Algae Spot treating w/ Hyd Peroxide - How often and how much?

[Gator_Reefer]

Looking to see if there's consensus on how often and how much Hyd Peroxide one can safely use to spot treat algae in-tank.

Currently using 12% Hyd Peroxide and have a few spots of algae I'm trying to treat before it gets invasive again. I am using no more than 3ml per 10 gallons of tank water. I'm not sure however if that limit was meant more for those who continously dose as part of a blanket tank treatment, vice occasional spot treating.

Also like to know if I can spot treat again after a few days, or if I should wait a week each time?

 

[brandon429]

Peroxide goes neutral in about four hours after application even at twelve pct. Tanks that are recovering from prior invasion commonly have catch up work to be done manually, by clean up crew etc as algae growth is circular and comes back around until something stops it. If you have ways to scrape it off first and then treat the clean spot that will beat applying it to water. You don’t have to pull all your rocks, drain the clean water down and apply to surfaces in tank but drained


refill back up w the taken water. Even though peroxide can zap algae when dosed into water it’s not reliable, it’s reliable as an initial kill on exposed surfaces. Until surfaces are heavy coated in coralline, they’re open to colonization by plants so means other than peroxide should be considered above dosing peroxide into the water. It’s best as a target application, not in water. Drain and treat is ideal, and any lysmata shrimps are likely to die if peroxide gets near them

since your tank is clean vs pent up with waste (recently rip cleaned) it’s legit to consider fluconazole since that can be dosed into water, and you won’t be compounding dead algae

 

[brandon429]

Goodbye hair algae / turbo snail appreciation post

The top of a couple of my rocks starting growing a lawn of hair algae this week. :( Probably too much light time/intensity. But two days later my big turbo snail is munching it away!! I just wanted to share a video of his cute munchy face and the hard work he's doing for me!

www.reef2reef.com

snails have a high degree of reliability as grazers. They’re suited to your tank since it’s been cleaned and they would be grow back preventers / hopefuls anyway. Getting your tank and sand cleaned as a fresh start legitimizes most common anti algae options as preventatives vs algae removers.

 

[Gator_Reefer]

Thanks Brandon!

Im going to take advantage of the clean start I have now to and do a round of reef flux. I upped my Astrea snail count to 5. May need to more as well and/or a few turbos.

 

[PeakeAquaculture]

Okay so I ran into the whole peroxide dip thing a few weeks back and after trying it this it what I found out. If possible start with snail, emerald crabs and algae blennys if not possible a tang of some sort. I have about 60 zoa frags in my system and had an issue with hair algae in-between polyps. I ordered some makeup brushes off Amazon and some 3% hydrogen peroxide. I found if you dip the frag in peroxide till it starts to bubble. Maybe 1-3 minutes then take a small makeup brush and wipe around the polyps. The algae will fall right off. Just be careful with zoas. Be gentle. Then when all is said and done ill put them back in the system and most of them open right back up. If not I treat with chemiclean and within a day they are all looking amazing. Hope this helps.

Also make sure to rinse off the frags before they go back into the system and make sure you don't dip all corals in hydrogen peroxide. It will kill some types of corals.

 

[Gator_Reefer]

Peroxide goes neutral in about four hours after application even at twelve pct. Tanks that are recovering from prior invasion commonly have catch up work to be done manually, by clean up crew etc as algae growth is circular and comes back around until something stops it. If you have ways to scrape it off first and then treat the clean spot that will beat applying it to water. You don’t have to pull all your rocks, drain the clean water down and apply to surfaces in tank but drained


refill back up w the taken water. Even though peroxide can zap algae when dosed into water it’s not reliable, it’s reliable as an initial kill on exposed surfaces. Until surfaces are heavy coated in coralline, they’re open to colonization by plants so means other than peroxide should be considered above dosing peroxide into the water. It’s best as a target application, not in water. Drain and treat is ideal, and any lysmata shrimps are likely to die if peroxide gets near them

since your tank is clean vs pent up with waste (recently rip cleaned) it’s legit to consider fluconazole since that can be dosed into water, and you won’t be compounding dead algae

Well part of the problem of draining is the algae is starting on the bottom most rock. So would have to drain down to the sand bed and catch all my fish to put them in a bucket of water....that was not fun last time and I feel I stressed them out.

So plan to do a round of reef flux and maybe keep increasing my CUC gradually, but for the occasional spot treating of peroxide, you think doing it one day after another wouldn’t be a problem? Do you think the 1ml or 3ml per 10 gallon limit applies for spot treating?

