Fully Write up - Hydrogen peroxide treatment GHA - Documentation and Photos

[Hippieheadshot]

So I've been doing quite a bit of research on using hydrogen peroxide and I think I'm ready to do it I've been battling green hair algae pretty heavily in my main display tank for a while now it's killed off all my smaller frags and my large colonies are starting to struggle. I feel like I've been out of point where I can't add anything new to the tank for a couple months now. 

 

I was going to use food-grade but I can't find any local source and and I see people have success with the standard 3% available. 

 

From what I gather I should start with one milliliter per 10 gallon but that really doesn't seem a lot especially with the amount of tank that I need to do. I can remove my rocks if necessary but I would really like to not do that method, mostly to not having a proper place to store the rock while doing the treatment.

 

The store is also going to be another source of before and after so Brandon can add to his ever-growing collection of success hopefully.

 

First let's list what I've done for the past 6 Plus months:

• Manual removal and scrubbing with a firm brush and toothbrush.
• Reducing feeding to bare minimum for livestock, which they hated as they are super spoiled.
• I run both carbon and gfo.
• Set up an install a sump and refugium. Been up and running successfully for about 4 months now
• Deep clean my sand bed
• Recently treated fluconazole, this was a double whammy as a fish purchased had a fungal infection. Some GHA got a little white but no effects that was measurable beyond that. Sadly the fish did not make it.
• Many many hours of tank husbandry and maintenance.
• Reduce lighting schedule and intensity.
• Sweat and Tears, though I think that's just raising the salinity...

 

So now my goal and treatment going forward assuming I'm correct is:

• Kill pumps and Flow
• Manually remove as much as I can from area without water change.
• Target one section of rock with algae a day with 5ml, 45g tank+sump
• Maintain normal water change schedule, 15g once a week.

 

Does this sound right guys, guru @brandon429 ?

 

I do have an RODI system and I can make SW at home if I have to do a water change after each dose.

 

Edit: Photos added, this is what it looks like 3 weeks after a deep scrub. 

 

 

 

[brandon429]

in a nano, don't dump the peroxide in the tank

 

use it during bulletpoint #1 above

 

we can do a test rock before you do the whole system if you want, to prove how it works or just do it all.

 

You would remove the rocks then use a metal knife tip to -gouge- and scrape roughly that algae free from its holdfasts.

 

once your manual steel, not scrubbing, damages the rock and rips the plant out, rinse all that off and use no chems so far.

 

once the rocks are cleaned by force, and scarred a little as proof of not playing around this time, then you pour 3% right across the previously invaded areas, only as cellular cleanup this time then see how it does, this is worlds better.

 

-lastly, the sandbed matters here and in all challenge tanks. if that bed cannot be grabbed and dropped without clouding, in a full running tank, we should make it that way as part of the solution. after the tank, and the rocks have zero detritus stored up (gha rocks will keep some, we need to express it) then we can check on topoff water details, lighting etc.

 

take pics Ill link them nicely around

[Hippieheadshot]

2 minutes ago, brandon429 said:

in a nano, don't dump the peroxide in the tank

 

 

you use it during bulletpoint #1 above

 

Plan on not dosing, just doing targeting application with a plunger syringe, is this the right method? Also added photos for reference. Thanks for such a quick reply!

[brandon429]

hey thanks for those pics, you have the makings of a shocking turnaround coming up. yes the bed needs cleaned for sure. vs linking us to giant 15 page threads, this is the exact procedure for that setup above. Ill be able to riff on this both in the sand rinse thread and in the few peroxide threads, nice.

 

remove fish and put in sep holdings away from rock, that rock has detritus in it we need to express out.

