Reef2Reef Pest algae challenge thread hydrogen peroxide

[shollis2814]

Totally get that. I am really interested in helping @twilliard figure out some sort of dosing regimen. I am planning a switch from crushed coral to sand this summer, and do plan a major razor blade scrape/vermetid snail massacre/and rescape. I don't want to do that too close to a cleaning like you suggest, but will probably incorporate it.

 

[brandon429]

yep in that case I love to see the results and thanks for the bump~

im especially keen on the sandbed switch part, removing that detritus is your fundamental fix for the cyano anyway, all we are doing is responsive to what detritus fuels.

I have a deep sand bed too, the way my tank runs with no maintenance and massive coral health for months after I blast clean the sandbed has me certain that most issues in invasion challenges are fueled by detritus we think we have to keep for fear of loss of bacteria. turns out we simply can rinse an entire sandbed 100% clean of detritus, even using cool tap water if needed so there's no limit on rinse being thorough (then final follow up rinse in saltwater of course) and reinstall it will plenty of bacteria still on the gains, rinsing isn't antibiotic its exporting

challenge tanks might benefit from this...is no claim to rip into an otherwise fine balance. many sandbeds do fine containing waste and the keeper leaves them alone to isolate it as much as possible from the water table where algae will grow, that's a common balance people seek. but its also part of most invasions, so restoring the clean condition is fair measure as well especially as an invasion response.

your tank will shine after such a clean out, and we have threads for that as well for skip cycle cleaning of systems if you ever want to compare notes/prep etc. those big dangerous jobs (avoiding recycles) are fun science and the techniques to avoid a cycle are guaranteed, if planned out well.

 

[shollis2814]

Thanks. Definitely will seek advice. I actually started a thread in the general forum.
As a note for future confused readers: there are two threads dealing with peroxide, and I actually meant to post on the other one! Since cyano is technically not an algae, I asked the mods to move it to the proper thread. Sorry about any confusion.

 

[brandon429]

Kudos to TWilliard for creating such momentum for peroxide dosing here

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/back-at-it-peroxide-vrs-cyanobacteria.241002/

its the fastest growing peroxide thread ive seen

valuable data, before and after pics, bacterial impact feedback target vs filtration bacteria, peroxide chemistry and mechanics etc

and most importantly

momentum, entrants each second this is gold to watch

 

[brandon429]

http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0047844


Shown to us by poster ksc, in twilliard's peroxide thread ~

That's the first time I've seen someone write positively about peroxide...it's useful characters, from a true science evaluation mode.

 

[AllSignsPointToFish]

I've been dosing 25 mL per day of 3% H2O2 for the last few days, and it definitely has knocked the cyanobacteria back. No other signs of agitation from 2x the recommended dose. The dose is split in half with each half given about 3 hours apart during peak lighting. Way to go, @brandon429 and @twilliard !

 

[Maxxingout]

Well looks like I'm on round 5, or is that 6 with fighting bryopsis. After my last out of the water dosing with h2O2 (4th x) I came back from Disney to a tank full of this stuff again. I did a 20% water change all the while trying to cut/siphon up as much as I could of this demon. It started touching some of my sps and they retaliated but this stuff is starting to suffocate them. I am know on my 3rd day of dosing kent mag @ 100pm a day. I'm going to go up to 1800 then after 2 weeks do a water change and re dose kent to match back up.

 

[brandon429]

Edited

 

[Maxxingout]

Some big problems with that approach is not only the amount of rock I have this stuff growing on bu the locations on the rock. I have multi spots of bry growing from within crevasses that I could not get to aside from a hand grinder. Even then I'm not sure. also with this stuff basically growing in between some of my corals I might need to pull the plug on this rock. I mean it's EVERYWHERE in my 75g and I don't think that there isn't 1 rock in the tank that does not have this stuff growing on it now. That would mean 100% rock rasping.

 

[brandon429]

Edited

Example thread went back to water dosing.

 

[Maxxingout]

If you go back to page 12 and read post # 222 & 235 you'll see what I've tried and what I'm dealing with. I know you help a lot so I wouldn't expect you to remember all my attempts.

This last go around I did a 20% water change all the while siphoning up the bry while cutting it as low to the rock as possible. I wanted to try and injure it to hopefully give the kent mag a wound to enter easier, hopefully. I plan on using tweezers to keep pulling what I can to help aid the kent, hopefully.

 

[brandon429]

..

 

[brandon429]

When our clean up crews, GFO, carbon dosing, ATS scrubbers, denitrators, UV sterilizers, nopox dosers actually work, we'll be doing zero hand removal.

opting out of hand removal is the cause of all tankwide invasions, not nutrients. Farming algae in a refugium or alternate area is ok-- my focus is the display tank and showing how thorough the rasping technique really is


The rasping technique saved my tank from valonia a few pages ago in pics. Consider the thousands of tanks lost to valonia and incomplete methods.


