# Hydrogen peroxide



## goobafish (Jan 27, 2015)

Does anyone have any experience or good reads on using hydrogen peroxide in reef tanks? I am wondering what affects it has on bacteria in the tank at what concentration, and if it is short-term or long-term.

I have had such great results from using it to combat invasive macro-algaes with dips, and I have also read about direct application and dosing. Recently I have been injecting it directly onto the macro-algae with a syringe, and the corals in proximity only seem to close up for a few hours with no long term effects. With dips, some corals would change color (like euphylia) and some just would not survive (acropora).

I have also read that people have had good results combating cyanobacteria with it.


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## silent1mezzo (Jun 24, 2014)

I've never dosed my tank with it but I have dipped corals with GHA and it's worked really well (except for when I put in too much and my zoas/palys blistered).


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## joel.c (Sep 11, 2012)

Wow! 

Never thought of dosing that in my tank. Glad to hear you've had good success on spot treatments, however I would be too scared to directly add it to the water. 

Just thinking out loud, I do have an ORP probe and my tank usually sits around 350-400 ORP (if it gets above 400 I generally know to clean the probe as a reading above 400 is very unlikely without ozone). Monitoring ORP for me is more of a novelty and serves little use, however the reading always takes a nose dive as soon as you stir up debris in the tank or if something is dying. On my controller I set an alert for below 300, which forces me to have a look for anything dead.

That being said, adding peroxide I would expect the ORP to skyrocket, which would most likely kill a lot of bacteria and keep the water very clear/clean. Any new bacteria would probably have a hard time surviving and reproducing. The higher the ORP, the greater the ability to kill bacteria.

As a long term dosing strategy I would express concern about the concentration or potential for overdosing. I don't know much about chemistry, but hydrogen peroxide should break down to water once the reaction is complete? It sounds interesting and probably serves the same benefit as the once popular ozone dosing.

I am also interested to know if others have had success or experience with this.

-Joel


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## goobafish (Jan 27, 2015)

I should look into an ORP probe for my Apex.

After a 4 month battle with Bryopsis I had finally had enough and took the tank apart, dipping each coral in hydrogen peroxide and then quarantining. I got a huge cleanup crew to take out all the rest, and put everything back. A month later my refugium died and the spike in phosphate brought back the Bryopsis with a vengeance. 

Someone suggested that instead of pulling everything out and exposing the whole coral to the dip, that I turn the flow off and syringe undiluted commercial peroxide onto the areas where the algae is growing. I have done about ~100ml of 3% peroxide through syringe into my 20 gallon over the last three days with the flow off for ~10 minutes. So far everyday more totally clear patches appear, and the Bryopsis turns white and falls off. It is so much more effective than trying to pull out the root manually, which I have been doing every other day. Nothing else has been harmed, besides corals closing for a couple hours. 

I am wondering what PPM is safe for peroxide in a reef tank, and what filtration or chemical neutralizes it. I run a carbon reactor, a uv filter, chemipure, cheato refugium and a skimmer.


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## fesso clown (Nov 15, 2011)

Bah! I can't find the links.... 
There are 2 major threads about dosing your tank with Ho2o. They talk about concentrations ect....
One is on Reefcentral and the other is on The Reef Tank(I think) might have been Nano-Reef. It is the same person "hosting" both threads and I can't remember his user name. 
They are looooong threads.... I can't seem to find them right now...


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## Crayon (Apr 13, 2014)

I have a problem with 2 kinds of bryopsis in my small tank in just 3 areas. I can't pull the rock apart so every few weeks I do a small direct application of H2O2 to the areas in question. It bubbles up, and a few days later the bryopsis turns white. No impact on tank that I can see and I am working directly beside a monti cap and a chalice. I took a frag out and painted the H2O2 onto the affected area and that worked well, too.
So far I have eradicated one area, another is almost gone, but one area is being really resistant.
The weird thing, which may be totally unrelated is I now have a bit of cyano in this tank which I have never had before.


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## TBemba (Jan 11, 2010)

I did this a little over a month ago. I wouldn't recommend. I removed all my live rock . It did destroy 99% of the caulerpa. But it cycled my tank. I am battling read slime algae and hair algae both I never had before. Kills acros. And really hard on any other corals. If I had to do it again I would have thrown all the rock out and started over.


