Is H2O2 dosing the secret to clean rocks?

[Sarcazian]

I tried H2O2 dosing in my really bad tank back in 2011, but I was not good at documenting anything. I also had a major outbreak of red and white flatworms at the same time if memory serves me.

I fought so many issues with that tank, purchased it used, and learned so many things that it was always an experience.
What I will say is that H2O2 at 35% was amazing at cooking the rock in a brute. The only thing it left behind were a few small dead pieces of macro and strangely purple skin (?) from my GPS that I had all over my tank at the time.

H2O2 has applications in the body (consumption) and killing micro stuff on surfaces.

 

[ReeferBud]

Interesting thread.

Is there any benefit to dosing peroxide in a tank that does not have an algae issue?

 

[JimmyV]

hi folks i have been tagging along, so what I am gathering from everyone is dosing at 1ml/10gallons of 3% peroxide which in my case would be 20ml. You would dose at lights out . you would turn off the uv . So is this an everyday dose ,once a week etc that is what I haven't been able to comprehend. Plus I dose vodka so how does the 3% peroxide work with vodka.

 

[brandon429]

No set rule for any of those variables the key is that dose is safe for experimentation however you want to try, excluding the list of known sensitives.

 

[JimmyV]

No set rule for any of those variables the key is that dose is safe for experimentation however you want to try, excluding the list of known sensitives.

I see. So would that be the lower risk dosage that would be used

 

[LegendaryCG]

Peroxide is a very effective method of killing things. Complex animals fortunately have more than a couple cells so they don’t die completly unlike algae. I dip coral frags directly in 3% peroxide if they have algae present for a minute and within a couple days its all dead and gone. Coral never seems to mind.

 

[brandon429]

Agreed and then the rock and rollers do five mls per gallon or those jaded by dinos, they turn to the dark side temporarily

1:10 I think seriously someone copied the dose off an algaefix marine bottle, tried it with peroxide, and it killed some targets but not the corals and fish for .75 cents same ability as algaefix marine, that patterned out to a known safe dose except for shrimp

we do not see copepods harmed in that dose in reef tanks, the rolls of reports from logged threads don’t show mention of pod wipeouts


TMZ, a mod from reefcentral chemistry forum, once assured me pods would be safe with this level and he turned out correct, that was a correct assumption.

context matters interestingly with peroxide. Someone can take a cup of pods and bring the water levels to 1:10 using 3% and some or all die.

conversely, ten thousand people with pods that have places to hole up in a tank while dosing report no such thing, there aren’t floating pod carcasses in dosed tanks or nobody would use it.

there is no practical link or extrapolation for peroxide impacts between cold dead lab slides and petri dishes vs the huge insulation factory that is a reef tank. How it works in a reef tank is best found from examining post patterning IMO not trying to relate its impact to cells teased on out on glass in formal peroxide studies. There are no peer reviewed formal peroxide studies for reefing, people’s collective input here is the best we have and some added help from the chem forum

 

[laverda]

hi folks i have been tagging along, so what I am gathering from everyone is dosing at 1ml/10gallons of 3% peroxide which in my case would be 20ml. You would dose at lights out . you would turn off the uv . So is this an everyday dose ,once a week etc that is what I haven't been able to comprehend. Plus I dose vodka so how does the 3% peroxide work with vodka.

Depends on what your trying to accomplish. I don't think long term use is the best way to solve issues. There is a reason behind algae issues. Fixing those issues is the way to solve the problem long term.

 

[LegendaryCG]

Depends on what your trying to accomplish. I don't think long term use is the best way to solve issues. There is a reason behind algae issues. Fixing those issues is the way to solve the problem long term.

Agree I don’t like to dos it regularly but if I have a problem I need to address it’s in my tool box.

 

[JimmyV]

Depends on what your trying to accomplish. I don't think long term use is the best way to solve issues. There is a reason behind algae issues. Fixing those issues is the way to solve the problem long term.

I agree I personally am not looking for long term use . I would on the other hand consider it like I do with phosphate RX occasional use. I get tired of my constant battle of nussance algea.

 

[brandon429]

Jimmy how many gallons is your tank

 

[saltyfins]

so if I get it...You can dose 1ml, per 10 gallons in a DT and not have any ill effects on corals, or inverts/fish? minus pulsing xenia? hmmm. wish I'd have found this before throwing Vibrant in my tank. thats when everything went south. so far, still cant get on top of this, and tank is not nearly as pretty as it was last year.

