One very unique way of fighting algae, diatoms, invasive macro etc

[brandonm]

Everyone has an idea on how to fight algae and various invaders in a reef tank, here's mine

its 4 years worth of before and after pics, tanks ranging 1 gallon to 400 gallons all kinds of setups using the same treatment method, peroxide. Its one tool of many to use in our tanks, per this thread, we wield it like Thor's hammer:

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

try anything else first for your green hair algae, red brush algae, dinos, and then try this

[brandonm]

Try to find time to read the thread where you can see all the pics in it, nearly all questions are answered in those pages, and tanks of many kinds are shown. surely one will approximate any tank we need to review in here as well. This method is powerful.

Here are highlights of a 60 page thread showing various cures we can discuss here, I dont post at rc anymore:

-the most susceptible animal in a reef tank to peroxide is lysmata cleaner shrimp

-nearly everything else is tolerant in some way we have shown in the thread, with outcome pics

the *most* tolerant organisms in our reef tanks of peroxide is actually the filter bacteria, as indicated by myriad ammonia testing done in these aquaria. Almost no usable concentration of peroxide has been shown to affect filter bacteria, cause mini cycles etc, and thats assumed to be the greatest risk of in tank use, we show otherwise.

-known timeframes you can expect certain organisms to die off in, to see if this method is working

-ways to treat full running mixed reefs, or sections that are simply lifted out and treated and then rinsed

we talk a -lot- about the physiology of algae invasions in this thread, but even better we establish repeatability and predictability for peroxide use in the reef aquarium, check it out if you are having problems other methods seem to ignore

[brandonm]

The age old battle: legitimacy, natural vs unnatural

None of that applies here, we are for the desperate or the prevention of the desperate

any other method should be considered first if you wrestle with natural vs unnatural methods, whats acceptable and not acceptable to use.

All we do is fix tanks, period

sometimes peroxide threads come down to this: bandaid

we talk about that too in the thread. there is a reason the thread keeps getting used by scores of people even though I dont post in it anymore, outcome.

maybe something better will come along and this will stop being used, but I dont think so

its good to detract anything and see if it stands a test. pick any one of our cure tanks you'd have fixed a different way, and lets discuss and make predictions about how that w go down this is always good science discussion material

In time I noticed that nobody can tell you to use peroxide, or ATS Santa Monica methods, or GFO, or refugiums, or DSB's, or UNLS systems as a "best" way

as long as successful tanks using all these methods exist, all that means is you have a salad bar choice on how to beat your algae problems. Each has pros and cons, a blend of one or more methods is often powerful

the fact is peroxide works, long term, and we can control and predict what it does, its not haphazard. its limitations and benefits are outlined, see if your problem tank can beat my challenge. at the end of the 4 years, I call 90% fixed.

[Martian]

Sorry bro... I dun have time to read 50+ pages...

[brandonm]

no I wouldn't either if I didn't have the need! Those losing a grand in corals have no problem heh

[brandonm]

here is one example thread, 24 hours frag is now clean

http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/347174-getting-rid-of-algae-between-polyps/#entry4753016

[LittleBurger]

here is one example thread, 24 hours frag is now clean http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/347174-getting-rid-of-algae-between-polyps/#entry4753016'>http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/347174-getting-rid-of-algae-between-polyps/#entry4753016

hi Brandon, does dosing peroxide increase the orp as well? Thanks.

[brandonm]

That depends on what system you test the addition of peroxide with orp monitors, and how someone chooses to interpret variance data relative to what is good or bad for our tanks. opinions vary bigtime

im no chemist but in getting bashed by many while promoting peroxide some things were picked up

added to a glass of distilled water on the counter? sure

added to a years old reef tank with heavy organic waste reserves, not so

the chemistry and immediate/lasting effects are markedly different where peroxide attracting compounds are present, they affect its lifespan in the water and dissipation rates, and this begins some of the interesting push/pull that is peroxide use in the reef tank.

interesting: decades of peer reviewed data exist to show how organic compounds react with hydrogen peroxide. You will find organic sludge digestion works for Lake and stream management, well known biochemistry pathways, and lots of reading on the matter.

Now try to find one instance regarding peer reviewed journal published work on peroxide effects in the marine aquarium and you'll find a void contributing to the push/pull...

