Algae Cure!! Spot Treating Algae With Peroxide

[Brew12]

interesting, I actually have a couple syringes with needles However if I subject said needle to salt water it's history.

I had a syringe from Aptasia X and a single bubble of bubble algae. Figured it would be the perfect time to experiment. Unfortunately, the bubble was covered with coralline and when I tried to puncture it, it popped off instead so I pulled it from the tank.

Experiment over.

 

[cracker]

One measly bubble ? I have Your problem times 500 ! LOL

 

[Brew12]

One measly bubble ? I have Your problem times 500 ! LOL

I don't have a bubble algae problem, which I felt made it a great possible experiment. If I punctured while spraying and it didn't spread, it could have been a good treatment. In a tank with an infestation, individual success would be challenging to determine.

 

[cracker]

Agreed !
Anyway back to the topic. Peroxide does work to kill bubble.at least for me. You have to pop them while siphoning the surrounding water. Then apply H2O2 to kill ,kill, kill the roots ! I hate the stuff ! If it will take out Bubble it will work on any algae !

 

[mcarroll]

I've never had a real needle for a syringe, so nope. And like you never had more than a few bubbles at a time so didn't worry about it that much. I thought they were awesome while they lasted....beautiful algae...amazing form.

 

[Adele]

For the record, there is no "cure" for algae as it's not a disease. That's the only reason the word "cure" is in the title.

Now for HOW to spot-treat algae! (More about "why" after the how...)

1. Fill a small syringe with 1-2 mL of regular hydrogen peroxide
2. Shut off all flow and wait for the water to become totally still
3. Treat a patch of algae at it's base – 1-2 square inches in size
4. Wait a few minutes and and turn the systems's flow back on
5. That patch will be toast

You can probable treat at least 2 patches per day and you might be fine leaving the pumps off for longer – but consider both options experimental and GO SLOWLY in those directions.

Depending on your confidence and where you need to use it, maybe wait to see how that first patch reacts over the course of a week before you decide how to proceed.

So why spot-treat?

In a nutshell: It's a very harsh treatment on the algae, but has almost no impact on the system's maturity or stability overall.

Contrast this with almost every other "algae treatment" you can name – most treat the whole tank vs just the algae. (I actually can't think of any other exceptions beside this right now. Hm.)

Is this an option to treat Cyano bacteria as well? Yep. Guess what?Lol

 

[Adele]

I had a syringe from Aptasia X and a single bubble of bubble algae. Figured it would be the perfect time to experiment. Unfortunately, the bubble was covered with coralline and when I tried to puncture it, it popped off instead so I pulled it from the tank.

Experiment over.

I have a single bubble. If @mcarroll approves to use on my cyano I will attempt to pick up where you “popped” off.

 

[Brew12]

I have a single bubble. If @mcarroll approves to use on my cyano I will attempt to pick up where you “popped” off.

It may not be effective on every strain of cyano, but it shouldn't hurt to use it. I would give it a try!

 

[jd371]

I had a syringe from Aptasia X and a single bubble of bubble algae. Figured it would be the perfect time to experiment. Unfortunately, the bubble was covered with coralline and when I tried to puncture it, it popped off instead so I pulled it from the tank.

Experiment over.

I have been thinking of trying this on the small patches of Bubble Algae I have in my tank, just a couple of spots here and there, not a bad outbreak. I have a needle syringe so I can probably inject the algae without popping the bubble. Of the three patches in my tank only one of them has Bubble Algae big enough to inject, so I'll give it a shot when I get home. While I'm at it I'll inject some Aptasia with peroxide also.

 

[mcarroll]

It may not be effective on every strain of cyano, but it shouldn't hurt to use it. I would give it a try!

It would be fun to experiment in order to know for sure, but my guess is that it has more to do with how established the cyano matt in question actually is versus what species or strain.

They produce hydrogen peroxide as a byproduct, so they have to be able to deal with that. Supposedly more mature mats have a pretty incredible ability here.

 

[trio91]

I didn’t see it in your instructions, but can I assume that this would be more effective if you drained your tank a bit? And shoot it directly on the algae’d Spot vs spraying underwater?

 

[Centerline]

I have been thinking of trying this on the small patches of Bubble Algae I have in my tank, just a couple of spots here and there, not a bad outbreak. I have a needle syringe so I can probably inject the algae without popping the bubble. Of the three patches in my tank only one of them has Bubble Algae big enough to inject, so I'll give it a shot when I get home. While I'm at it I'll inject some Aptasia with peroxide also.

I'm staring at the one aptasia in my tank that I can see - its big sucker. I have peroxide and am going for it. Just turn off the water, once still squirt the peroxide in it big weird face or around the base?

 

[jd371]

I'm staring at the one aptasia in my tank that I can see - its big sucker. I have peroxide and am going for it. Just turn off the water, once still squirt the peroxide in it big weird face or around the base?

I put Berghia Nudibranch in my tank a month ago and I'm waiting for them to do their thing. There are some Aptasia in the sand that I will try the peroxide on. I'm going to inject them through the mouth.

 

[Centerline]

@mcarroll , what do you think of using peroxide to scrub the algae off this disk? Just run off the pumps, squirt a little on the algae, look for bubbles and turn the pumps back on? I get this stuff on disks with striations from time to time and I believe it slows down calcification on the disk a little.

 

[grassy_noel]

Density issue...I seem to be having trouble keeping up the contact time between the peroxide and the algae, because I can see the peroxide floating up in the water column. Anyone have an idea of how to address this?

I'm working in a small tank, so I'm limiting myself to 1ml of the 3% solution per day. So far, it hasn't seemed very effective on my GHA and I suspect that's because it's all floating away...

 

[mcarroll]

fyi, 1ml of 3% is a tiny dose.

Folks who do the "standard" peroxide treatment put 10 mL in their tank per gallon every day — usually this has little to no effect on the tank.

So consider that you can at least go up to 10 times the amount you were using.

But also consider earlier in the thread the folks were using 30% concentration.

There is definitely room to make this a stronger treatment.

 

[grassy_noel]

Whoa, 10ml per gallon!?!?

For some reason I had in my mind 1ml of 3% per 10 gallons per day. Ok, well that's great news. I might try upping to 5-10ml of 3% per day. That would be like 0.3-0.7 ml per gallon per day, which sounds like it's still really conservative.

I may also try to seek out some 12% solution so I can use a smaller amount. My local Walgreen's only had 3% when I went the other day.

Thanks!

 

[Brew12]

Folks who do the "standard" peroxide treatment put 10 mL in their tank per gallon every day — usually this has little to no effect on the tank.

I have always seen the standard dose as 1ml per 10g. I know I go much higher when making a coral dip but I've never tried those higher numbers for dosing. I do know 1ml per 10g will cause a significant change in my ORP. ;Writing

 

[mcarroll]

sorry, you're right....

still way more that 1ml per day, which was the only point

 

[Brew12]

sorry, you're right....

still way more that 1ml per day, which was the only point

Crazy.. but I'm a little disappointed! Was hoping there was more room to play with peroxide!

On a slightly different note, I did learn a leason with H2O2 dosing that was almost very painful for an individual. If a tank has high levels of toxic metals, dosing even low levels of H2O2 can make things worse. In his case, it was Vanadium that was very high from using Fiji black sand. I share this because if a tank has an extreme reaction to H2O2, getting ICP testing would be a good recommendation.