DIY Oxydator experiment.

[Islandoftiki]

They didn't have 35% Hydrogen Peroxide at the health food store yesterday, but I did a little more research and apparently they use H2O2 for hydroponics. This being Oregon, we have more than a few hydroponics stores. Apparently it's all the rage to grow your own hydroponic "vegetables".

 

So, for $11.00 you get 1 liter of 29% H2O2 that you can dilute to whatever you need. I'll start with 6%.

 

Note: They warned me that this stuff will turn your skin white.

 

[Acielot]

put some of that in a shampoo bottle and watch the magic happen

[brandon429]

It also has powerful and permanent effects on the cornea if by accident

 

Its blanched egg white really

 

It always amazed me that stuff is sold OTC as is

 

We get 35 here at a health food store its meanness in a bottle. Have to be so careful, eyes man. Everything else would recover, but not a blanched cornea this is what I'm thinking each time mine is poured for access lol

[albertthiel]

They didn't have 35% Hydrogen Peroxide at the health food store yesterday, but I did a little more research and apparently they use H2O2 for hydroponics. This being Oregon, we have more than a few hydroponics stores. Apparently it's all the rage to grow your own hydroponic "vegetables".

 

So, for $11.00 you get 1 liter of 29% H2O2 that you can dilute to whatever you need. I'll start with 6%.

 

Note: They warned me that this stuff will turn your skin white.

 

That's a real good price but observe all the cautions indeed as others pointed out (but then I am sure you knew that) and keep in a dark container as light slowly degrades it and since you have a large quantity you have enough for a loooooong time ,,,

 

put some of that in a shampoo bottle and watch the magic happen

 

I would not play tricks with it FWIW

[metrokat]

+1 ... You are the expert on that one Brandon ... so shoot the instructions on here for those who want to try that approach ....

 

 

You may want to outline the spot treatment approach

Not the forum for it, this is Tikis Oxidator thread.

 

Big can of peroxide there! whoa!

[albertthiel]

Not the forum for it, this is Tikis Oxidator thread.

 

Big can of peroxide there! whoa!

 

oops ... you are right. Sorry ...

[atoll]

Just to be clear on Hydrogen peroxide. There are different grades of it inc food grade and commercial grade. You pay more for food grade of course. Peroxide is also used in swimming pools to keep algae at bay and stop the water turning green. The type used for swimming pools has a stabiliser in it. To be safe I recommend food grade of course.

[albertthiel]

Just to be clear on Hydrogen peroxide. There are different grades of it inc food grade and commercial grade. You pay more for food grade of course. Peroxide is also used in swimming pools to keep algae at bay and stop the water turning green. The type used for swimming pools has a stabiliser in it. To be safe I recommend food grade of course.

 

+1 for sure ... Food grade or higher ....

[atoll]

I am not saying commercial grade peroxide is detrimental to your animals and I don't know what stabilisers are used in it but do you want to take the risk? Having said that I do know people who have used commercial grade along with added stabiliser's and report no problems using it. Technical grade is another along with the previous grades I mentioned. .

[Islandoftiki]

This particular bottle of hydrogen peroxide doesn't say "Food Grade". However, the instructions on the back mention diluting it before ingesting it... and since it isn't actually going into the tank, I suspect it will be ok.

 

I will wear my full paly/zoa protection gear (eye protection and gloves) when handling it at full strength.

 

I'm going to make a second oxydator from the same components and put it in the main display of my 7 gallon pest crab tank so I can get better pictures/video of it in operation. I will also do a full rundown of tests on that tank before starting it so people can see what effects occur on water chemistry since there is a lot of curiosity about that. In particular, pH.

[atoll]

Sounds good to me. I doubt you will see much difference in PH but we shall see. Your peroxide must be food grade I imagine then. Good luck with your trail.

This particular bottle of hydrogen peroxide doesn't say "Food Grade". However, the instructions on the back mention diluting it before ingesting it... and since it isn't actually going into the tank, I suspect it will be ok.

 

I will wear my full paly/zoa protection gear (eye protection and gloves) when handling it at full strength.

 

I'm going to make a second oxydator from the same components and put it in the main display of my 7 gallon pest crab tank so I can get better pictures/video of it in operation. I will also do a full rundown of tests on that tank before starting it so people can see what effects occur on water chemistry since there is a lot of curiosity about that. In particular, pH.