We don't have references to chart this aspect of marine tank husbandry, but considering peroxide has a fifty year history in freshwater its not a blind push either

one of our linked reference threads within that thread above is a thread from reefcentral 2009 where boomer, a highly respected chemist and poster, is talking in a thread about why orp dropped, not raised, in a reef tank when peroxide was added.

It was a paradox worth linking but they never really related that variance data to why we fixed so many tanks with something theoretically so bad?

I think you get an initial brief spike in some systems, and not in others, and in the end neither really mattered to the microbiology, chemistry and stasis for the tank. opinions vary and I'm biased

[LittleBurger]

I am tempted to try out this. Dosing peroxide. So far what I read from usage of peroxide is pple use as coral dip as well. Dosing into reef tanks is not common. Not sure how's the skimmer gonna react as well.

[brandonm]

Hey can you post a full tank shot and we will throw out some customized approach Skimmer is expected to increase skimmate output because peroxide will bring organics into suspension and out the tank faster than normal via skimming. In most of the cases they wanted to dose full tank, we saw easier ways to remove sections of treatable rock simply because treating the sections outside the tank allowed for a direct spot treat of the algae

[LittleBurger]

Hey can you post a full tank shot and we will throw out some customized approach Skimmer is expected to increase skimmate output because peroxide will bring organics into suspension and out the tank faster than normal via skimming. In most of the cases they wanted to dose full tank, we saw easier ways to remove sections of treatable rock simply because treating the sections outside the tank allowed for a direct spot treat of the algae

Hi, I only have bubble algae n no hair algae. I can't take out my rocks as they are quite huge n fuse to each other. After trying out 3ml in my 150gal tank, I see a drop of 30+ on my orp. My orp never increase at all. I did a test of po4 & no3. No3 before dose. http://s160.photobucket.com/user/waterbottle_23/media/Mobile%20Uploads/DSC_1952_zpsjgr54zan.jpg.html'> No3 after dose. http://s160.photobucket.com/user/waterbottle_23/media/Mobile%20Uploads/DSC_1953_zpsifvhnldj.jpg.html'> Po4 before dose. http://s160.photobucket.com/user/waterbottle_23/media/Mobile%20Uploads/DSC_1951_zpsyrregceg.jpg.html'> Po4 after dose http://s160.photobucket.com/user/waterbottle_23/media/Mobile%20Uploads/DSC_1950_zpssbm0ikwm.jpg.html'>

[bubblefish000]

Hi where to buy peroxide Do u need food grade type

[LittleBurger]

Hi where to buy peroxide

Do u need food grade type

after googling, u dun need high concentrate cos too pure n if high temp will explode(that's wat I read from internet)

I bought mine from guardian pharmacy small bottle $5+. Big bottle $7.80.

I used syringe to inject into the bubble algae, cyano n hair algae. Quite effective except hair algae cos u need find the roots n squirt the peroxide at the roots for more effective kill.

U will see bubbles like soda when u applied to rocks.

Your orp will drop. When I use about 30ml on my 150gallon, my orp dropped from 290+ to 230+.

I have a fire shrimp n no abnormal behavior. Fishes all ok. Maybe u like to start slow.

[titustitus]

hmm dont you take out the entire rock to do the peroxide treatment?

[brandonm]

That depends, it is not required The example thread in post one shows literally hundreds of examples

[DottyClown]

Hi brandonm, appreciate if u can comment on my below plan of action. I will be changing to a new 2ft tank soon. Current 1.5ft tank has a lot of hair and turf algae. Plan is to take out all LR and use brush to remove as much algae as possible. Then soak LR in Hydrogen Peroxide (3%) from Guardian Pharmacy for 4-5 mins. Next will rinse LR before transferring it into new tank. All LR will be treated together. I would have removed most algae by brushing, but do you think this will still cause an ammonia spike in new tank. I have a cleaner, fire & coral-banded shrimps which will also be transferred into new tank shortly after the LR. Do you think it is safe to do so within the same day? Please advise, thanks.

[brandonm]

that sounds like a good plan, the safety of the sensitive shrimp will depend solely on your rinse. peroxide wont be effective in an aquarium just several hours after being diluted, the amounts we use, so your shrimp stress from the actual move would be the action to consider. we dont want a double insult of stress move+peroxide, so as a twofold safety approach I recommend you rinse the rocks extremely well in clean saltwater before adding to your newer tank, and add the shrimps the next day.

qt them for 24 hours after your scrubbed rock has been added, there's no way peroxide will be a factor at that point.

it is a good idea in this case to manually remove the biomass first, then treat, good call.

