Imprt from ORCA: Dosing Hydrogen Peroxide - The best kept secret for algae and dinos

[toomanytanks352]

Hey all,

I just wanted to share with you the great success I've had dosing Hydrogen Peroxide for over a week now. The reason I started to dose H2O2 is because of the reef tank menace otherwise known as Dinoflagellates. Dinos are very hard to get rid of, and if not attacked early, will almost certainly destroy your tank. I have had them before and had to wrap my tank in black plastic with the lights out for about a week before they would disappear. Even then, they came back after 2 days or so and I ended up having to break down my reef.

I cringed when I saw them show up in my display tank a couple weeks ago. They kept growing and growing and were making my tank look slimy and disgusting. I scoured the internet for removal methods and they all seemed hit or miss. I came across a few threads on dosing 3% H2O2 with mixed results, but mostly good. Knowing my history with dinos, I figured I had nothing to lose.

I turned my lights out and began dosing 10mL 3% H2O2 every night per 10 gallons of display tank volume. I kept my lights out for three days completely, and then turned the timer back on. I maintained the dosing schedule up to the present. When I inspected my tank after the three day lights out and dosing period, I was astonished and relieved to see THE DINOS WERE GONE! Further, my tank had never been clearer, the rocks were algae free, and my glass was even algae free! This stuff is amazing. The only algae that was left in my entire tank was the coraline. The H2O2 had killed off every other type of algae in the tank. My corals still look great and do not look affected by the treatment, at all. I have SPS, anemones, leathers, zoas, gonios, hammers, you name it. None of them were affected and all had great polyp extension.

If you ever have a dino problem - or any algae problem for that matter - please consider H2O2 dosing. It is the best kept secret in invasive nuisance algae treatment. It is also a great frag dip btw.

[craigwmiller]

I have experience with this as well... I had a significant outbreak of cyano which I could not conquer. I used 3mL 3% per 10 gallons of net volume per day for 2 weeks, and (like you) i was astonished. I'd tried chemiclean in previous tanks, but it felt like a bandaid only.

I was so happy with the results that I didn't stop... I stepped it down to 2mL per 10 gallons per day, and put it on a dosing pump! I've been doing it now for 9 months with an amazingly low amount of algae overall (only a small amount on the glass), and no other Ill effects traceable to the h2o2!

Note to other readers: please don't just dump h2o2 into your tank without researching the possible issues. Read about orp and the effects h2o2 can have on it. I spent a week or so weighing the pros and cons, and have a good friend who has been doing the same recurring dosing regime as I described above, and I still took caution.

[reelredfish]

Tagging

[Reef Frog]

Peroxide full tank dosing worked very well for a bad Bryopsis infestation I had a few years ago, same dosage as above. I've used it since for spot treatments here and there for other things too. Side effects are minimal, acceptable and it works. Shrimp can be sensitive & maybe other things with an exoskeleton. Effects can be short lived however unless underlying causes are addressed, specifically nutrient export. I personally believe large water changes with detriis removal during & after treatment are helpful because by removing the dead cellular material it prevents it from being recycled and used by the next generation. Yes, read up on it and make your own decisions, as its a powerful oxidizer and can kill stuff if used improperly. Also always use a fresh bottle, it's inexpensive. Don't be tempted to overdose and remember to account for the displacement of water by sand, live rock, equipment etc - don't dose by raw tank+sump volume alone.

[GSep]

Been thinking of going this route for a while to battle my hair algae issue. I've tried full week blackouts, GFO+Carbon, wet skimming, even AlgaeFix and nothing has put a dent into it.

Only thing that did work was dipping one of my smaller rocks into a bucket with freshly mixed sw and hydrogen peroxide. After a light scrubbing and a swish around in clean sw, I put it back in the tank. This was over 6 months ago, and to this day, there still has not been any algae on this rock compared to my others. Definitely going to give this dosing method a try and see what happens.

[Mishri]

One said 3mL/10g one said 10mL/10g.. which would be the proper dose? If 3mL works I'd be inclined to start there and up the dosage if needed.