Man, really hoping my coralline gets motivated to finish covering these rocks soon

 

[Gator_Reefer]

Okay so I ran into the whole peroxide dip thing a few weeks back and after trying it this it what I found out. If possible start with snail, emerald crabs and algae blennys if not possible a tang of some sort. I have about 60 zoa frags in my system and had an issue with hair algae in-between polyps. I ordered some makeup brushes off Amazon and some 3% hydrogen peroxide. I found if you dip the frag in peroxide till it starts to bubble. Maybe 1-3 minutes then take a small makeup brush and wipe around the polyps. The algae will fall right off. Just be careful with zoas. Be gentle. Then when all is said and done ill put them back in the system and most of them open right back up. If not I treat with chemiclean and within a day they are all looking amazing. Hope this helps.

Also make sure to rinse off the frags before they go back into the system and make sure you don't dip all corals in hydrogen peroxide. It will kill some types of corals.

My problem is more on the bottom rocks. Not so much the coral frags. Youre method is interesting though....did you dip the brushes in straight 3% peroxide, or just used to them dry to brush off the dead algae?

 

[PeakeAquaculture]

My problem is more on the bottom rocks. Not so much the rocks. Youre method is interesting though....did you dip the brushes in straight 3% peroxide, or just used to them dry to brush off the dead algae?

Unless you have drained the tank I wouldn't use peroxide on anything. And I dipped the brushes into the solution use them dip them back. Rinse and repeat.

 

[brandon429]

the one mil per ten gallons is for 3% so it would need to be divided out, or take your peroxide portion to be added to tank and increase volume with measured ro water so you can get back to 3%

If you are ok with lysmata risk then adding to the water isn’t going to harm the cycle at all, and it really might kill the algae it’s just not certain like that out of water approach

try this instead: take the calculated volume / safe dose and instead of adding to water at top, turn pumps off and still the tank. Put perox in a diabetics syringe and slowly inject at base of the actual tuft, burning it as the perox bleeds off into the tank at the known safe dose

 

[brandon429]

Also lowering the light intensity can really help

reefs and corals will run far lower output than our eyes tell us is ideal, algae likes the differential. If possible go blue heavy, white reduced and overall dimmer and hold for a month as you kill algae and try some snails before ramping back up a little if needed, strong tuning trick there

 

[Gator_Reefer]

the one mil per ten gallons is for 3% so it would need to be divided out, or take your peroxide portion to be added to tank and increase volume with measured ro water so you can get back to 3%

If you are ok with lysmata risk then adding to the water isn’t going to harm the cycle at all, and it really might kill the algae it’s just not certain like that out of water approach

try this instead: take the calculated volume / safe dose and instead of adding to water at top, turn pumps off and still the tank. Put perox in a diabetics syringe and slowly inject at base of the actual tuft, burning it as the perox bleeds off into the tank at the known safe dose

Yep, so I’ve actually been doing that a long pipette. But admittedly have not been dliuting it. One of my questions was how often I could do it, inferring here that I could potentially do it daily (if needed for spot treating) as long as I stick to the volume limit of 1ml (3% peroxide) per 10 gallons water?

Also lowering the light intensity can really help

reefs and corals will run far lower output than our eyes tell us is ideal, algae likes the differential. If possible go blue heavy, white reduced and overall dimmer and hold for a month as you kill algae and try some snails before ramping back up a little if needed, strong tuning trick there

Might try that out. Im running the AB+ profile on a Radion G5. Its new to me so will figure out if I can modify that profile I already have running, instead of a creating a new one.

 

[brandon429]

Every four hours is ok they’ve found in the chem forum via ORP meters it’s gone in four

 

[Gator_Reefer]

Copy that, thx

 

[brandon429]

If you ever want to see a neat test, find a palm sized chunk of truly aged in tank purple coralline 80% covered live rock from someone's display and put it in

Track where algae develops, it's fascinating how it avoids coraline... chemical resistance signals somehow

It's not the case that moving a tiny chunk of live rock into your tank is risky

Corals themselves import same risk

Half the reason for current challenge is awaiting the buildup to live rock... the animals, the bacteria the micro bugs et al

Seeding those with a piece small enough you know it has no mantis shrimps or eunicids or aiptasia is literally ideal plus algae won't take on the coralline parts, it'll go to all other zones. The chunk provides crucial modeling
Coralline seeding


The lighting is going to help, go dimmer than you thought the corals are fine under clouds a few weeks in test

Your rip clean robbed feed the algae would be using to cover everything, it was crucial in the battle to look good while you tune out algae

 

[Melanie Fish]

I actually use a little paint brush and brush peroxide on snails or crabs shells if they have algae on them when i buy them. Always worked for me. Just don't get it on the actual snail or crabs flesh.