Technique for Spot-Treating Algae In Tank (unless it's dumb) NaOH+H2O2

[taricha]

Here's a trick... how do I get rid of aiptasia that are growing in the midst of zoanthids that I don't want to kill? Sounds like the methods herein would kill both.

Not necessarily. It makes the corals around it angry, but I've used it right near base of a coral, and the nearby coral was fine after initial irritation.

 

[trainbob]

@taricha when you are confident about the results of your experiment would you please post your technique in layman’s terms . Thinking this would be worth a try

 

[McPuff]

Not necessarily. It makes the corals around it angry, but I've used it right near base of a coral, and the nearby coral was fine after initial irritation.

Excellent! Then I may have to try it.

 

[barista7105]

I do on occasion in the wife’s tank. Used it in my current tank early on in its life to get rid of bryopsis hiding in crevices. Used to use just calcium hydroxide paste years ago, didn’t quite have the oomph! I guessed that F Aiptasia is just kalk and sodium hydroxide, so tried it and it works great, on everything.

Thank you for this info. Any specific formula/grams on kalk + lye for the mix?

 

[Garf]

Thank you for this info. Any specific formula/grams on kalk + lye for the mix?

I should probably measure it, instead of eyeballing it tbh. I just dissolve about 1/2 teaspoon of sodium hydroxide granules (caustic soda pearl ) into a small tumbler of water (this gets hot), then use that to make a slurry with a couple of heaped tablespoons of calcium hydroxide powder (and I discard whatever caustic soda solution I don’t use). If you make it too potent or with too low viscosity, excessive magnesium hydroxide is formed when it goes into the saltwater. High viscosity is good (as long as you can get it through a syringe). Altering the viscosity really is just a case of adding more powder or water, it appears the exact amount of sodium hydroxide may have little relevance apart from there being “enough”. You lot have revived my interest in this potention money making method so now I’m playing around with a dry mix of the pearl and calcium hydroxide, so “just add water” lol. I could really do with becoming a millionaire this year, I failed miserably last year (by about a million actually).

My pot and high tech dispensing unit, lol.

 

[barista7105]

I should probably measure it, instead of eyeballing it tbh. I just dissolve about 1/2 teaspoon of sodium hydroxide granules (caustic soda pearl ) into a small tumbler of water (this gets hot), then use that to make a slurry with a couple of heaped tablespoons of calcium hydroxide powder (and I discard whatever caustic soda solution I don’t use). If you make it too potent or with too low viscosity, excessive magnesium hydroxide is formed when it goes into the saltwater. High viscosity is good (as long as you can get it through a syringe). Altering the viscosity really is just a case of adding more powder or water, it appears the exact amount of sodium hydroxide may have little relevance apart from there being “enough”. You lot have revived my interest in this potention money making method so now I’m playing around with a dry mix of the pearl and calcium hydroxide, so “just add water” lol. I could really do with becoming a millionaire this year, I failed miserably last year (by about a million actually).

My pot and high tech dispensing unit, lol.

Cool, thanks for the recap

 

[taricha]

I should probably measure it, instead of eyeballing it tbh. I just dissolve about 1/2 teaspoon of sodium hydroxide granules (caustic soda pearl ) into a small tumbler of water (this gets hot), then use that to make a slurry with a couple of heaped tablespoons of calcium hydroxide powder (and I discard whatever caustic soda solution I don’t use). If you make it too potent or with too low viscosity, excessive magnesium hydroxide is formed when it goes into the saltwater. High viscosity is good (as long as you can get it through a syringe). Altering the viscosity really is just a case of adding more powder or water, it appears the exact amount of sodium hydroxide may have little relevance apart from there being “enough”. You lot have revived my interest in this potention money making method so now I’m playing around with a dry mix of the pearl and calcium hydroxide, so “just add water” lol. I could really do with becoming a millionaire this year, I failed miserably last year (by about a million actually).

My pot and high tech dispensing unit, lol.

I'm sort of on the other end - mostly NaOH with a little Ca(OH)2 just to provide some solids to make it stick better- especially to polyps etc. So it's very thin.
I looked up how concentated the NaOH needs to be to be denser than seawater, and 1 Molar NaOH is 1.04 g/mL which is plenty denser than seawater, so nearly that (or anything stronger) will sink wherever you put it.

So I'm doing 1mL of 1Molar NaOH + 1 red sea scoop (0.15mL) of Calcium Hydroxide into a tube. Mix and pipette the thin liquid onto wherever. Leave pumps off for 20 minutes.

@Garf , I'd be interested in what your half a teaspoon in a tumbler of water is in grams and mL.
Do you think there's an advantage to the high concentration of kalk you are using? I'm using very low concentration of kalk - with my reasoning being that I don't want to think about any system-wide change in Calcium.

 

[ceaver]

Thoughts on using something like this on bubble algae? I'm almost to the point of using Vibrant again (though I know it's been exposed as a simple algaecide) and would love to use something like this instead to kill it off...

 

[taricha]

Thoughts on using something like this on bubble algae?

should kill it pretty thoroughly.

