Hydrogen peroxide is an awesome miracle cure for me so far but what are the long term risks?

kwirky

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I'm finding myself using a lot of peroxide now, brushing stuff off with it, and dosing it nightly with the 1mL/10g that's commonly recommended, and it's completely turned my tank around! This feels like miracle stuff! What are the long term implications of using it?

I had a horrible infestation of bubble algae which I couldn't keep under control with weekly physical removal coupled with dosing vibrant. Nitrate consumption was following a logarithmic curve as the algae grew, out-competing the coral and coralline, snowballing the problem. Finally, the combination of brushing ALL my rock thoroughly with peroxide and dosing peroxide nightly has turned the tank completely around. Brushing the rocks off during the brightest portion of the photo period theoretically means any peroxide not rinsed off with tank water before the rock goes in should be neutralized by the light quickly.

I've observed that my copepods have disappeared but my corals are already making a 360, recovering tissue previously taken by algae quickly. It feels like losing my copepods has been a small price to pay. I'm even brushing the plugs of frags with peroxide and it obliterates any algae coming in from the store within an hour. When I brushed off the rocks all my coral had their polyps out within an hour of when the job was done. None were sliming up. This stuff is awesome!

However, does anybody know of anything I can't see with my eyes I need to be worried about,? I'm monitoring my kH, and it's stable. My Nitrate consumption has been low, maintaining 1ppm of nitrate for days (I haven't experienced this in 1/2 a year!). I'm replacing 1/2 cup of activated carbon 1x per week on account of cyano & dino die-off. What else should I watch for while I dose 1mL/10g every evening? Any harmful chemical reactions I should be aware of and recommendations on how to monitor for said reactions?
 

mdb_talon

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I am not a fan of dosing it regularly longterm. I mean it can work on algae because it can be very toxic. I would not discount the death of pods(also bacteria, plankton, etc that is also likely happening) when it comes to longterm tank success.

Having said that i am a fan of using it in a more targeted way. I often dip plugs with it(softies only i have had it kill parts of lps even with moderate dip).
 
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kwirky

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I am not a fan of dosing it regularly longterm. I mean it can work on algae because it can be very toxic. I would not discount the death of pods(also bacteria, plankton, etc that is also likely happening) when it comes to longterm tank success.

Having said that i am a fan of using it in a more targeted way. I often dip plugs with it(softies only i have had it kill parts of lps even with moderate dip).

So when is a good point to back off from the nightly dosing? There's this manageable film growing on the rock each night, and receding each evening. I'm planning on waiting for coralline to develop in these areas but how long is too long to be dosing it nightly?

Am I looking at having to pull my rocks to target scrub them with it weekly if I can't dose it systemically nightly long term?
 

X-37B

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I have only used it to target algae I want to eliminate.
I do not dose it though.
I normally do not have algae in my tank.
I had some bryopsis appear out of nowhere and tried to remove it by had but it kept comming back.
This is not recommended but I have used this method before with good results.
Remove as much as you can by hand.
I take a 3ml syringe and fill it with 34% h2o2.
I then put a 1.5" 28 gauge needle on the end.
This allows precise targeting of the h2o2.
Apply it to the algae in question slowly with all pumps off.
It kills the algae on contact.
I have never had an issue and the algae never returns.
 
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blasterman

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I've experimented with dosing it directly at doses of several tablespoons per 10gal and found it does nothing except irritate xoanthids.

As a topical treatment for algae it works great. The trick is to give the stuff about 5 minutes to work before putting the rock back in the tank.
 

mdb_talon

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So when is a good point to back off from the nightly dosing? There's this manageable film growing on the rock each night, and receding each evening. I'm planning on waiting for coralline to develop in these areas but how long is too long to be dosing it nightly?

Am I looking at having to pull my rocks to target scrub them with it weekly if I can't dose it systemically nightly long term?

Honestly i would just be making up any answer. I certainly no expert just was saying why i would bot want to dose it (longterm especially). I also am perfectly ok with a bit of algae in my tank though.

I will say i had a massive GHA issue on a tank i setup once. Rock was leaching phosphate. I did some peroxide dosing and it seemed to help some, but was not comfortable doing it longterm so stopped. I dipped my plugs, manual removal, and got a refugium going. Took several weeks but won the battle.
 

ReefMan692

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I found that for me at first I thought it was a cure all but became to realize it was just a sort of band-aid that also made problems worse.

Things have improved for me since I threw the stuff away (just kidding, I still use it for cleaning my wave pumps and it does quite a good job of that!)
 

DangerDave

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I use an oxydator to dose it 24x7x365. I’m currently about 400 gallons using a W model with 10% h2o2 and two catalyst.

I also use it to spot treat any nuisance algae in my frag tanks (everything is plumbed together to a common sump) to apply directly to any algae slowly using a 1ml dropper and the power heads turned off.

It’s been some years now with no adverse effects.
 
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kwirky

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I use an oxydator to dose it 24x7x365. I’m currently about 400 gallons using a W model with 10% h2o2 and two catalyst.

I also use it to spot treat any nuisance algae in my frag tanks (everything is plumbed together to a common sump) to apply directly to any algae slowly using a 1ml dropper and the power heads turned off.

It’s been some years now with no adverse effects.
How quick do you have to be, to get at the nuisance algae in time?
 

JohnMzreef

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I think you would be better off using a bacterial product +/- organic carbon dosing. I have personally witnessed nuisance algae completely melt away in about 7-10 days using 1/2 capful mb7 and a drop of vodka daily in about 25 gallons of water.
You might end up with a little cyano but its a much better situation than all that gha.
I will also attest that vibrant will get rid of bubble algae - amen!
Peroxide is great for dipping some types of frags..
 

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brandon429

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One way to get good prediction info is by reading peroxide application threads that have been running ten years with recent jobs done. It shows varying ways people use peroxide vs just a report on someones preferred method + outcome (which is nearly always a dump in tank method)


from the threads: zero risk in usage as long as you want to use it. Clearly a massive overdose can kill, but so will kalk.



the threads dont show more than a handful of water dosings compared to direct work, so the outcomes range starkly. More positives logged using it directly on targets without dumping it into the water


folks use products galore to make up for cruddy sandbeds, simply cleaning the tank is better every time.


there is no risk to filtration bacteria at all from common peroxide use. Zero, in fact it boosts filtration we’ve measured likely due to bumping o2. That’s the main difference from Jays article above, we find on seneye studies it boosts nitrification, opposite of his findings that were not ran in a reef tank. His peroxide use was outside the typical surface area and biofilm insulation a reef tank affords. I consider peroxide the greatest nonstandard tool in reefing, it will never leave the hobby or fade out in years to come, its as permanent as temperature checking for pest management.

The exact opposite of how reefcentral feels about peroxide is its true nature in reef tank keeping lol.
 
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Spare time

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So when is a good point to back off from the nightly dosing? There's this manageable film growing on the rock each night, and receding each evening. I'm planning on waiting for coralline to develop in these areas but how long is too long to be dosing it nightly?

Am I looking at having to pull my rocks to target scrub them with it weekly if I can't dose it systemically nightly long term?


That is what snails and such are for.
 

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