 

hold corals that you can remove in another bucket, detail the algae if applicable off them with a smaller knife and scraping accordingly around flesh. q tips and peroxide dabs on the small target scale for corals that might have picked some up on the skeletons or something if applicable

 

then you would take out the rocks and the ones with corals and begin the dental surgery on the rocks, it will take a while, dig into those crannies and cause some damage for once  vs brushing and weed-eating. This is where we use a backhoe with a ten foot swatch to eradicate a few dandelions heh

 

rinse those rocks as you scrape only in clean saltwater, keep rinsing and scraping free then use your pipette to deliver the 3% right onto the former target areas, this doesn't kill your filtration bac because they cover so much of the rock and our peroxide time is brief. by clearing the mass first, that's the right order of ops

 

now you have fish and coral held fine, and totally clean rocks that are slowly starting to leach back out their detritus...in the new system, prepare to hand guide and change water better for the next 3 mos to guide this process of expression of waste that was held in place by plant massing.

 

replace the whole sandbed with new, don't even use the old unless you must.

 

rinse the brand new sand in tap for about 30 mins until its 100000% cloudless, then do a final rinse in saltwater.

 

 

scrape off the empty tank, burn it clean with vinegar or peroxide

 

rinse out

 

 

reinstall clean tank and cloudless sand, fill the tank w water and it doesn't cloud bc you rinsed forty million times. sparkling clean first fill/different than the masses eh

 

 

remount the rocks and the corals/post pics excellent man

 

that's a very low bioload tanks, the rocks are fine carrying that fish waste and your new caribsea sand still retains filtration bac even after a brief tap water rinse. the risk here is any form of detritus transfer back into the clean tank, try and rinse out those rocks ideally on first go using only clean saltwater

 

growback will be what we chart, its easy to produce a skip cycle clean tank nowadays. if you are concerned about true growback, then model a single test rock first before doing all. Id do all though  brushing and manual removal is nice, that keeps it from being worse but that knifing and raw meanness is the next step up to force compliance. your challenge is not hard to beat, id prefer this over any form of dino challenge even in beginning stages. peroxide w tear this stuff up, but we'll never see that happen bc in 2018 we apply peroxide to rasped surfaces, we can't see any invader. <---that was our response to all the growback challenges from round 1 peroxide work in the last 10 yrs.

 

the anem you have a bit sensitive to dosed peroxide, our method never contacts a nontarget with peroxide its all surgical/skip cycle work.

 

**since its a big job, a one off catchup process* when this is complete and you set up your sparkling redone tank, have enough water for 50% water changes the next two days no matter what. that's insurance for any partial rinsing we might miss on the first go.

 

after done and filled and back with animals and corals, a few hours after completion change 50%

 

then next day, change 50% again

 

done. safe. I bet growback is nil and totally manageable in ways its never been, where a CUC might actually work.

[Hippieheadshot]

@brandon429 hi seems like I'm going to need to dig in a little bit deeper than I thought, no problem I've done it before! 

 

So I've always use like a kitchen dish scrubber, very hard bristle, to scrub the rocks. Should I use something like a wire brush instead? I know you mentioned using a knife and some dental scrapers. Trying to make sure I understand we're talking about actually getting in and tearing the Rock up. The biggest problem is it's all Pukani, so getting into the crevices and such has a damn near impossible task.

 

I figured the sand was pretty much done that's been in the tank for 3 years now. As far as keeping micro fauna and small creatures like bristle worms spaghetti worms and such or any best practice for that? I'm one of those weird people who like them and see them as a valuable part of my clean up crew. 

 

Hey I've spent the last couple days reading through all those threads so I have a good idea of what to expect going into it just not the fine details that apply directly to my tank.

 

Again I really appreciate your help! 

Edited March 22, 2018 by Hippieheadshot
Typo

[Hippieheadshot]

Here's a photo of the tank in November of 2017 when the green hair algae was mostly in check with minimal maintenance.

 

 

 

[HarryPotter]

Cool, interesting to see another one of these on nanoreef. The last few I saw here on NR (Which followed the drawn out H202 "Solution") either didn't update or didn't have significant results. 

 

 

[Hippieheadshot]

24 minutes ago, HarryPotter said:

Cool, interesting to see another one of these on nanoreef. The last few I saw here on NR (Which followed the drawn out H202 "Solution") either didn't update or didn't have significant results. 

 

 

 

It's one of the reasons why I really wanted to make a thread I no one is proud of failing when it comes to battling green hair algae or any issue but if it's not documented then people don't have anything to go off of when they're in the same situation. 