[Reef Frog]

I recall using 1ml per 10g of tank water volume daily for full tank dosing, but it was a long time ago. I THINK 10ml per 10g is too much, but my memory could certainly be wrong. I would urge anyone following this thread to double check the recommended amount. Peroxide is a powerful oxidizer and if overused, can kill inverts and can be very hard on coral tissue, perhaps. I skimmed over the first post and missed this - sorry.

[dkeller_nc]

One warning - if you've a tank with truly live rock (i.e., harvested from the ocean, not dry rock that's been seeded), you may very well have a good deal of sponges and bristle worms. These are extraordinarily sensitive to H2O2, and will likely be killed by the H2O2 dose mentioned by the OP within a few hours.

That in and of itself isn't a big deal when compared to a serious dino infestation, but if you've an appreciable amount of these in the tank, there's a possibility of a strong nutrient spike. I've reproduced this effect a few times in smaller tanks where I was trying to treat just a rock or two - rather incredible to see just how many bristle worms an average reef tank rock holds!

[reelredfish]

So this is a safe method to use on reefs then?

[JPMagyar]

Originally Posted by reelredfish

So this is a safe method to use on reefs then?

The use of Hydrogen Peroxide in reefs has been discussed countless times on RC and has been known for decades in the hobby. The simple answer to the question "is it safe?" is maybe and not always. What you are doing is adding ozone to the tank. Ozone is a free oxygen molecule. Adding ozone to a tank can improve water clarity, kill algae, and breakdown organics. The trouble is when you dose hydrogen peroxide in a tank you have very poor control of what gets acted upon. The hydrogen peroxide is indiscriminate in what it kills and can kill worms, copepods, good algae as well as bad algae. I do not know of any TOTM reefer that used or uses hydrogen peroxide as a whole reef treatment. Some skilled reefers that I know of have used hydrogen peroxide for targeted areas or dips.

I have battled dinos on many occasions and never used hydrogen peroxide. Increased water changes, manual removal, increased flow, and a larger cleanup crew were what I used to rid my tank of dinos.

[3FordFamily]

I have had great success. For stubborn outbreaks, add kent tech m as well to bring mag up to 1600-1700+

[3FordFamily]

I dose closer to 1ml per gallon. Buy in bulk on Amazon

[ReefsandGeeks]

I know this thread id a few months old, but I've come to the conclustion that adding GFO and increasing skimming and upping carbon dosing a bit isn't goign to stop my dino problem. I'll stop and get some hydrogen peroxide 3% today. I just wanted to double check what the recomended dosing schedule would be. Should I start right off the bat with 1ml/10gallons? should I ease into it to gage coral response? When will I know if I should up the dose, and by how much? Total treatment length? I wouldn't mind just doing a daily dose if there's no apriciable side effects. Does hydrogen peroxide build up in the tank, or does it deplete daily when used?

Sorry for the berage of questions, I've been looking up peroxide dosing all day but can't find a good solid article or thread without alot of back and forth with a bunch of different doses being thrown around. Any further insite would be apriciated. I will post my results to try to further general knowlege.

[ReefsandGeeks]

BTW, I have a mixed reef with about half SPS and the other half a mix of zoas, hammer coral, mushroom coral, and finger leather. Not sure if coral type has any impact on dosing. I also saw a referance to ORP? I didn't see any data, just "be aware of changes". Should Iturn my lights down while dosing? Any added benefit from only blue lights? Thanks again

[PhaneSoul]

I dipped some rocks in a solution of 75%\25% saltwater to 3%-h2o2, bristle worms will die, but not in a matter of hours but in a matter of days.

[ReefsandGeeks]

That's interesting. I would have thought they'd die faster than that with a 25% dip. Dipping like that wouldn't work for me though becoause all of my rocks but 1 have coral growing directly on them. I may considder doing a strong consentration dip of that one rock though. It also has some GHA on it, but hasn't taken over due to grazing fish. Right now I'm mainly concerned with Dino which has been smothering my SPS coral, plus it's unsightly. mainly concerned about the coral's health though.

