef safe algae poisons here.

[bjolly]

does anyone have any experience using peroxide in a tank that has berghia in it? My tank is a great candidate for this treatment, since I have no corals, shrimp, etc, but I do have berghia who are doing a fantastic job clearing my aiptasia problem. I do not want to harm them and haven't found any info on whether this would be a risk to them.

 

I am moving in about a month and will have to take everything out of the tank to move it. I'm going to replace the sand and rescape completely, so this would be a great opportunity to do some dips. I was thinking I could try some dips of the smaller rocks for now along with my water changes, and do more of a large scale treatment when I move the tank.

[brandon429]

Thanks for posting! I could not remark well enough on nudis to call them sensitive or not, but we could find out pretty quick decently imo

 

any change of removing one, putting him in a gallon container for a couple days and dose the container at 1:10 ratio once a day to see if that specimen makes it? that's my only guess as to how to model it out

 

animals are either immediately sensitive we are seeing, or not seeing. we don't get a lot of lingering losses here, rather distinct. modeling does work well for peroxide pathways not currently forged

 

but the external treatments are always good backup as no peroxide contact hits sensitives in that mode...when you put a rasped/cleaned and oxidized rock back in the tank all clean, those nudis can help in prevention of growback

[bjolly]

so external treatment should be fairly safe then? that's the route I was planning to go since I have to take everything out to move anyway. The idea of taking one out and experimenting on it is interesting, but I'd rather not sacrifice the little guy for science (sorry science!)

 

My plan was to try to do some of the rocks before the move, when I do my next few waterchanges, and then when I move and have to take all the rock out, I can easily do the lower ones. I could dip all the rocks when I do the move, but I'm thinking doing a few at a time is safer?

[brandon429]

It doesn't harm bacteria so we sometimes do all at once

 

The dipping action is where people naturally gravitate but there's better stuff avail 2016+

 

Dipping puts peroxide on non targets so we spot apply instead

We recommend no action taken tank-wide until a test rock small portion shows the kill and sustain.

The test rock algae will die from test spot applying alone, but whether it stays gone ranges. Might have to move up to spot scraping and rasping to remove seated holdfasts if simple application won't sustain a kill...all modeled on test rocks first starting today so you'll know how your invader + variables plays out before expending full tank work

[bjolly]

yep, I am planning to do a test dip on a piece of rubble, see how it responds and if/how soon it comes back. The algae is kind of everywhere (I neglected the tank for about a year, I'm sorry to admit), so dips seem more practical to me than spot applying.

[brandon429]

it wont hurt to try/test dips either, they work for hundreds for sure. any noncompliants can be scraped like a dentist scrapes plaque lol. even though rasping seems unnatural, its not (parrot fish, turtles etc)

 

our reefs are designed in adaptation to fix afterwards, amazing factoid about rasping with metal tools to literally dig out algae holdfasts. Peroxide is used after the aggravated removal, absent the target mass, for cleanup and sterilization of plant material made particulate.

 

the old standard was treating a wad of algae and hoping it sustained, then reporting here when it didn't

 

 

this is 2016 technique just handy to keep in the back pocket. rasping and forcing substrate compliance. my rasps have already healed, plated over with color again (self repair deposition in reefing) and are valonia free.

[bjolly]

I dipped a couple pieces of rock today in a 50/50 mix of salt water and 3% peroxide during my waterchange. How long would it be before I can tell if it did anything?