hydrogen peroxide dosing

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

FWIW, I definitely don't recommend adding permanganate to an operating reef.

Albert Thiel was a proponent of that, partly, I think, on his mistaken assumption that since it raised ORP it was beneficial.

 

[shred5]

FWIW, I definitely don't recommend adding permanganate to an operating reef.

Albert Thiel was a proponent of that, partly, I think, on his mistaken assumption that since it raised ORP it was beneficial.

Yep it was Albert...
Redox +

 

[hart24601]

I heard Hydrogen Peroxide Will Kill SPS.

Is this True?

I do not think we should be telling people to Dose their Tanks with something and not explaining any possible consequences like killing SPS if that is indeed true.

I'm sure it's true. What can't kill coral if you add too much? As I said, I have been using it for years for spot treatment when needed even putting on the base of acros. Nothing in my system has ever looked stressed after putting in around 15ml. Only the algae looks bad, it generally loses color the next day and the herbivores eat it. I can't say that it would never hurt anyone's tank, but for my system I have never had anything but positive results. You hear plenty about how bad it is, but not from many people that have tired it and didn't overdose. I have sofies, clams, gorgs, feather dusters, LPS but mostly SPS. I have not lost any coral in at least a year, I did lose a tiny frag about a year and a half ago, but I hadn't put peroxide in the tank in months when that happened.

From my experience, in my system, I have had ZERO bad effects. I consider spot treatments up to 15ml in my tank totally safe after 2 years of using it.

 

[joseserrano]

by dosing this, are you guys not scared to kill off the zooxanthellae in the coral?

 

[hart24601]

Here is a link to my current tank and some pics. I know, it won't win TOTM, but I think it looks pretty good and has great coral growth.

https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/member-tanks/178581-harts-120-3-4-starfire-expansion.html

 

[hart24601]

by dosing this, are you guys not scared to kill off the zooxanthellae in the coral?

I am not, because it hasn't!

For the record, I don't recommend anyone use peroxide. Maybe my tank is the 1 in a million system that can handle it. That is not likely, but I don't want be responsible for anyone messing up their tank! I just want to talk about my experience with it and show to people that are 100% sure it will destroy everything that sometimes, at least for me, that isn't the case at all.

 

[Vaiodude]

I had a bad case of Dino's in my reef about a year back and I came across some threads on Hydrogen Peroxide dosing.started dosing 1 ml per 10 gallons once a day then I jumped it up to twice daily. After about 2 weeks the tank was Dino free. The hydrogen peroxide also seemed to get rid of any hair algae I had in the tank as well.

 

[Diamond1]

Does hydrogen peroxide spot treatment work on bubble algae?
Also if I do spot treatments in the tank will it hurt the macro algae in my fuge?

 

[that Reef Guy]

I had a bad case of Dino's in my reef about a year back and I came across some threads on Hydrogen Peroxide dosing.started dosing 1 ml per 10 gallons once a day then I jumped it up to twice daily. After about 2 weeks the tank was Dino free. The hydrogen peroxide also seemed to get rid of any hair algae I had in the tank as well.

Did you notice any side effects to any Coral or anything else?

 

[Higher Thinking]

Does hydrogen peroxide spot treatment work on bubble algae?
Also if I do spot treatments in the tank will it hurt the macro algae in my fuge?

I would note be concerned about the macro at all. I have used H2O2 at great lengths in my freshwater planted tanks. More complex species (plants, macro, etc.) are less vulnerable to the effects of H2O2. I have also spot treated in my reef tank. Just use a couple milliliters to spot treat when there is no pumps or flow going. Wait about ten minutes and then turn the pumps back on. To everyone commenting that H2O2 can kill coral, yes you are correct. But just about anything can kill coral if done/used/administered incorrectly. There is certainly a risk in its use, but these problems can be mitigated by using very small amounts (in fresh planted I use over 1ml/gallon, but I'm not comfortable using more than about 1ml/5gallon in the reef) and only dosing a couple times (which is all that should be needed).