 

Win or lose you guys are going to hear about it, though I definitely plan on winning!

 

 

Edited March 22, 2018 by Hippieheadshot

[Drew11]

I've dealt with this twice in my tank. I kinda skimmed through the thread but may I ask what you feed? And how often? 

 

I ask because the only times my tank broke out in hair algae was when I would feed frozen food almost daily. 

My buddy had the same problem in his 75g, he tried everything. 

I told him to stop feeding frozen every day and his tank is almost clear of it. 

Mine went the same way... Stopped feeding frozen and all the algae was gone in a matter of a couple weeks. 

 

Best if luck. I understand how frustrating it can be. 

[Hippieheadshot]

1 hour ago, Drew11 said:

I've dealt with this twice in my tank. I kinda skimmed through the thread but may I ask what you feed? And how often? 

 

I ask because the only times my tank broke out in hair algae was when I would feed frozen food almost daily. 

My buddy had the same problem in his 75g, he tried everything. 

I told him to stop feeding frozen every day and his tank is almost clear of it. 

Mine went the same way... Stopped feeding frozen and all the algae was gone in a matter of a couple weeks. 

 

Best if luck. I understand how frustrating it can be. 

 

I also feed Frozen LRS Reef Frenzy, before that it was ReefCrack a local Kansas City supplier and maker but they were bought out and the quality went down the drain, literally. I feed Frozen for a little over 2 years with no issues. 

 

I thought about switching but everytime I try my fish literally just starve themselves for 3 weeks. They don't even eat the cubes of brine shrimp they're so spoiled. I actually lost one of my fish the last time I tried to switch foods because they would refuse to eat. 

 

The LRS comes in a flat pack I feed about a quarter sized piece a day the majority that goes to the Nems / LPS though.

[Drew11]

10 minutes ago, Hippieheadshot said:

 

I also feed Frozen LRS Reef Frenzy, before that it was ReefCrack a local Kansas City supplier and maker but they were bought out and the quality went down the drain, literally. I feed Frozen for a little over 2 years with no issues. 

 

I thought about switching but everytime I try my fish literally just starve themselves for 3 weeks. They don't even eat the cubes of brine shrimp they're so spoiled. I actually lost one of my fish the last time I tried to switch foods because they would refuse to eat. 

 

The LRS comes in a flat pack I feed about a quarter sized piece a day the majority that goes to the Nems / LPS though.

I was feeding Rods, which I believe is considered to be a good quality frozen food too. 

 

I always had success with new life spectrum pellets. Maybe try cutting down to 2-3x weekly???

Once my algae was gone I went to 1x weekly frozen because I know the coral love it too. 

 

I just know the frozen food every day had something to do with MY outbreak. But if you think you might risk losing fish, that makes it a tough decision. Hopefully it works out for you!

[brandon429]

Harry, just so we don't get side tracked for the fiftieth time:

 

that's my only response to you here, ill not derail another thread on projections considering whats linked there and at the bottom.

 

back to the challenge:

 

the knife tip allows you into the pores you can get in. for the ones you can't liquid peroxide w be fine but do dig. Im not saying we're gouging train marks into it HAHA just a good scraping like a dentist does...you can feel that pressure, and blood comes about but not actually enough to ruin your enamel, we're simply dislodging holfasts a bit better than before, making the peroxide portion for the least possible amount of mass we can pre condition. you just angle the knife tip a little, slicing here and straight in gouging lightly there, dragging those plants out and up, rinsed off w saltwater, big work indeed due to having ever waited.

 

if any of this feels weird, you can try a single test rock. I bet it doesn't grow back hardly at all once the scraping is nailed down relative to your unique rock variables.

 

sandbed fauna/decision point.

 

our system rips them out, but they can reseed from the rocks, and no the rocks aren't rendered neutral in the peroxide and knifing. Those animals didn't help any in the current condition, and I know they're ideal but that's a cost of forcing a tank into compliance. They added a good bit of the waste causing the issues here, that's a tough one.

 

Im going to link the threads Im getting data from:

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

 

sand rinse above.

