Putting hydrogen peroxide on auto doser?

[Stuckita]

Is this a terrible idea? I have an extra head of my doser available. I also have some nuisance hair algae that has been very stubborn. I’ve been manually dosing peroxide but struggling to dose in evenings when I know it’s most effective.

Would it be stupid to set up a doser to release when the photo period is off at roughly 1-1.5ml per 1g?

Imagine I could flush the doser out after or just run new lines.

Thoughts?

Also, nutrients are relatively low, and clean up crew is pretty large. Running 3 power heads. Some of my frags are getting overrun and manual removal is not only exhausting but disruptive to the system. It’s a 33g waterbox. Nitrates are 5-15 phosphate’s undetectable and running reef roids every day or two to keep the coral happy - without the reef roids the gonipora and others don’t open.

 

[brandon429]

after seeing about sixty thousand peroxide dosings ran start to finish over the last 13 yrs my answer would be: it wouldn't matter if you did, the system would just adapt to it and not much would change.

 

[Stuckita]

after seeing about sixty thousand peroxide dosings ran start to finish over the last 13 yrs my answer would be: it wouldn't matter if you did, the system would just adapt to it and not much would change.

Can you explain this a bit more? Essentially you’re saying that gha will adapt to the peroxide and it’ll have no effect? Thanks, appreciate your experience!

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

I think that, if it was really that easy, we would all be doing it and would all be enjoying algae free tanks. I guess its not that easy since no one does it.

Frankly, would need to know more about the system to agree on any action plan. If your corals are unhappy it tells me that something is going on, something is unbalanced.

Is your system new?

 

[brandon429]

Agreed

In order to use peroxide to fight gha in countless work threads, we had to do far more than just a steady calculated drip. Initial results waned over time with that method we noticed

However
Peroxide is one of the strongest tools avaliable for gha we found it is best used in a different way vs dosed into the tank

Let's see your algae layout, full tank pic curious how it exists plus other details pics will show such as sandbed cross section, bioload for the system, degree of coralline/ coral surfaces etc

 

[Stuckita]

Agreed

In order to use peroxide to fight gha in countless work threads, we had to do far more than just a steady calculated drip. Initial results waned over time with that method we noticed

However
Peroxide is one of the strongest tools avaliable for gha we found it is best used in a different way vs dosed into the tank

Let's see your algae layout, full tank pic curious how it exists plus other details pics will show such as sandbed cross section, bioload for the system, degree of coralline/ coral surfaces etc

Out at the moment but will reply in detail tomorrow! Thanks.

 

[brandon429]

the way we use it was to lift out the rock from the tank, even with corals attached, use a knife to precision scrape off the algae (which is what removes the holdfasts deeper into the rock, water dosing of peroxide does not= fast regrowth) and rinse off the scraped area. algae was removed by surgical precision, like the grazer you always wanted

and on the cleaned spot after rasp and rinse, peroxide was put directly on the spot to kill invisible cells me might have missed. that's a powerful way to use it. in the cleaned areas we glued more coral vs leaving the spot open for colonization. if that wasn't available we'd clean the rocks and the keeper would lower light % just a little down, most are running way too much light and that's the top cause of gha issues in tanks, not phosphate problems. that's the stuff we discern from tank, we can tell dimly-lit setups vs bright ones and other unspoken details from the pics.

 

[Uncle99]

Sounds counterproductive productive as peroxide is an indiscriminate killer so while you may kill the bad, you’ll kill the good as well.

It would be better to set An environment which favors good guy algae and bacteria and let time allow them to outcompete the bad, then, provided your parameters remain rock solid, your sand and rock will stay clean by these consumers.

It is simply a matter of time, but it happens faster when our parameters are in the ranges and super stable.

 

[taricha]

Would it be stupid to set up a doser to release when the photo period is off at roughly 1-1.5ml per 1g?

are you actually dosing 1 to 1.5mL per gallon?
That's a biiiig dose for a tank.