[DDon]

Originally Posted by devastator007

I know this thread id a few months old, but I've come to the conclustion that adding GFO and increasing skimming and upping carbon dosing a bit isn't goign to stop my dino problem. I'll stop and get some hydrogen peroxide 3% today. I just wanted to double check what the recomended dosing schedule would be. Should I start right off the bat with 1ml/10gallons? should I ease into it to gage coral response? When will I know if I should up the dose, and by how much? Total treatment length? I wouldn't mind just doing a daily dose if there's no apriciable side effects. Does hydrogen peroxide build up in the tank, or does it deplete daily when used?

Sorry for the berage of questions, I've been looking up peroxide dosing all day but can't find a good solid article or thread without alot of back and forth with a bunch of different doses being thrown around. Any further insite would be apriciated. I will post my results to try to further general knowlege.

I have been battling dinos myself and went the peroxide route. I can share what I did and the results if it is any help. Not saying this is the right way, just what I did.
Started with peroxide just over 2 1/2 weeks ago. I was hesitant so started with a smaller dose and ramped up to a full 1ml/10gal over the course of 3-4 days. Continued with manual removal and dosing for a week at full dose and didn't see much of an improvement. I then started dosing 1ml/10 gal twice a day, once in morning and once at night with the night time dose shortly after manual removal and blowing off the rocks hoping the peroxide would kill off dinos in the water column. The only negative impacts from dosing peroxide I could see at this point were, I lost one of my cleaner shrimp and had a spathulata frag rtn on me. The spath was already suffering so this may have been coincidental.
Still wasn't seeing much difference in the dinos so I started adding a kalk slurry in addition to the kalk I use in my ATO to increase my pH. I then added 3 days lights out in addition to everything else. Today is only my second day with lights back on but so far not seeing any dinos. I have now decreased peroxide to just once a day and will probably stop in another week. I can say trying to raise pH to around 8.5 with kalk was more damaging than the peroxide (in my opinion) as I have a few sps with severely burnt tips and lost a few pieces (rtn) during lights out. The pieces I lost though were in bad shape already and we're just hanging on. These pieces had been slowly stning over the last couple months. An interesting note though is the stn had stopped when I first started dosing the peroxide.

To answer your other question, peroxide breaks down pretty rapidly and does not accumulate.

[soulpatch]

I have been dipping my trouble rocks to clear the bryopsis I have been dealing with. One thing to note is that some livestock is very sensitive to the peroxide. My cleaner shrimp is the main reason I have not dosed the tank. He, however, is going into a holding tank so I can start to dose and finally rid myself of all bryopsis in my tank.

The dips have done wonders for some of my rock and it has not come back on some whereas some of my other rock it seems to be a constant struggle.

[ReefsandGeeks]

Thank you DDon, That does help. I will likely do somehting very similar. I'll likely dose 1/3rd dose today to see how the coral reacts, as i would with any new additive, than quickly ramp up to the 1ml/10 gallon. I'll stay there for a bit then go from there, whether that's more dosing, or other measures. I dose kalk now, but my evaporation is very low, so my already saturated kalk drips so slow as to not do a whole lot to pH.

Soulpatch, I'm interested that some of your rocks havn't had problems after dipping. Has all of the rock you've dipped had lasting results, or only some? If some had it come back after dipping, did you do anyhting different or is it maybe a diferent kind of rock?

[soulpatch]

I cant dip 100% of my rock due to its placement and that it was epoxied down. So those rocks that are close to the rocks untreated tend to get some spread. I am sure if i let it go it woudl spread to all rocks but I am trying to keep it in check.

There was a thread on here where someone made a paste using either baking powder or soda and the peroxide to spot treat so that they could suck up the paste with a turkey baster afterwards. I am intrigued by that and might try it before dosing the whole tank and needing to move my cleaner shrimp.

None of my LPS and polyps have had any issues with the dipping. They do close up some but within a couple hours are back open like normal. Be prepared for your skimmer to go nuts as the algae dies off. I wet skim after dipping to pull as much as possible and run filter floss to clean out more.

I turkey baste the algae daily as it dies off to blast it from the rock and into my floss.