 

 

below is recent peroxide work:

http://reef2reef.com/threads/reef2reef-pest-algae-challenge-thread-hydrogen-peroxide.187042/    <------how much did worms and some sand pods matter there, or keep those tanks from requiring our help>?

 

 

Everything we're doing to your tank is already modeled there, ready for outcome checking. My system isn't the best way, or infallible, its just a large collection of actual work on the matters in one clickable place.

[Lynaea]

4 hours ago, Hippieheadshot said:

As far as keeping micro fauna and small creatures like bristle worms spaghetti worms and such or any best practice for that? I'm one of those weird people who like them and see them as a valuable part of my clean up crew. 

THIS is exactly the reason I did not do this sand bed cleaning technique for the hair algae issue in my 40 Breeder which at times has been way worse than yours. Mine started shortly after Hurricane Matthew killed most of my tank (yeah like 2 years ago) and I have been struggling with it since. Manual removal worked a little bit, GAC + GFO did nothing, lights out did little to nothing. 

 

I feel like I’m finally getting a handle on it this last month or so.  I can’t say I had a plan but what I did was a big manual removal with a three day black out (because I also suddenly had something that looked a lot like Dino’s) followed by Fluconazole.  However, I used Reef Flux brand and followed their instructions (turn off Skimmer and remove all chemical filtration, a single dose of 200mg per 10 gallons into high flow area, Skimmer and GAC can be restarted after 3 days, 30% water change after 14 days). I only mention this because when I was researching fluconazole most people seemed to be using generic brands and vague instructions. I doubt the brand matters but I bet the procedure does. It also took over a week before the algae began to lighten in color and come apart. I’m also using a micron filter (the Marineland Magnum one) to get out all the algae bits, I assume a filter sock would work the same, I have had to change out and clean those filters every 2 days since about day 7 after treatment (the bleach soak method). At about day 10 I did about a 30% water change because my fish were showing signs of ich and I was afraid to mix medications. 

(Aren’t you glad to know you're not the only one with a algae trashed aquarium ?)

At this point I was researching alternative ich cures and found a hydrogen peroxide thread, I have been dosing 1ml per 4 gallons early in the morning for the last 4-5 days (because that’s an even 10 ml for my tank, the recommendations I found ranged from 1ml per 10 gallons all the way to 1ml per gallon). Again this was for ich, but despite the (earlier than recommended) water change the hair algae has continued to slowly disappear.

I will say that the hair algae in low light / low flow areas seems less affected so I am planning to redose the fluconazole in a week or two and will try focusing more flow on the stubborn spots. But it appears to me that the H2O2 is aiding or continuing what the fluconazole started.  I have seen no ill affects to any of my fish, corals or inverts from the hydrogen peroxide at this dose, I even did 10ml twice daily the 2nd and 3rd days, ich is much improved. 

 

All that to say that I would not pull up my sand bed, I would manually remove as much algae as possible, vacuum or ‘turkey baste’ the sand bed often to stir up and remove detritus and then dose BOTH fluconazole and H2O2 (maybe start the peroxide after day 3??? or even 7? of fluconazole). If you don’t have filter socks I would get some and add power heads to increase flow or just get this. https://www.amazon.com/Marineland-Polishing-Internal-Canister-ML90770/dp/B01C8PH0OI/ref=pd_sim_199_1?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B01C8PH0OI&pd_rd_r=H06BHQ4ST83VMKKMTQMX&pd_rd_w=ygZ9P&pd_rd_wg=hiizI&psc=1&refRID=H06BHQ4ST83VMKKMTQMX   Which is what I’ve been using (the filters can be soaked in diluted bleach and reused). I also use it when I ‘turkey baste’ detritus because I don’t have an overflow. 

 

I am NOT saying Brandon’s method doesn’t work, I have no doubt that it does, but it also seems likely to wipe out all sandbed fauna and most life on the rocks as well so I have chosen to avoid such drastic measures so far. I am only suggesting this as an alternative to ‘rip cleaning’ the sandbed, following the above advice for the rocks and glass is probably the best course. 