 

[brandon429]

Nice catch

I read it as one mil to ten gals, it’s opposite, nice catch.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I'll provide my usual opinion on hydrogen peroxide that while it may have its place (or not), folks should not assume that is has no other effects on reef aquarium chemistry and organisms aside from algae.

 

[brandon429]

That always left a big cliffhanger for me Randy, reading that

It made me wonder: how bad does it really get out there for reef tanks and peroxide, with that above as the open-ended risk

That above is a hinted risk, a hint at no way to control outcomes


Then I found this:

Reef2Reef Pest algae challenge thread hydrogen peroxide

What you are really in for: Hand cleaning, hard work siphon and rasp-removing of accumulations and invasions outside the tank and doing massive water changes is 90% of this thread, peroxide is 10%. We almost never dose peroxide into the tank water, this is a you-work-physically-hard as catch-up...

www.reef2reef.com

Peroxide saves my Tank! With pics to Prove It!

I had been hearing about the use of Hydrogen Peroxide as a way to deal with pest algae, so I figured that I would give it a try. I had a nasty case of bryopsis and had tried everything you can imagine to beat it. I tried new bulbs, nudibranchs, chaeto, a seahare (RIP), Tech-M, new RO filter. I ca...

www.nano-reef.com

pico reef pest algae problem challenge - Reef Central Online Community

pico reef pest algae problem challenge Nano Reefs

reefcentral.com

Peroxide at 1:10 isn’t much risk. That needs to be said, that specific cutoff point that reflected in ten years of field outcome pictures of tanks heavy on peroxide (but not 1:1 heavy)

to fail to catch peroxide added at the 1:1 ratio is an offense of unstated proportion that is understood.

But actual application on file at common doses: it’s not risky.

the sum total of unseen chemical impacts, risks, from peroxide dosing made no changes to the life arc of all those reefs.


It’s not the tank wrecker y’all said or hinted it was in 2009 I remember the threads.

Peroxide is a powerful grand great tool among options for us, why leave out that part?

Only work threads made that fair balance, on paper nobody can deny the equation balancing must look rough.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Peroxide at 1:10 isn’t much risk, we can see. That needs to be said, that specific cutoff point that reflects in ten years of field outcome pictures of tanks heavy on peroxide (but not 1:1 heavy lol)

to fail to catch peroxide added at the 1:1 ratio is an offense of unstated proportion that is understood heh

FWIW, I stand by my statement. Too many people read the misinformation about it just benignly decomposing to oxygen and water, and believe that it must be perfectly safe. It may be a useful tool, but it is not like it does nothing but cure the problem.

Hydrogen peroxide has a variety of effects. It reduces copper and oxidizes iron in seawater, for example. Is that important? The answer may depend on many other factors in each system. It might even be desirable, but it is not a no effect dose.

 

[brandon429]

Dinoflagellates my experience......h2o2 reefing tool!!!!!

aaaaaaarrrrrrr just wanted to share my recent battle and how i won!!!!!!!!! "i wish i took pics but i didn't..:(" so about 3 weeks ago my tank broke out pretty bad i mean bad!!!!!! my coast to coast overflow would get plugged and almost overflow my tank..... so i did my research and found...

www.reef2reef.com

I'd also add Troy's work thread as a reference as well just to check patterning outside of my threads. It at least shows another fifty pages of 1:10 dosing.

There were some tank wipeouts in my threads clearly caused by peroxide but it took a great accidental dump accident to attain loss... not any more heinous than someone's kalk overdose etc. Surely somewhere on paper, a dosing of kalk appears bad in the chemical conversion process

Troy's thread above is an example where I wouldn't want a thread changed out as a sticky just because it's old. That's a lot of valid dinos work on file for sure, a valuable thread pattern involving peroxide. I like to post those bc other people might discern other patterns from those works regarding peroxide impacts in reefing. I found it shockingly helpful