Can I use hydrogen peroxide on this coral?

[fishtown-tom]

I got this frag from a friend and it came with some long hair brown algae. I've been trying to manually remove it with my fingers and tweezers but it keeps growing back. I'm a little worried it's going to spread throughout my aquarium. Would dipping it in hydrogen peroxide help? If not are there other suggestions on how to rid myself of this unpleasant looking algae?

 

[Yehuda Dana]

If you have tangs, they will love to eat these algae

 

[brandon429]

you need to run reef dentistry on that frag/tooth.


not as a dip, no dip will fix that reliably

reef dentistry:

have that frag in your hand over the sink

use a metal knife tip to precision debride 100% of the growths off the frag plug via scraping, hard pressing rasping on the frag plug area working right up to the flesh

if some attachments are on the initial zones of sps flesh, debride those too, it'll grow back

once the entire frag is made algae free due to your knife (a dentist is rasping plaques precision and roughly off our teeth, we bleed sometimes) you can then use a q tip wetted in peroxide to go back over the cleaned zones and hopefully burn out holdfast cells you missed on the original pass.

you will need to repeat this until coral growth takes over and excludes algae.

if that was one solid frag plug and no coral, it'd be 100% algae growth like the base

see how living sps flesh wards off algae, it's not attached other than in places where sps flesh isn't growing, you have to foster those places by being the grazer you wish would target just the growth areas.
please take during, and after pics if you dentistry that frag I need the pic succession for rip clean work threads where entire rocks look like that.

fixing one tiny sps tooth isn't hard, ten minutes tops. don't dip or do anything or put anything on the flesh, be target specific.

 

[Eagle_Steve]

I got this frag from a friend and it came with some long hair brown algae. I've been trying to manually remove it with my fingers and tweezers but it keeps growing back. I'm a little worried it's going to spread throughout my aquarium. Would dipping it in hydrogen peroxide help? If not are there other suggestions on how to rid myself of this unpleasant looking algae?

Looking at that frag, it appears you may be able to pop the frags off and just put them on a new plug. If so, problem solved in a matter of minutes.

 

[fishtown-tom]

Thanks all. Will consider the dentistry or pop off options. Really appreciate the helpful advice.

For what it's worth, BRS tv was raving about hydrogen peroxide dipping to "instantly melt away algae" so that sounded appealing to the lazy part of me. Is our concern that it will stress out the coral?

 

[fishtown-tom]

If you have tangs, they will love to eat these algae

Sadly it's a 13.5 Gallon Fluval evo nano tank so I don't have a tang. Any good algae eating fish recommendations that look nice, play nice with my clowns, and can live in a nano?

 

[Eagle_Steve]

Thanks all. Will consider the dentistry or pop off options. Really appreciate the helpful advice.

For what it's worth, BRS tv was raving about hydrogen peroxide dipping to "instantly melt away algae" so that sounded appealing to the lazy part of me. Is our concern that it will stress out the coral?

It works great on zoa frags and some other softies, but SPS really do not like it.

 

[Seymo44]

That looks like bryopsis, which is very difficult to eradicate if it gets a foothold. I dip pretty much all my corals in a weak hydrogen peroxide solution. Zoas can handle 50/50, but I typically go about 10/90 peroxide/saltwater ratio for stony corals. The dip doesn’t have to be long, just watch for bubbles and let it fizz for 2 or 3 minutes then the algae will die in a day of two. It will tick of the coral and it may not open back up for several hours afterwards.
Your best bet it to scrape off as much as possible then remove from plug and remount.

If it does start growing in your tank, look into ReefFlux. It’s a fluconizole treatment that nukes hair algae and bryopsis. But treat this as a last resort, as it will cause a major nutrient spike as the algae dies. I’ve had to do this in my fluval 13.5.

 

[brandon429]

We have lots of peroxide work here to skim for pattern that's why I like work threads vs just my relay of the best practice

Other people's tank pattern as the relay pattern to inspect

We had to arrive at rasping/ dentistry model after 11 years of peroxide work, starting with dosing to the water and then arriving at dips

Reef2Reef Pest algae challenge thread hydrogen peroxide

for sure, I have littered the place with videos mine host from the tube. I bet vimeo would work too, any common site for vids. on one of your test rock areas, don't scrape any, just wet it with peroxide and let sit 4 mins, rinse off, and leave the algae in place to be worked solely by the...

www.reef2reef.com

They're right dips do an initial kill of about 85% of common algae and in that enough masses are helped that the low effort approach works pretty much

Growback management is where it's at... their way leaves holdfasts

Work threads for peroxide get people's updates years on end then we shape practices accordingly, always aiming for the least growback

BRS is freshman year dealing in it so they do the easy offer mostly. It's reliable for the initial kill pretty much

*there simply isn't a reason to dip the non target coral areas, not all corals and sps agree with it. Target work on an exposed frag like that, or a whole rock lifted out of the tank like a big tooth allows no polyp contact and we are dislodging holdfasts before the peroxide is applied, ultimate order of ops


If you want an inside scoop, I'll never waste time with 3% it's baby water

I do my dental method above but sub in 35% peroxide he he

I can't recommend that to the masses, they'll burn their faces off. 3% applied as rasping accuracy covers the masses


But in the back of the poker hall, the dealers aftermarket game is all 35% lol because we're not playing around with invasion prevention.

By being exact, even dangerous 35% doesn't touch nontarget areas.

 

[Yehuda Dana]

Sadly it's a 13.5 Gallon Fluval evo nano tank so I don't have a tang. Any good algae eating fish recommendations that look nice, play nice with my clowns, and can live in a nano?

lawnmover blenny

 

[Troylee]

Just pop it off the plug and throw it away.. super glue the coral to a piece of rock rubble and be done..

 

[brandon429]

ha nice shortcut that's hilarious. we were about to go surgical dentistry over an expendable part of the frag

well we certainly would have made that concrete comply.

 

[fishtown-tom]

lawnmover blenny

cool will add it to my wishlist and would much prefer that option if it works!

 

[AydenLincoln]

Yes you can but it may not make a big difference and it looks like a blue ridge coral! Urchins and snails will eat the algae too.

 

[brandon429]

FIshtown

when people recommend using fish as a means of control, which is never guaranteed they'll just eat up that wiry algae it's a guess, they often omit this information:

Biosecurity

A short introduction to aquarium biosecurity

www.reef2reef.com

when they omit that information after already having it posted to them at 8 am today in their own thread, it's pretty straightforward the link wasn't read.

fish disease is a serious issue, folks don't often take time to assess how much $ you have in your current fish stock- they'll relay what they've read from other's posts.

The man who wrote that article manages the aquatics exhibit and all aquatic animals at a huge zoo.

disease is serious nowadays, nobody ever got velvet by simply scraping a frag plug thats for sure.

if you reactively add any animal that is wet from a pet store without quarantine, you risk the costly wipeouts that consist of new help posts in the disease forum every day. I'm saying this because its a serious risk these days.