Hydrogen peroxide

[trainbob]

Went to a home center today buy some algaecide for my pond and the main ingredient was hydrogen peroxide $15.00 for a pint. Immediately put it back because a quart of hydrogen peroxide is.99. So I put 100 ml in my pond today. Waiting to see what the results are. Over the past 20 years have spent a small fortune on algaecide. Any one else try this. I am assuming it will not harm the pond which contains plants and goldfish

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Went to a home center today buy some algaecide for my pond and the main ingredient was hydrogen peroxide $15.00 for a pint. Immediately put it back because a quart of hydrogen peroxide is.99. So I put 100 ml in my pond today. Waiting to see what the results are. Over the past 20 years have spent a small fortune on algaecide. Any one else try this. I am assuming it will not harm the pond which contains plants and goldfish

What is the concentration of the H2O2 in the product you looked at?

I use the 3% brown bottle stuff and just adjust the dose based on that. I use 7% for my home well water treatment. I can use that in my tanks if I adjust the dose accordingly. High test H2O2 can be used as rocket fuel (grin).

IMO - I worked on using H2O2 to control algae in some testing, but had issues with losing shrimp and snails.

Here is a link to some basic testing that I did a few years ago:

Hydrogen Peroxide Bench-testing

Bench testing of the effects of hydrogen peroxide in aquariums.

www.reef2reef.com

Jay

 

[trainbob]

I think it was 5%

 

[trainbob]

Put in 100ml in a 720 gallon pond

 

[trainbob]

No snails or shrimp in the pond just plants, fish and frogs

 

[Thunder_reef]

We use barley straw in our garden pond…as it breaks down it releases hydrogen peroxide and prevents algae. We threw a small bale in the water near the pump and it lasted nearly all summer this year. Pond is a small garden/fountain pond.. 250 to 300 gallons.

 

[trainbob]

Thanks for your response however have tried barely straw and the extract and it does nothing for my pond

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

I think it was 5%

The other issue is: tin is used as a stabilizer in some commercial hydrogen peroxide solutions. For products that will be taken internally (my water treatment peroxide, the brown bottles you get at the grocery store) they do not use tin. It is unknown to me in the tin is toxic, but the fact they leave it out of products for human consumption leads me to think that.

Jay

 

[LivingroomDiver]

I spot treated algae with the brown bottle peroxide recently. Was very effecient and cleared the tank from algea. I did lose a peppermint shrimp and a Xenia. All other corals were a little unhappy for a couple days but are fine now. No issues with fishes.

 

[trainbob]

Checked my pond today and it looks great better than it has all summer. Jay do you know if long term use of hydrogen peroxide has any adverse effects on fish or plants. I don’t care about the frogs. Also I used the brown bottle

 

[brandon429]

not at the rate you're using. we use 1 mil per ten gallons as basic reef tank doses. it is dissipated in about 4 hours after you add/judging off limited 02 measurements from reef tank perox dosing along with copious redox measures showing such a rebound time.

a pond is still packed in organics, that perx is going away within hours after you're adding, killing and lysing some suspended algae fragments as we know it it do, you'd have to up the dose tremendously to affect thick plants and I haven't seen any fish harmed by common doses, I have no species of fish listed in my peroxide sensitives list.

your main issue is it's a topical kill of suspended algae vs a sludge removal run/deep cleaning of the pond + combined with correct shading you wouldnt need as much peroxide help.

 

[trainbob]

I also add bacteria to remove sludge about every two weeks when I do water change. The dose that was used wasn’t much more than that dosage. 100ml for a 720 gallon pond and by judging by the result will probably reduce dose to 70 ml . Is my math wrong that 70ml is 1ml per 10 gallon

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I don’t care about the frogs.

That’s depressing to hear. I cannot imagine doing something to my pond that might harm the frogs.

 

[brandon429]

I predict they will not be burned by the bubbly

or if burned, won't be sent into a flail/strange behavior/hopefully more like tickle burning we hope. in our planted tank runs- the frogs just fizz along with the danios lol.

source: BBA peroxide dosing runs in planted tanks with clawed frogs, plantedtank.net site/ truly no pattern harm feedback from aquatic frogs I've seen or fire belly toads.

 

[trainbob]

The problem that I have with the frogs is there’s too many for the size pond plus they make a lot of noise. Frankly wish there were no frogs in the pond.

 

[trainbob]

Randy you can rest easy these days I add much fewer chemicals to my pond. For years I have been battling algae in the pond. Most summers it looks like pea soup and over the years I have tried many different ways to at least control the algae to some degree but they have all failed miserably. If the hydrogen peroxide works that would be a great day

 

[trainbob]

The reason why I stopped all the rest of the chemicals is they didn’t work

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Checked my pond today and it looks great better than it has all summer. Jay do you know if long term use of hydrogen peroxide has any adverse effects on fish or plants. I don’t care about the frogs. Also I used the brown bottle

How long peroxide lasts depends on the amount of organic material available for it to react with. If you plan to dose regularly, you might consider buying some low range peroxide test strips, just to keep tabs on the levels.


Jay

 

[trainbob]

It appears no harm to the pond so decided to start treatment with hydrogen peroxide the dosage that I am starting with is 1/4 cup daily time to be determined . The one quespionage that concerns me is the long term effects. The algae season is about 4 months long

 

[brandon429]

you should post pics of your pond. I’m not looking at the water as the sole causative for algae, I’m looking all all the details to the side of the actual pond in the pic such as shade breaks apparent or missing, whether there’s turn over in the center via pump or fall, or if it’s a stilled-center setup, there’s physical details in a standing back pond pic that have a huge impact on algae. It’s not always a chemistry hyperfocus TB, that’s only a slice of the causative pie.


among cheats, peroxide should be rare and UV pond filtration is ideal given limited details and no pic so far.