 

[Cory]

Oxidators and use of H2O2 in freshwater starts in Europe in the late 70:ties. It was not a thunderstorm in popularity but it survive till the early 2000. After that - the use of oxidators just grow a lot - especially among people that hold and cultivate fresh water shrimps. Today it is a part of nearly all small fresh water shrimps tanks and set up. On of the reasons is that it is very good in oxidation of the water in these low flow system with a lot of biomass as plants - and it gives oxygen to the system even during no photosyntetic periods. The normal use in these small system is 3 % and the equipment have small second catalyzing aera. Based on the popularity among fresh water shrimp aquarists - I doubt that it in small concentrations harm shrimps and copepods


This is important and both true and untrue. Some UV-C equipment catalyze H2O2 into water and active oxygen radicals/ oxygen gas monentarly - UV-C based on low pressure amalgam/mercury technique (like TMC:s equipment) does it. Probably also the systems based on middle pressure amalgam/mercury technique works too. The most important things seems to be if the UV-C is producing some wavelengths around 185 nm or not. This wavelengths is known to produce ozone from oxygen in the air or from water. It means that ozone quickly break down H2O2 and you can get synergistic effects (this can be both good and bad!!!) if you use H2O2 in connection with UV-C or ozone. You will have 1-2=3.

Another compound that - IME - quickly break down H2O2 are chloramines. Therefore - only use pure water when you dilute H2O2 (pure water = RODI, DI, RO or distilled water )

Sincerely Lasse

The lifegard 90 watt ho amalgam unit i have would be what you described too. It has a mercury dot inside the bulb.

Oh 3% peroxide is useful when you get bleach on your skin and you cannot tolerate the smell anymore. I put some 3% on my bleached hand and its gone instantly!

 

[Cory]

Peroxide is a very effective method of killing things. Complex animals fortunately have more than a couple cells so they don’t die completly unlike algae. I dip coral frags directly in 3% peroxide if they have algae present for a minute and within a couple days its all dead and gone. Coral never seems to mind.

Sps in undiluted peroxide? Or you mix tank water and peroxide?

 

[batfish5]

To make it sound simple , how many ounces of peroxide for a 80 gal tank per day and for how long???

 

[GoVols]

It should not if you follow all known knowledge of chemistry IMO - but........... as you can see in this thread - something fishy happens with my pH when I moved my oxydator to the same compartment as my pH probe

Have you notice a rise in pH when using H2O2 or oxidator?

Sincerely Lasse

Well,
You always do great studies.

I'm first-gen German / American with my oldest brother and sister being born in Hamburg. So my father always ran one going just as far back as I can remember.

I've been looking at the oxidator for years but never bought one.

I'm not running a fuge, so if a finally buy one I'll let you know if nighttime ph declines less than without a oxidator.

 

[brandon429]

Team I'm 100% sure peroxide is best pre tested in the bucket, against targets, before dosing the tank.

If you can't model ideal results in a paint bucket nano don't add it to your tank. If you're on fifth go of a dinos battle my recommend is watch out for chemical souping: this kills. The cumulative collective degrading waste after in- tank kills is bad, not the cheat used to kill dinos

Run a total cleaning of your system to remove dinos mass before treatment, less soup mass. Little adjustments like that make the difference with any doser like vibrant or peroxide.

For sure chemical souping has killed tanks with peroxide as the initiator. But not in rip cleaning, disassembly cleaning runs are shown safe, then whatever doser you add now functions as growback preventer not mass remover

This is crucial. In tank target kill jobs risk loss by rotting compounds not the doser we think


Taking any time to read the threads collected for peroxide work show some matching done before the job before dosing. There are some system battles i would not use peroxide: i wouldn't use it for cyano or for bryopsis for example

 

[Doctorgori]

peroxide works, no doubt. ...
being stupid with it is a disaster
I zapped a 210, lost all shrimp, clams and most sps with a unmonitored auto dosing with the 35% stuff. ...
I got a thread here on it, tanks looks post nuclear...
now I got a build thread ...

I’ll use it again if warranted, just with caution

 

[brandon429]

If someone wants a fun custom run just for fun and live time workings post a pic of the tank and why you want peroxide for it. Let's see what the ideal method is per offer

We can for sure make peroxide a tool in fixing your reef, post anything here. Your full tank shot is going to show sand cross sectioning, pigmentation of the sand, overall exposure of sand to the top water vs stacks of rocks that will present more settling vs flow

We can assess basic export habits from the pic

Bioload will be apparent, overall organic loading between eutrophic vs clean systems, affects how much peroxide per gallon used

The target in question is evaluated based on overall mass

At the very end peroxide is factored...usually deep cleaning comes first so there's no chemical souping. Clean systems and bare bottom systems will have it easier because they compound waste less.

Some form of hard work should precede peroxide dosing, lack thereof is very often causing the need.

 

[brandon429]

@Doctorgori yes please post it we need the safety balance.


This thread needs to be a collection of good and bad in order to be a reliable reference.