Hydrogen Peroxide for algae

[DaleHauze]

I have been reading up on using hydrogen peroxide to battle algae. Anyone have experience using this. I have an outbreak of Dino and I started to dose hydrogen peroxide but from what I have read it won't work by just pouring it into the tank but more of a direct application. Thank you for the help.


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[Sniperhank]

The first part of this battle is addressing the nitrates and phosphates in the tank.
When it comes to using hydrogen peroxide, you have to be careful. It can easily kill coral and other such things. Simply remove the rock from the tank and put it into old tank water and peroxide mix. I use an electric tooth brush as well.

 

[DaleHauze]

Im not sure at first i thought it was because i was getting a bit lazy on my water changes only doing 15% every 3 weeks or so. So i started doing 15% weekly. Then it seemed to get worse. Every change i would siphon out the Dino but it kept coming back. So that brings us to today. I ordered 2 media reactors so i can use carbon and GFO instead of having the bag of chemipro elite sitting on my return pump. All my tests so strong great water quality with only exception is phosphates at .25. Im using RO/DI water and i let my salt mix age for a week before using it. I dont really know what to do next.


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[Sniperhank]

How much are you feeding and how often? .25 phosphates is really high. My reef tank tests at .05 and there is still algae on my rocks.
Dinos are a rough battle. You'll need to be doing large water changes with ro/di water while trying to bring those phosphates down, the GFO will help.

 

[DaleHauze]

Small 1/8"x1/4" cube of food once a day.


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[TheTodd]

I tried dosing a while back (directly into my 60g reef cube) and the hair algae got a little bleached looking but did not totally die off. The bubble algae did not change. Some of my Zoas never looked better. Hammer, Monti caps, mushrooms, Lepto, candy canes, etc all seemed to not notice. A month or so after stopping, everything is back to normal (algae included). The big difference I did notice was far less pods in my filter sock on the first changes.

Moving stuff into a bucket is a better idea if you can get the rocks out.


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[DaleHauze]

I read about spraying directly on the algae. Im not sure what to do


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[Sniperhank]

You don't want to be spraying this stuff. It doesn't care what it comes into contact with, which is what you want to be in control of.
Just pull the rock out you want to remove algae from. Pull as much off as you can. Then submerge what area of the rock is infested in the water/peroxide mix. Let it sit for some time then scrub the area with a toothbrush.
It's a pretty simple process. I would do this with pieces of rock with coral attached to them, making sure that the mix didn't touch the coral in any way. An electric toothbrush was helpful for areas where I needed to get really close to coral tissue.

 

[DaleHauze]

Ok I will try that. Should I continue water changes, I also read that you shouldn't do any because you continue to feed the nutrients to the algae. I skipped last weeks. Or should I do larger changes.


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[DaleHauze]

I really do appreciate everyone's help with this thanks again


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[DaleHauze]

Todd how much were you dosing and where you using the 3% or the 35%.


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[Sniperhank]

If using ro/di water, you will be bringing in no nitrates or phosphates as the TDS should be 0. I would do large water change to ensure that the nitrates are 0 and the phosphates are in the .05 range (where my reef tank currently is for the record).
You can then use this old tank water as the base to mix peroxide into.

 

[DaleHauze]

Ok. I do use Ro/DI water and it does read 0 TDS


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[Mattyfelts]

i have successfully used peroxide dips, i dipped a rock full of zoas and a baby plate on it and everything is fine and actually looked better post dip.

 

[fort384]

I too would be weary of application in a display tank with lots of coral, though a lot of people report success with direct application via a medicine dropper. I think if you get your PO4 in control, it will go a long way towards inhibiting the algae growth you are experiencing. I go a month or more between water changes but I feed light and I run GFO to keep PO4 as close to 0 as I can, and while I do have some algae in the tank, it is very much under control and not a nuisance. Occasionally, if I get a spot that is trouble, I'll just scrub it off with a tooth brush in the tank and do some manual removal. But I rarely do this. Once the PO4 is under control, a little clean up crew addition may bring everything where you want it.

It sounds to me like you may be over feeding, depending on what you have in the tank. I feed Rods Reef, and for a tank with several fish, I feed a small piece smaller than my pinky nail daily or sometimes even every other day.

 

[DaleHauze]

I have greatly lowered the amount I was feeding. I feed LRS Herbfrenzy a started with half inch squares which I know now was too much. I'm feeding around an 1/8 inch square daily and every other day I use a new era mini marine grazers for my tang, (the tang is terrified of nori).I have 11 fish in 110g food is gone in 45-60 sec. My reactors should be here tomorrow. I have been relying solely on my refuge for nutrient export. I started using chemipure elite but I feel I'm wasting money by plopping the bag in the sump.


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