Friend Russ from earlier pages taking on resurgent dinos using UV and peroxide combo:
http://reef2reef.com/threads/aghhh-dinos-again.250910/page-2

Any of us who buy and add marine organisms can catch that obligate hitchhiker he's dealing with. Even though it's headache to battle like he does, this is valuable to watch him work in a big tank, with the meanest dinoflagellate species we see among tanks, and not start over. Most patience award with a motile invader #1

 

[VJV]

@brandon429: hi, i have placed a couple of Lysmata shrimps and a couple of serpent starfish in my invert quarantine tank (I quarantine everything by 77 days before putting in the main display). However, that tank is becoming overrun with bubble algae (valonia). Is there a danger to bring spores of valonia into my main display when I transfer the shrimps and starfish? I will drip acclimate and may even give them a good rinse in tank water from the main display before introducing them but is this enough to ensure that no spores are introduced?

Input would be MUCH appreciated!

Thanks

 

[brandon429]

I think there may be a small risk, but not as bad as the hard substrates that present surface area attachment points beyond what we can visually inspect. that's a low surface area bug creature, kinda slick on top LOL but its possible to hitch a little bit. I got some valonia in my tank simply by buying frags from my LFS from a tank that should be labeled "100% likely to infect you" but dang the frags were so nice I had to risk it. I dipped my sps all the way up to the tissue, so the frag plug was truly zapped, and some still rode in who knows how.

Merely doing the transfer is enough to vector, but at least we know what you are doing is the least likely mode of transfer. if a single bubble pops up, you take that rock and smash it with a hammer than put sulfuric acid on it and throw it in the dump. just joking lol, do all that with rasps and peroxide and keep the rock



*edit insert
http://reef2reef.com/threads/just-beautiful-proof-of-h202-doing-its-thing.253486/

that is a nice simple tank dosing of peroxide to the topwater, no scrubbing, and some after shots.

 

[VJV]

[emoji1][emoji1][emoji1]

 

[brandon429]

http://reef2reef.com/threads/algae-outbreak.249581/


wanted to post this one

this particular tank had some eutrophication challenges but they aren't deep-seated. his rocks were tested for organic loading/retention and passed well, this is simply an algae that attaches lightly but has large surface area so it looks really mean, its a weakling. within a week this tank will look shocking

Look at the challenge updates as of June, see these themes:

Invader shifting as we create new real estate

Though he cleaned algae, purple coralline and coral flesh weren't made in place, so some cyano can come about now and take a spot. Nutrient upwellings by working in partial sections plays a role, along with full-on white lighting. When a tank is in distress cleanup, you get better mileage power cleaning the whole tank as a skip cycle cleaning than you will with partial work. Having to guide a set-in tank of algae with a few repeated measures is predicted, there's no easy way out for farming anything other than coral flesh and coralline, two items that literally bio-reject algae colonization. He would benefit from temporary UV use greatly at this phase for sure.


Checking the sandbed for detritus with a drop test would reveal possible stores in other areas of the tank we tested only the rocks so far

 

[brandon429]

The number one reason to use external spot treat testing with peroxide before we bother adjusting nutrients is because the only way to evaluate a nutrient adjustment in tank is to see if the change prevents growback--not if it removes the built-in algae.

If we have cyano, siphon remove all of it, detailed hours work, then apply your peroxide to the cleaned tank. The 2016 method is about work first, peroxide second, collect more wins than earlier years.




When we apply peroxide to cleaned surfaces and detritus free tanks, not wrecked ones, that's doing differently than the masses and it's a bigger win on your algae because the hard work first step was your cost for having grown it and challenged yourself.

Algae targets respond better to peroxide when algae biomass has been hand-removed or cleaned by the keeper, before the peroxide addition. This is about the win not hoping a chemical does all the work for us. Algae tufts left in tank are self supporting mini biomes and by removing the mass you gain an upper hand, nutrient controls are for prevention not removal of invaded conditions.

***expect new mini invasions from alternate communities when you clean a set of rocks and have them in a reef not covered by coralline and coral flesh.*** the original allowance of takeover began the halt for coralline and coral deposition, because we decided to catch up means a cycle of work will be needed or use the cleaned rock as base rock under rocks covered in coralline and coral. Take no action with peroxide before a test rock has shown total compliance first. Total growback control must be attained on your test rocks first before you know what to do with the whole tank.


http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/374651-can-a-cycle-be-complete-in-two-weeks/#entry5354480

vegasgundog from friends at nr.com using a little peroxide water to blast some gha as part of early tank cycling. its responding well enough to non scraping that topical only treatments are fine, its not very set in and this appears to be working just fine.

 

[JakeK]

Ok - I started another thread on caulerpa, but i'm going to close that one down and ask my questions here.

I've been reading through this thread and perhaps I missed it, but if I have rock that is completely covered in caulerpa, like more than 75% of the surface exposed to light covered in caulerpa, can I take that rock out, manually remove as much as a i can and then dip in H2o2 at 3% to kill it?

Additional details on my husbandry:
- weekly water changes of 20% (20 gallons each)
- GFO reactor currently running
- reduced T5 lighting from 10 hours to 7 hours
- reduced feedings to just 2 per day from 3
- added additional skimmer to sump to pull more waste out
- changed RODI filters about 3 months ago

Fortunately, only one of my tanks is currently affected by the caulerpa.

Thank you.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

can I take that rock out, manually remove as much as a i can and then dip in H2o2 at 3% to kill it?

yes