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## tom g (Jul 8, 2009)

*hydrogen peroxide*

I find it very effective , when done in small batches , and diluted in water , 
have to remember , there is always a reason for nuicence algae. whats your 
parameters ,nitrates/phosphates ??? your tank from what I remember is very new ... 
like Cheryl is doing slow and steady wins the race , quick fixes and potions from the local fish store are effective but I find they cause other problems in the same breath .. just my opinion ...
cheers


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## Midland (Jan 26, 2015)

I have used hydrogen peroxide in two different ways. First time I removed the coral from the tank where possible and put in the fuge. Scrubbed off all bryopsis. Dipped all bare rock in a peroxide mixture (4:1 tank water to peroxide) and let sit for about 5 minutes. This killed all byropsis. Then returned the rocks and corals to the tank. However, a small amount of what I think might be red slime algae has shown up and three weeks later byropsis started to creep back in a few places. For those I have drained the water below the infected area and used the diluted peroxide (4:1) on that area of the rock including some corals that could not be moved. I placed a towel around the rock to absorb as much of the peroxide mixture as I could to try to prevent it from getting it in the tank water. I then replaced the water. I did that yesterday so it is too soon to say how effective that is. 

My phosphates are a bit high which is the root of my problem. I have been using a phosban reactor with Pura Phoslock. I suspect repeated water changes on a tank as small as mine might be the best root for long term solutions.


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## TBemba (Jan 11, 2010)

Midland said:


> I have used hydrogen peroxide in two different ways. First time I removed the coral from the tank where possible and put in the fuge. Scrubbed off all bryopsis. Dipped all bare rock in a peroxide mixture (4:1 tank water to peroxide) and let sit for about 5 minutes. This killed all byropsis. Then returned the rocks and corals to the tank. However, a small amount of what I think might be red slime algae has shown up and three weeks later byropsis started to creep back in a few places. For those I have drained the water below the infected area and used the diluted peroxide (4:1) on that area of the rock including some corals that could not be moved. I placed a towel around the rock to absorb as much of the peroxide mixture as I could to try to prevent it from getting it in the tank water. I then replaced the water. I did that yesterday so it is too soon to say how effective that is.
> 
> My phosphates are a bit high which is the root of my problem. I have been using a phosban reactor with Pura Phoslock. I suspect repeated water changes on a tank as small as mine might be the best root for long term solutions.


I did the exact same as you said in the top of your post. I then rinsed the rock in old tank water then placed it back in the tank. I was over feeding small tank needs very little food. I was also over feeding corals with supplements and leaving the lights on over 12 hours along with low flow. I have added flow, cut feeding down to every two or three days and tiny amounts. Removed the blue legged hermit that was killing every snail it could find causing rotten snail corpses.


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## Midland (Jan 26, 2015)

TBemba said:


> I did the exact same as you said in the top of your post. I then rinsed the rock in old tank water then placed it back in the tank. I was over feeding small tank needs very little food. I was also over feeding corals with supplements and leaving the lights on over 12 hours along with low flow. I have added flow, cut feeding down to every two or three days and tiny amounts. Removed the blue legged hermit that was killing every snail it could find causing rotten snail corpses.


Thanks TBemba! Very helpful. My flow is fairly strong but the rest of my habits are a lot like yours. I have my lights on about 13 hours, I feed the corals with both food and supplements but at half strength and only once per week as I noted that the coral food had the biggest impact on phosphates when I did my tests. I feed twice per day fairly lightly.

Did I understand you correctly that you only feed once every two or three days? Will Clowns, Sharknose and Tiger Gobies be ok with food that seldom? Thanks again for the help. The battle with byropsis continues and I will try cutting back on the light and food. My nitrites, nitrates and ammonia are all pretty much at zero. It is just the phospates that are staying at about 0.1.


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## TBemba (Jan 11, 2010)

I'm not sure, I'm pretty new to saltwater as well but I have been doing the sparse feeding for about a month now. New life spectrum pellets maybe one or two each every two or three days. In fresh water the rule was fish stomachs are the size of their eye. In nature they don't eat every day and not that much. Fish will always appear hungry.


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## silent1mezzo (Jun 24, 2014)

My fish eat 3 times a week (M-W-F) and I've never had issues. They've gone 8 days without food before (when I was on vacation) and were fine.


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## goobafish (Jan 27, 2015)

I feed my fish once a week. One week pellets, the next some frozen. Just for the clown. Everything else is only eating pods.

The peroxide continues to do an amazing job. I inject up to 20ml/10 gallons every other day directly to affected areas, and it is doing a fantastic job. Only a few small patches left. Nothing has been harmed so far, the only cause for concern is that my long-spine urchins start running around the tank like crazy, getting caught in all sorts of corals (when otherwise they are very cautious with their spines).


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## goobafish (Jan 27, 2015)

Every single time I dose hydrogen peroxide, my new maze brain extends its tentacles which are otherwise never extended. The more I use, the more and longer the tentacles... It's actually the case with all my LPS. Any guesses?


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