[Islandoftiki]

Ok, as promised, here's oxydator #2 getting set up in the 7 gallon pest crab tank. Same basic setup as the 2 gallon tank with the following exceptions: I'm trying a limewood air stone, and I've mixed some hydrogen peroxide to about 7%. Otherwise, it's the same basic setup as before. This little tank lives in the basement and is the home to about 7 random hitchhiker pest crabs that would otherwise have received a burial at sea via the local sewer system. Also in the tank are a couple of elephant slugs, a quarter sized starfish, some seafoam palys, an orange and pink plate coral, some blue clove polyps and one aiptasa.

 

Lots of people are interested in what this might do to the water chemistry, so here are the before parameters:

 

Salinity: 1.025

Alk: 8.0

Calc: 440

Mag: 1380

Phos: .02

pH: 8.0

 

Nothing spectacular about the parameters. pH might be slightly low, but I'm not too worried about it since Calc, alk and mag are all good. I'm using Red Sea Coral Pro salt in all of my tanks.

 

Here's the setup...

 

This is the friendliest of the crabs...

 

Here's an overall picture of the tank:

 

Here's a close-up of the plate coral:

 

The main purpose of this test is to see if the limewood air stone will work. I just assembled the oxydator several minutes ago and it will take a couple hours for it to get fully up to speed. I'll update when I start seeing some action from it.

 

 

[albertthiel]

Thanks for the pics of the set up and the tank and the parameters ... and yes it may take a while for bubbles to come out of the airstone if the pressure builds up high enough ... it will be interesting to see whether it works and what type of bubbles you get .. thanks for running the experiment

 

[Islandoftiki]

Ok, that didn't take long...

 

I don't know that the bubbles are a lot smaller than they are with the ceramic air stone, but they are about as small as I think they can probably get.

 

Here's a video of the #2 oxydator running on the 7 gallon tank. Right after it started producing bubbles, several of the crabs started congregating around the air stone. Perhaps they were fascinated by the bubbles or maybe they're getting high from huffing pure O2.

 

[albertthiel]

Ok, that didn't take long...

 

I don't know that the bubbles are a lot smaller than they are with the ceramic air stone, but they are about as small as I think they can probably get.

 

Here's a video of the #2 oxydator running on the 7 gallon tank. Right after it started producing bubbles, several of the crabs started congregating around the air stone. Perhaps they were fascinated by the bubbles or maybe they're getting high from huffing pure O2.

 

 

Thanks ... looks like the bubbles are a little smaller indeed. Of course with a real one you cannot even see the bubbles but these are small ... are they rising to the top or dissolving in the water ?

 

Nice experiment ... Thanks for running it ...

[brandon429]

Ill be dang. thats a lot of bubbles

[Islandoftiki]

Some of the bubbles are rising to the top, but most appear to be dissolving in the water column.

[albertthiel]

Some of the bubbles are rising to the top, but most appear to be dissolving in the water column.

 

Well that is good as that is really what you want to happen ... thanks for the update ...

 

 

Ill be dang. thats a lot of bubbles

 

Yes indeed ....

[Islandoftiki]

The number of bubbles is increasing as the reaction gets going. We'll see what it's doing later tonight or tomorrow morning.

[albertthiel]

The number of bubbles is increasing as the reaction gets going. We'll see what it's doing later tonight or tomorrow morning.

Thanks. Nice to insert. Create event ... That's how it came up on my iPhone

[uglyfish]

I wonder how long the peroxide will last before having to replenish?

[Islandoftiki]

Things are getting serious now. There's epic music and everything!

 

 

I wonder how long this thing can produce this much O2.

[jedimasterben]

That thing is gettin' VIOLENT up in thar.

[atoll]

WOW! I never thought it would have been capable of producing so much. Your redox and O2 must be really high I would guess. Amazing it could produce so much bubbles. Well done.

Things are getting serious now. There's epic music and everything!

 

http://youtu.be/cUyI3vGkswA'>http://youtu.be/cUyI3vGkswA

 

I wonder how long this thing can produce this much O2.

[albertthiel]

Things are getting serious now. There's epic music and everything!

 

 

I wonder how long this thing can produce this much O2.

 

As the reaction goes on inside that bottle the peroxide concentration will get lower and lower as some turns to water and as a result IME less and less O2 will be produced... how long IME depends on the strength in the bottle and the amount of it .,.. but at one point it will stop producing bubbles as the solution gets too weak, as water has diluted it ..