 

HTH

[Lynaea]

One other thing, one of the fluconazole threads mentioned that once the hair algae began to turn white the CUC began to eat it. I have witnessed this some in my tank although I think it also must be sort of falling apart based on what is in my filter. I don’t see many snails or hermits in your pics, if they aren’t hiding somewhere I can’t see them ? you might want to get some more. Blue leg hermits are always good and I am really liking the margarita and trochus snails I got recently (nerites and Cerith are good too). Just be aware that the hermits will eat some of the snails ..... but crabs are good for picking at things so I put up with the little murderers. ?

[brandon429]

check out E. Y's thread, you two have the sameish challenge Hippie

 

does his tank minus some worms, and their poo, in the bed look negative?

Be careful about preserving invasions, sandbeds that cannot pass clouding tests, due to these incidentals.

 

 

 

buy the worms back form algen if needed...an option. algen sells everything we want regarding bugs and worms

 

look at his skip cycle work...the sand, the 11 day report, nothing is going to turn 180 degress haywire after that long, this reef is restored.

 

the only diff between you guys was his rock anchor work wasn't as deep

 

 

 

in the sandbed thread we directly show how life goes back into the sand, from the rocks, and how pods on the rocks remain. in no way have we stripped live rock life, make inferences from the posts not from assumption.

 

 

Those threads either have the after pics you want, or they do not, pretty simple. agreed there's many ways to beat algae outside of making a sandbed become compliant

 

 

[Hippieheadshot]

How long is the thinking of just taking a colander to the sand and seeing if I could strain the majority of them out.

[LandenReefer]

There are lots of methods to get rid of GHA so I will just relay what I did.

1.  Started dosing H2O2 at 1ml per 10 gallon every day for a week.

2.  With a pipette I spot treated the worst spots

3.  After a week of the H2O2 dosing I did a very deep cleaning

• Cleaned intank sump.  It was really nasty and had not been cleaned
• Cleaned the sand bed with my python
• Pulled out a few of the worst rocks and dipped them in 50% H2O2 (3%)/50% saltwater for 30 seconds.  Then rinsed and clean salt water
• Dipped some zoas and pipe corals in the H2O2 that had a lot of GHA growing in them.
• Replaced 8 gallons in my 29 gallon tank with new saltwater

4.  I then started dosing API Algae-Fix following the directions.  There are some really good threads on this stuff and how well it works.  Inexpensive at $8 for a small bottle at Petco.

 

After a week almost all the GHA is completely gone.  It was pretty radical to do both the H2O2 and Algae-Fix but I wanted to knock out the GHA for good.  

 

My tank has 2 Frogspawn colonies, Candy Canes, various zoas, SPS, mushrooms, etc.  None of the corals, fish or CUC has shown any ill effects from doing this.  Everything is open and looking really healthy.

 

That said, my long term plan is to do a better job with the cleaning of the intank and sand.  I got lazy and did not clean them well which likely caused the outbreak.

 

[brandon429]

HippieHS

 

I’d value that data and pictures tremendously and link it in both those threads. If reefcentral hadn’t kicked me out for purveying peroxide in the early years, always against the grain by nature I guess, heh then that 65 page pest algae challenge thread would have the data too. Check it out:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2082359

if you can numerate isolate and photograph all or most of the organisms in a sandbed you will remove most of the remaining hesitation people have for letting junk build up in the bed, bc you can put them back into a rinsed or new bed sans waste. 

 

concern over killing those animals, that diversity, literally prevents waste export from happening understandably in many reefers

 

 

as compounding occurs we lose the greater system to eutrophication so we need to be catching these at some better balance time... without careless loss of the bed fauna, ideally, if someone will bother to branch out and document that method.

 

Merely seeing more than ten isolated worms from an actual sand bed will be totally new info for our thread, it’s usually just waste mud down there. I’ve admittedly deemed bed fauna not even worth considering, hesitating over, but that needs to be pressed and challenged and it’s ideal to see how many live animals you could somehow tease out of that mix. You can see nobody has bothered to even try in all our reefing boards, use nylons too as various filtration levels be creative.

 

 

your sandbed (outside the tank sensitives) can be experimented with as a method for extracting the good

 

 

Landen well said that is in line with just a massive amnt of data from other comparative runs. 