In our example thread it was almost always the other way around, but thats for picture effect

we want to leave the least possible algae in the system to fragment and reseed around the tank, so indeed remove as much as you can and the peroxide will hit whatever was left in the rock.

future prediction:

be ready for a comeback. moving tanks upends nutrients in the lower areas of the tank and can frequently cause algae issues for some time afterwards, deal with it as you please but do expect some comeback tufts from things we missed during this work.

Perhaps you could aquascape your tank in such a way that these rocks are removable for the first few months, anticipating this prediction and required action. What peroxide is doing for you on this first run, is chemically killing a huge amount of this mass you would otherwise leave rooted in place by using physical-only removal methods, its still very helpful.

Please take before pics of the rocks in the worst condition, and then updates a week or two after so we can begin to get pics for this thread!

[brandonm]

in every way our example thread advises creativity and going the extra mile in water changes to make up for the care situations that caused the algae. You could elect to change 40% of the water for three days in a row after the new setup just to ensure safety, export those nutrients that are liberated into the water column during a tank move, etc. consider it cpr, how many chest compressions is your reef worth? mines worth the most, 100%, done every week for nine years. the more water changes you do, without stirring up deep sand bed waste and by exporting detritus at every interval, the longer your small reef will live in terms of years.

typically people will recommend you install and use GFO as an adsorbtion media for your small reef tank, in small quantities, as a phosphate stripper to prevent or lessen regrowth. peroxide is an ideal tool to catch up, and stave off early invasions while you tune the preventatives better.

[DottyClown]

Thanks brandonm

[sherman]

after googling, u dun need high concentrate cos too pure n if high temp will explode(that's wat I read from internet)

I bought mine from guardian pharmacy small bottle $5+. Big bottle $7.80.

I used syringe to inject into the bubble algae, cyano n hair algae. Quite effective except hair algae cos u need find the roots n squirt the peroxide at the roots for more effective kill.

U will see bubbles like soda when u applied to rocks.

Your orp will drop. When I use about 30ml on my 150gallon, my orp dropped from 290+ to 230+.

I have a fire shrimp n no abnormal behavior. Fishes all ok. Maybe u like to start slow.

Hi LittleBurger,

You dose 30 ml in one go or you drip the whole content over a period of time?

Thanks

[sun2000]

I assume it will work as well on aiptasia. Will try this as well on the spot area with problem bryopsis. Difficult to get rid.

Thanks for the info on peroxide.

[LittleBurger]

Hi LittleBurger, You dose 30 ml in one go or you drip the whole content over a period of time? Thanks

i inject into my bubble algae n some hair algae using a needle syringe. But I find my orp going down instead of up, from 29x to 22x, So do with care.

[LittleBurger]

I assume it will work as well on aiptasia. Will try this as well on the spot area with problem bryopsis. Difficult to get rid. Thanks for the info on peroxide.

actually it should work on all living organism.

[ambystoma82]

It confirm cant.kill aiptasia.

[Cedric]

Dear all,

just wanted to share H2O2 worked very well for me. I had a massive growth of bryopsis and other algae which is rapidly taking over my tank and killing my corals. I tried many approaches over 3 months but could not stop the on slaught of the algae from taking over. I then tried dosing H2O2 which worked to rid the other algae at the recommended dosage but the bryopsis seems to be able to cope. Finally, I decided I will need to either restart my tank or take a higher risk to rid the bryopsis which will not go away.

*WARNING* I am just stating my personal experience so please understand there are real risk involved.

I did a system wide dosing of 250ml at one shot to my 100 litre/25gal tank. This works out to be about 10ml per gal. There was massive bubbling throughout the tank. All the corals shrunk and looked very bad for about an hour. It did kill all my snails and my RBTA. Lots of bristle works came out of the LR and floated to the top which I removed promptly. The corals slowly recovered after one day and guess what? It was a complete wipe out of all algae in my tank and my tank is slowly making a very good recovery. It's been 3 weeks since I did the massive H2O2 does and there's still no algae of any kind in the tank.

So perhaps there's hope for desperate reefers like me . . .