As for my rock I do have 2 types. I have normal fiji live rock which tends to stay clean after dipping. I also have some of the real reef rock which is not technically live but spored. I think this rock has more phosphates being leached which the byopsis can latch onto faster and feed off of.

here is some pics of me dipping yesterday:

[soulpatch]

After dipping yesterday afternoon here are the same rocks 24 hours later. The bryopsis is either white or turning so as it dies off. At night my CUC flocks to the dead bryopsis as well which I find odd. It must taste better or is softer or something for them.

[ReefsandGeeks]

I'm glad the dipped rocks seem to stay clean of the algea. Maybe trace amounts of peroxide in the rock keep it from growing back. I wish I could see the pictures, but for some reason I can't. problem is on my end, I have this problem often with pics on RC and havne't been able to figure it out. I can only see them when they are attached as a picture if that makes sence. Anyways, I picked up a bottle of peroxide yesterday and began dosing. I started with 1ml dose (tank is 30ish gallons of water volume) and gaged coral response. a couple zoas seemed to close up temperaraly, but openedback up. I then added two more seperate 1ml doses about an hour apart each. Everything looked normal this morning, so I'll continue dosing today, and also dip the one rock I can take out. I plan on dipping in a 50/50 solution of peroxide to tank water, and dipping for 10 minutes. Then rinsing with some fresh saltwater and replacing rock. Any sugestions or does that sound right? this particular rock also has GHA on it, so that's an added bonus if it gets rid of that.

[ReefsandGeeks]

I've also decided to ramp down my white LEDs in an effort to reduce dino growth. I've read that reduced whites can help with algea breakouts, and I'm going to give it a try as well. I know I shouldn't do multiple changes at once because i woun't know what fixed the problem, but if it goes away, I can then keep up with dosing, and ramp whites back up. If the algea comes back, I can reduce whites again. If algea stays at bay, I can keep whites up, and reduce dosing and see if it's fixed. I'm going to write down my observations so if it happens again I know what to do.

[soulpatch]

Originally Posted by devastator007

I'm glad the dipped rocks seem to stay clean of the algea. Maybe trace amounts of peroxide in the rock keep it from growing back. I wish I could see the pictures, but for some reason I can't. problem is on my end, I have this problem often with pics on RC and havne't been able to figure it out. I can only see them when they are attached as a picture if that makes sence. Anyways, I picked up a bottle of peroxide yesterday and began dosing. I started with 1ml dose (tank is 30ish gallons of water volume) and gaged coral response. a couple zoas seemed to close up temperaraly, but openedback up. I then added two more seperate 1ml doses about an hour apart each. Everything looked normal this morning, so I'll continue dosing today, and also dip the one rock I can take out. I plan on dipping in a 50/50 solution of peroxide to tank water, and dipping for 10 minutes. Then rinsing with some fresh saltwater and replacing rock. Any sugestions or does that sound right? this particular rock also has GHA on it, so that's an added bonus if it gets rid of that.

I only dip for a max of three minutes then dip into a tank of fresh saltwater then back into the tank. The only corals who remain ****ed for about 5 hours after dipping were my acans.

Also if you have crabs and such in your tank they will most likely fall off in the peroxide dip. I had my one emerald drop out of the rock. I was convinced he was dead as he was super stiff. I put him in the clean salt water for about 5 mins and saw his claws move. I then put him back into the tanka nd within 2 minutes he was up and around again. I saw both of my crabs last night so he is still alive.

Be careful if you have shrimp though. You want to ensure you rinse the rocks really well with them or in your case monitor your dosing as they are quite sensitive.

[ReefsandGeeks]

Thank you for the feed back. I will reduce my dipping time and see how it goes. Did you dip the rock that you have coral on? Again, can't see pictures so i have to ask. And if you did, did you avoid getting the coral in the dip, or were they okay with the exception of the acan? I also have a few rocks up higher in the tank that i could dip, but they each have a couple acros on them and a birdsnest. So if SPS don't do well with the dip than that's out of the question, though I could perhaps carefuly squirt the solution on the rock with a syring out of the tank and rince, avoiding the SPS. would be more dificult and time consuming, but could be done if necessary.