I'm almost to the point of using Vibrant again (though I know it's been exposed as a simple algaecide)

Heh. API, Fritz, Tetra, and probably a few other companies all sell a clearly labeled cheaper version of the same algaecide. If you liked Vibrant, then API Algaefix (etc.) will give you the same results.

 

[Garf]

I'm sort of on the other end - mostly NaOH with a little Ca(OH)2 just to provide some solids to make it stick better- especially to polyps etc. So it's very thin.
I looked up how concentated the NaOH needs to be to be denser than seawater, and 1 Molar NaOH is 1.04 g/mL which is plenty denser than seawater, so nearly that (or anything stronger) will sink wherever you put it.

So I'm doing 1mL of 1Molar NaOH + 1 red sea scoop (0.15mL) of Calcium Hydroxide into a tube. Mix and pipette the thin liquid onto wherever. Leave pumps off for 20 minutes.

@Garf , I'd be interested in what your half a teaspoon in a tumbler of water is in grams and mL.
Do you think there's an advantage to the high concentration of kalk you are using? I'm using very low concentration of kalk - with my reasoning being that I don't want to think about any system-wide change in Calcium.

I pipe mine on, like I’m making icing starshapes on a cake. I can get the thicker solution to stick to near vertical surfaces ((at least for a while) the syringe tip needs to be nearly touching the target area to adhere). Must admit,I’ve never considered that a small calcium increase would ever be a problem. 2 or 3 mls in a 60 gallon appears to have little impact on pH or Alkalinity when left to sit for 1.5 hrs.

Thoughts on using something like this on bubble algae? I'm almost to the point of using Vibrant again (though I know it's been exposed as a simple algaecide) and would love to use something like this instead to kill it off...

You could attack at least small patches at a time if this is for a 40gallon. This isn’t stuff that you can apply everywhere, all in one go, as you probably know. Let us know what you decide, pics would be good.

I’ve attached a pick of the rock that I treated 18 months ago, just for shiggles, but you can’t see much of it now, lol

 

[Garf]

I'd be interested in what your half a teaspoon in a tumbler of water is in grams and mL.

Made up a dry mix batch today and it’s 10% caustic soda pearl, ie 5 grams pearl, 50grms calcium hydroxide, add water to required viscosity. Even sticks to vertical glass if there’s a little algae on it for it to bind to.

 

[taricha]

Made up a dry mix batch today and it’s 10% caustic soda pearl, ie 5 grams pearl, 50grms calcium hydroxide, add water to required viscosity. Even sticks to vertical glass if there’s a little algae on it for it to bind to.

Very handy. I'll recreate your recipe and see if I like your thick extreme better than the thin extreme I've been using.

 

[PR_nano]

Saving for later, have about 4 spots with some stubborn algae that I manually remove every 2 weeks. Can you guys post best place to order from? (small quantities/best prices).

 

[jda]

While I have little doubt that this might kill algae, I also wonder if they rock structure will now be sterile and without a tenant and that even nastier things could move in... like dinos. I would not try and really blast the surface of the rock.

 

[taricha]

I also wonder if they rock structure will now be sterile and without a tenant and that even nastier things could move in... like dinos. I would not try and really blast the surface of the rock.

Stuff like this thoroughly kills a small section of rock, so it's fair game for whatever to colonize. In my tank the coralline nearby ended up colonizing the patches I did.

 

[LRT]

Great thread! I'm curious if any of you have a less lethal mix you have used? I have a few zoa rocks and plugs I want to kill the nasties but not harm the zoas.

 

[Garf]

Stuff like this thoroughly kills a small section of rock, so it's fair game for whatever to colonize. In my tank the coralline nearby ended up colonizing the patches I did.

Coralline loves it, never seen a Dino out break, even in using the old school kalk paste technique.

 

[ceaver]

should kill it pretty thoroughly.


Heh. API, Fritz, Tetra, and probably a few other companies all sell a clearly labeled cheaper version of the same algaecide. If you liked Vibrant, then API Algaefix (etc.) will give you the same results.

I still have most of a bottle of vibrant lying around; I certainly wouldn't purchase a new bottle of it. Thanks for the info!

 

[naterealbig]

Here's a trick... how do I get rid of aiptasia that are growing in the midst of zoanthids that I don't want to kill? Sounds like the methods herein would kill both. Probably just have to use biological methods, huh? I do have a filefish but really afraid to add him because the triggers are messing attack dogs when I add something new. :0( Thinking that berghia may be my only good solution.

Used F-Aiptasia in a small colony a few days ago. Happy to sacrifice a few, to save the many!

 

[taricha]

Great thread! I'm curious if any of you have a less lethal mix you have used? I have a few zoa rocks and plugs I want to kill the nasties but not harm the zoas.

The stuff that @Garf and I are talking about is as accurate as your pipette / syringe. So you can get the bad stuff and not necessarily harm the nearby corals. They will be ticked off for a little while.
But if you are looking for something more like a "dunk the whole rock in and kill the algae but leave the corals" then you should probably check in on the variations of peroxide dips. It's been tried a good bit and people in those threads have a good feel for what a zoa can handle, that would kill the algae on the rock/frag plug.