Hydrogen Peroxide dosing benefits?

BranchingHammer · Oct 8, 2019

Hello all,
I was wondering if hydrogen peroxide provides any benefits to a reef when directly dosing it into the water volume. What I understand will happen is that organics become oxidizers for the H2O2 and oxygen gas and water is released. I was wondering if any radicals are formed during this process and if they would harm coral. I have very little algae in my frag tank but I was wondering if dosing it could increase the dissolved oxygen levels in the water -- boosting coral health? Again I would be dosing this directly to the tank, not through an oxidizer. I have been pondering this in my head and would like to know what the experts think. Might even do an experiment if it seems promising... Thank you for looking!

Montiman · Oct 8, 2019

While I'm not a chemist my general understanding is that there may be some negative effects of H2O2 dosing but overall the effect is similar to injecting O3. The advantages of O3 dosing is that O3 can be contained to a skimmer or reactor while H2O2 goes directly into the tank in most cases. I have used H2O2 to solve algae problems but for long term use of oxidizers I believe O3 is a better option.

rmurken · Oct 8, 2019

I wouldn’t use peroxide as a way to boost your dissolved oxygen. I’d stick to aeration, bioload, and parameters. H2O2 is an indiscriminate oxidizer, so it’ll oxidize organics, it’ll oxidize your nitrifiers, and it’ll oxidize your corals. In small doses, it’s no big deal. Maybe even useful for one reason or another, but at some point it’ll break something in the biology of your tank.

Anecdote: I went on a holy war against some black beard algae in an old FW tank, and used a modest amount of peroxide to spot treat. Next day, ammonia jumped and I had to manage a not-so-mini mini-cycle. Pretty certainI used too much and banged up my bio filter!

HB AL · Oct 8, 2019

I wouldn't do it, much simpler ways to keep your tank thriving.

Sashaka · Oct 8, 2019

@atoll and @Brew : Care to chime in?

BranchingHammer · Oct 11, 2019

Bump!

Reefs and Geeks · Oct 11, 2019

I'm no chemist, however I've been dosing 1ml/10 gallons of tank volume for a few weeks now after fighting some dinos, and have seen no effect on any of my coral, good or bad. I originally started dosing as part of a multi pronged approach to getting rid of dinos, and have continued dosing as a preventative measure for the time being. Unrelated to the dinos, my coral have shown no response whatsoever. not right after dosing, and no change over time. Been over a month of dosing now. I do have a mixed tank with various SPS, couple of euphillia, and various zoas.

As far as general algae control, I don't believe it's having much effect, if any. However, I seem to be dino free but can't confirm that it had a direct effect on them either as I was using adding bacteria, and then used UV for a while as well.

Phil D. · Oct 11, 2019

I had algae and dino probs, used peroxide for a month and knocked all of them out. Corals, and other inhabitants were fine.

BranchingHammer · Oct 11, 2019

Thanks for the replies, I mainly want to know the possible positive effects on corals if any?

SDK · Oct 11, 2019

Do a search here for oxydators. Here is a thread to get you started.

Sochting Oxydator Help

I purchased 2 Oxydator A, and 3 Oxydator D units for my different saltwater fish tanks. They arrive this week. I plan to run the two A models in my 180 gal tank and the D units in my other tanks. I got them because my electricity goes out often, so I thought using these units in my tanks on a...

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