 

The ideal method of nano reefing is to never need a rip cleaning and still get tanks out past six years or better as a recurring lifespan. I have not found a repeatable method for that which involves housing a sandbed that cannot pass a drop test occasionally, some form of export reset. Most of our older pico and nano examples have periods where we cheat burned off some algae...however they may have turned out without the peroxide occasion wasn’t an option to find, because we weren’t letting the plants call the shots any longer. 

 

 

[Hippieheadshot]

@brandon429 I will definitely be doing heavy documentation. I plan on doing a full replacement of the sand bed, essentially panning out all the life I can out of it. 

 

My plan is large colander for snails, stars, and large worms. 

 

Aggressive panning for micro stars and small worms, baby snails.

 

I don't think anything past that will work do to the nature of sand and the grain size.

 

------

 

The only thing I am worried about is my nems, I have pulled and scrubbed the rocks and redone my aquascape before but never over 15-30 min. The never have moved or release so I doubt they will but I don't want to cause a stress split if possible.

 

Game plan is for early Saturday, wife is a photographer so I am going to user her DSLR and get quality photos. Attack plan outline is:

• Drain tank and remove as much sand as I can in the process. 
• Manual removal on rocks and tank walls. Plan on getting picks and a metal wire bush for this. 
• Hit rocks with peroxide treatment in a rubber maid tub. 
• Remove the rest of the sand while peroxide treatment does its work. 
• Rinse rocks with the tank water I saved. 
• Replace rockwork and add new sand.
• Fill tank back up 50%
• Recover critters from sand and reintroduce them back to tank
• Fill tank back 100%

This is  going to be a long morning...

[brandon429]

Well done planning i think it’s solid. I wish we always had this good of a lead up

 

Agreed those anems are nice and if you have to scrape around them and leave a little bit of this algae in place to save them, that’s not a concern 

 

this is not a horrible dangerous strain, peroxide will buzzsaw it and you’re about to have no fuel left in place for minor patches. They might even die off in time since the bulk tank will be so clean. 

 

The rasping is for sure better than rock dipping. Dips allow that peroxide to wick in and REALLY hits pods and worms hard, some die in dips. It gets in deep

 

the anchors for that algae don’t go that deep and it’s safer for rock pods and life to not dip 

 

you’ll get a feel quickly for the right amount of dental pressure and picking to use which isn’t harming rock much at all, but better focus than the metal brush option and the algae will come off. Rasping is never anti pods 

 

that final direct 3% pipetted on former algae spots isn’t a dip, it’s a 1-2 minute topical cell burn then a rinse in salt, then ready to go. Much less pod contact and heavy heavy contact for the anchor spots but briefly, it’s perfect. 

 

 

On my last page of the sand rinse thread we talk about expressing rocks of their detritus and over the next couple weeks they should be pumping out some waste and this can cause minor growback challenges we are prepared. 

 

**if you have algae from mars and after our work the growback begins, it’s not a fail. This work positions your tank correctly for future alternate options. There w be hardly any mass left of target, there will be no sand fuel for targets, and only pent up rock detritus is the issue in that case or the rare too white light issue. We blue up not white up challenge reefs for a while during recovery guiding, something about heavy blue light suppresses algae better than white while still covering coral growth, 

 

 

the point here is no loss skip cycle work and a clean tank, and in that process a massive mass arrest. It’s positioning, different than the past. It doesn’t have to be a total cure in one pass, though you can see we earn that mostly. De eutrophication is a stepped process just like eutrophication is

 

we just happen to mostly be dealing in one approach cures, for the occasional non compliant I don’t run to the hills, this is all step one

[brandon429]

I’ve seen people use toy squirt guns with saltwater or mister bottles to keep rocks and corals wet while outside working, a creative technique. This will preserve many pods and worms for sure, and the anems are less stressed this way too. If some algae is left in crevices or around the nems, not a concern. Get what we can on pass 1 and the rest likely dies off or if not, only very few touch up spots for April will be in place and then your tank is aligned for cleanliness in that you can rearrange and lift out and siphon out expressed detritus without causing a nutrient cloud. We are setting up your tank for deep future access too if needed, a setup for manual gardening which no algae can beat over the course of time. Humans as grazers are unbeatable 

[HarryPotter]

The o

13 hours ago, brandon429 said:

Harry, just so we don't get side tracked for the fiftieth time:

 

that's my only response to you here, ill not derail another thread on projections considering whats linked there and at the bottom.