However, like mentioned before, the best case scenario would be removing the affected area and treating it outside the tank. If you can pull the rock out, you can just dump straight H2O2 onto the algae, wait ten minutes, wash it off with water, and reintroduce the rock.

 

[cnmcalpi]

Contemplating beginning dosing Hydrogen Peroxide to rid myself of some HA. Nutrients are down, (PO4 - .02, NO3~5).

It's a little long for my lawnmower blenny, if I could get it kicked back a bit I think he would handle it from there.

Maybe dilute 3% 1:1 and dose 2 ml/10gal/day using my doser, spread out over 24 doses? Seems like a good way to dilute the solution and increase the margin for safety.

Any opinions?

 

[Socalreefer4816]

I think that won't be enough at one time to kill the Algae. Did u try it. How'd it work if so?

 

[Jax5on]

I know everyone wants to find an easy way to eliminate algae problems, but I'm just not convinced this is the way. I personally wouldn't just dump hydrogen peroxide into an operating reef tank to deal with algae.

First, I just don't think it is reasonable to expect that the only thing it kills is algae, and not any other living organism, from bacteria to corals.

Second, it does nothing for the root problem, which is typically excessive nutrients (or possibly lack of herbivores).

I'd be much more inclined to treat a rock outside the tank, if that is the way you want to go.

That said, it can work if you are careful about dosing the tank, and don't get the concentration too high on delicate organisms.

Randy i have a problem with dino and have no idea how to combat it since forums online are suggesting stop with the water change and shut off skimmer so the tank can get dirtier so other algae such as green hair algae can grow and outcompete the dino for space. I am looking in hydrogen peroxide dosing but i have some high end corals that i really dont want to kill. Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Socalreefer4816]

Has anyone tried fluconazole for Dino?

 

[cnmcalpi]

I veered away from this and used vibrant to get rid of the HA. After the HA, the cyano started. I have rid myself of most all of the cyano but a little bit keeps wanting to hang around. p04=.03, N03=.25 per Hanna/Redsea so its not nutrients anymore. So I'm circling back around to h2o2 dosing as a possibility to eradicate this last little bit of cyano. I think Ill manually dose in a high flow area and watch the tank diligently instead of auto dose, I might not pay attention.

 

[Bdog4u2]

I used h202 to get rid of dinos a few years ago and it worked along with no water changes and I dip all new corals except hammers and frogspawn with no issues and for acros I dip the plug to remove algae

 

[kingclam52]

I would like to give it a try my problem is along my sand bed I have hair algae growing it goes away then comes back

 

[aileen]

The peroxide method has worked for me in the past as well with Dino’s my 200g sps tank. You have to be very very careful on the amount of dosing. There are lots of threads on the amount to dose. I always added it to a high flow area in the sump like by the return pump. There is an amazing thread on here I read about Dino’s and why they happen.

 

[atoll]

Of course there are dangers using peroxide directly in the tank, adding too much or too strong a solution adding it too close to sensitive corals are all dangerous practices and yes I have been there and done that. I prefer not to use peroxide directly in the tank but I do run Oxydators which break the peroxide down before it leaves the Oxydators. However, Oxydators are unlikely to kill GHA but they can be effective in helping to eliminate cyno and diatoms without any noticeable affect on sensitive SPS corals and they like when used as directed.

 

[malacoda]

I tried 10ml of 3% H2O2 per gallon in my 24g daily for ~6 weeks in an effort to try to get rid of what I thought was green cyano (I now suspect it was some type of turf algae or spirulina). Just dumped it in the return section of my sump but I'm sure adding in front of a powerhead would disperse it just as well. Within moment of adding zoas and palys would close up for a few minutes. Other than that none of my softies, lps, or sps showed any signs of stress. All 4 fish were fine. And my gorgonians actually showed a bit more polyp extension than normal.

No effect on the unidentified algae though so I stopped dosing.

Now I just use it as a final dip on frag plugs (only the plugs, not the coral) in the odd instances when I need to add a coral frag without removing it from its plug.