Dose Hydrogen Peroxide?

[Isoprene]

After some stupid mistakes and corrections my tank is finally thriving again.
I have a 55 gallon bow front with about 30 lbs of LR in the tank 10 lbs in the sump. Protein skimmer, T5 HO lighting with LED moonlight strip. All of my parameters are fine other than slightly elevated phosphates (according to LFS testing kit). I have LPS and zoa's for coral. I also have a leopard wrasse and a possum wrasse for fish. The only inverts I have are snails and a emerald crab.

I have a small but noticeable outbreak of cyano bacteria growing on a few rocks here and there, not insane amount just enough for me to notice is and try and suck it up during water changes. After 3 weeks of changes the bacteria is still growing, slowly but surely and it also seems I have a small amount of hair algae starting to grow (super small amount).

The guy at my LFS who i take as really knowledgeable told me I should dose the entire tank with H2O2 1-2ml / gallon. Wait 30 minutes.....then do a 25% water change.
I have read other forums and done some research and some people say this is toxic and can kill fish/coral and others say it wont hurt anything. Knowing that H2O2 is a anti-bacterial im hard pressed to believe it wont hurt the bacteria for example in my sand bed or on my rock or in my corals. Does anyone have any advice or comments on this. I am on the fence as to whether or not to do this.

 

[-Logzor]

I would increase flow and do more water changes, feed less, before attempting something like H202.

 

[Dog Boy Dave]

HEy Isoprene,
I'm In Tally as well. I gotta ask, who told you to do that? In my opinion, thats overkill at this point for your system but honestly feel free to give me a call. I have a pretty decent coral tank thats been going a long time. I might be able to help. My number is 850-508-0299. Regards
Dave

 

[kuyatwo]

hydrogen peroxide is an oxidizer like most cyano medications which in my opinion is just a quick fix and doesnt solve the problem. you need to find out what is feeding the cyano and either fix the solution or some type of nutrient export macro algae, bio pellets or gfo.

 

[Soehl]

I have done the H2O2 thing before. After thinking it over and researching it a lot I decided to finally try it. The way I did it though is the kicker. I used a syringe and only "injected" it directly onto the algae in the tank. It works. It removed the algea in the spots that I applied it to. I applied it directly at the base of the algea really close to some zoas. It didn't affect the zoas at all. I probably injected 15-20mL at a time and only did it twice in one week. Doesn't hurt to do this but you need to find out the cause. It is a MUST to find the source of the problem instead of just treating it. Maybe over feeding? I also added some more snails and crabs into my system to help clean up the detrius.

 

[WillKatt]

How old is the tank?
Sometimes a small cyano outbreak is just a sign of a system starting to mature and will usually go away on its own. If its not bad but you have some elevated PO4 levels I would think you should try feeding less, performing some larger more frequent water changes and or perhaps try running some sort of PO4 binder like GFO or PhosGaurd in a filter sock if you don't have a reactor.

As other have said find the food source which could be coming from a number of places but most likely its coming from foods or your water source. As someone said above Increased flow especially around the areas where is growing also helps. IMO H2O2 is pretty good at treating corals and rocks that can be removed and dipped for about 5 minutes or so but I would strongly advise against putting it straight into the tank.

I recently went through a three month battle with Cyano myself. One thing that helped was clearfx pro. I would definitely try that before dumping Hydrogen Peroxide in there. Just my 2 cents.

 

[Isoprene]

@ Dave, Scott over at High Tide told me to do this. The tank is only about 8 months old maybe 10, not sure when i exactly started. I think im going to hold off on the H2O2 because the cyano looks like it receded now that my lights are on today A LOT. I added 4 more astrea snails 2 days ago and they seem to be really doing work. Im going to do another water change today and hopefully this cyano will back off.

 

[Isoprene]

Also @ Dave, if your ever interested in selling any frags of some coral let me know. I have been trying to find some local people in Tally that are reefers and sell some corals or would be interested in trading type of thing.

 

[Dog Boy Dave]

Also @ Dave, if your ever interested in selling any frags of some coral let me know. I have been trying to find some local people in Tally that are reefers and sell some corals or would be interested in trading type of thing.

Sure give me a call. I would much rather sell frags in person rather than shipping.

 

[robert]

H2O2 is an oxidizer in this case and it is naturally occurring in reef waters. Its produced in the upper layers of water though the interaction of UV with organic molecules. Corals and fish produce some internally as a weapon against pathogens and have some limited defenses against the OH- redical, but not much. Dosing at 1 ml per gallon is roughly 1000x higher than anything I've seen documented in natural reef water.

H2O2 could work a couple of different ways - directly through the OH- ion damaging the target (cyano), through its ability to increase the O2 levels in the tank or by helping break down complex organics which might then be adsorbed to carbon, skimmed, etc.

If its the first, remember the action of the OH- is not specific to cyano - it will damage all organics - living and dead.

The 25 percent water change - while a good idea is probably not doing much to the H2O2 levels in the tank. In a reef tank with high organic levels the half-life of H2O2 would be rather short anyway.

In my experience it it won't do much to the cyano. Probably won't outright kill your corals either though it will stress their ability to cope with H2O2 and might make them unable to cope with pathogens effectively for a bit.

 

[Dog Boy Dave]

H2O2 is an oxidizer in this case and it is naturally occurring in reef waters. Its produced in the upper layers of water though the interaction of UV with organic molecules. Corals and fish produce some internally as a weapon against pathogens and have some limited defenses against the OH- redical, but not much. Dosing at 1 ml per gallon is roughly 1000x higher than anything I've seen documented in natural reef water.

H2O2 could work a couple of different ways - directly through the OH- ion damaging the target (cyano), through its ability to increase the O2 levels in the tank or by helping break down complex organics which might then be adsorbed to carbon, skimmed, etc.

If its the first, remember the action of the OH- is not specific to cyano - it will damage all organics - living and dead.

The 25 percent water change - while a good idea is probably not doing much to the H2O2 levels in the tank. In a reef tank with high organic levels the half-life of H2O2 would be rather short anyway.

In my experience it it won't do much to the cyano. Probably won't outright kill your corals either though it will stress their ability to cope with H2O2 and might make them unable to cope with pathogens effectively for a bit.

Yea what he said. What harm is the cyano doing in your tank ? A newer tank like yours should be producing cyano. If it isnt actually killing your animals and it seldom does, I wouldnt worry about it unless it steadily gets worse and worse. In my experience best thing to do is let it run its course. If your husbandry is right then it will clear up eventually as it uses up the excessive organics. If you kill it without addressing the nutrient issue then all you are doing is building up your nutrients until something else (probably more cyano) comes back and takes advantage of your excessive organics.

 

[Isoprene]

Its been a while since I have posted this and yep what yall said is definatley true. Didn't dose, just let it run its course and slowly but surley the cyano is dying off. Still have some good diatom blooms but overall my tank is kicking ***. Also got a guy from the LFS to build me some LED's for the tank so im pretty excited. Thanks all for your posts.