 

back to the challenge:

 

Zero update on his “documentation” after ten days, very common lol. 

 

To summarize my point:

 

    I maintain that your your approach is unbelievably time consuming and unhealthy for the tank (sterilizing the water column). And, only possible to attempt on nano tanks where you can remove each rock to “pick” at the algae. I have seen no evidence that the method is effective and/or not detrimental to the tank. I find your responses across threads typically to be contradictory, and they tend to cling to unrelated accepted data in your attempt to make your method seem reliable/scientific. 

 

But, each to their own. By all means I hope that in a few months the OP will have a pristine tank . 

[Hippieheadshot]

14 minutes ago, HarryPotter said:

The o

 

Zero update on his “documentation” after ten days, very common lol. 

 

To summarize my point:

 

    I maintain that your your approach is unbelievably time consuming and unhealthy for the tank (sterilizing the water column). And, only possible to attempt on nano tanks where you can remove each rock to “pick” at the algae. I have seen no evidence that the method is effective and/or not detrimental to the tank. I find your responses across threads typically to be contradictory, and they tend to cling to unrelated accepted data in your attempt to make your method seem reliable/scientific. 

 

But, each to their own. By all means I hope that in a few months the OP will have a pristine tank . 

 

I'm a little confused by your post Harry, what part do you disagree with how about my battle plan? Are you referring to the other guy once who dosed the tank directly? I don't mind that back and forth of feedback at all so hopefully one of these threads

[HarryPotter]

18 minutes ago, Hippieheadshot said:

 

I'm a little confused by your post Harry, what part do you disagree with how about my battle plan? Are you referring to the other guy once who dosed the tank directly? I don't mind that back and forth of feedback at all so hopefully one of these threads

 

 

The post is directed to Brandon429. I do not agree with any of his suggestions regarding H202. He tries to advocate this H202 method, but fails to back it via data, reasonable theories, or even documented "success stories". I know he is not malicious (intending harm), but most of his posts on the topic are highly fallacious while he tries to justify his "miracle cure"-  fanaticical. 

[Lynaea]

28 minutes ago, Hippieheadshot said:

 

I'm a little confused by your post Harry, what part do you disagree with how about my battle plan? Are you referring to the other guy once who dosed the tank directly? I don't mind that back and forth of feedback at all so hopefully one of these threads

 

Harry can speak for himself but I agree with him that this method is time consuming and drastic. 

 

I have no doubt that removing all the algae, and all the detritus that feeds it, from a system in a blitzkreig type attack will solve the problem in the short term. But there are obviously then husbandry issues to address as to whatever allowed the algae to proliferate in the first place. 

 

It is also really only feasible for small nano tanks, .... in one thread Brandon stated his ‘tank’ is rip cleaned every Tuesday, but his pics were of a jar pico, this kind of thing would obviously be reasonable and even required for that size system.   As much as he hypes it, you’d think he owns a hydrogen peroxide plant or something. ?

I don’t have much of an issue with the procedure Brandon touts, I do feel he goes a bit hard sell with confusing posts/information and constant referrals to other threads full of ‘evidence’ as if this were a science project. I think if his method of promoting this procedure were more ‘hey a bunch of people did this and it worked pretty well’ he wouldn’t get so much backlash (re: being banned from r2r)

 

Yes hydrogen peroxide will kill algae and is okay to use on/near corals, some people use it as a coral dip. (Be careful with SPS) 

Yes scrubbing/scraping all the algae will remove it for now, but you say you already did this and it has come back. 

Yes you can probably do all this and save a good portion of your micro fauna. 

 

BUT this method is still just a ‘quick’ fix, you will only see long term results if you can figure out what caused the issue to begin with. Otherwise you will probably have to do this again in 3-6 months to ‘maintain’ your tank. To his credit Brandon did mention working on these issues after the cleaning.