THIS IS ONE OF SEVERAL POSTS/ARTICLES THAT SUGGESTED THE USE OF FOOD GRADE HYDROGEN PEROXIDE. THIS WAS ON thereeftank.com
I WOULD STILL APPRECIATE HEARING FROM ANYONE WHO USED HYDROGEN PEROXIDE TO KILL ALGAE.
THANKS, JANICE
Hi all,
This is my first post ever on any online forum. I thought it would be good to share my observations about "chronic" hydrogen peroxide dosing of a
reef tank as well as direct applications on corals out of water.
Firstly the environment:
Tank system: Total water volume: 150L (true water volume, ie excluding hardscape, equipment). 80L in display tank, 70L in sump.
Filtration: Live rock, phosphate reactor (media phosban), Deltec MC500.
Water parameters: typical measurements using hobbyist test kits.
pH: 8.1-8.2
Alkalinity:3.0-3.5 mEq/L
Nitrates, phosphates: nil
Calcium: 400-450 ppm
specific gravity: 1.025
Temperature:25oC
Salt: Tropic Marin Pro Reef
Tank age: 6 Months
Maintenance: 15L water change weekly, evaporation top up and alkalinity supplementation using R.O.D.I. water with Seachem reef buffer.
Corals:
Soft corals and corallimorphs:
Zoanthids (various), Mushrooms (Actinodiscus sp., Discosoma sp.,Rhodactis sp.), Ricordea florida, Ricordea yuma.
LPS: Blastomussa merletti, Blastomussa wellsi, Acanthastrea lordhowensis, Trachyphyllia geoffroyi, Euphyllia glabrescens
SPS: Montipora digitata
Livestock: Royal Gramma, Firefish, Astraea snails, Narcissus snails, Cerith snails, Hermit crab (Clibanarius sp.), (Chaetomorpha in sump.)
Other live organisms: copepods (abundant), scypha sponges, vermetid snails,
brittle stars, Red and
purple coralline algae.
Algae: All in very minute amounts, not noticeable, Bryopsis, bubble algae(specific type: Valonia aegagropila), Caulerpa sp.
Hydrogen peroxide use and effects:
Hydrogen peroxide: 30% (not 3%)
Water column dosing:
0.5ml in 150L of water (this is equivalent of 1.25ml of 3% H2O2 per 10 US gal of water) either daily or once every two days. Dosing started about 3 months ago and has been continued in this manner without any significant interruptions. Either added indiscriminately to the
water column or spot treated an algae infested area. On occasion, twice the stated dose has been added when spot treating areas.
Observations:
The
fish do not show any response at all. Snails and hermit crabs are similar.
Most zoanthids close immediately upon dosing everytime. They open again within 1 to 2 minutes afterwards. Dinoflagellates were a problem prior to start of dosing.
Bryopsis do not seem to be affected even upon spot treatment with 30% solution, all flow is turned off prior to treating and H202 solution is allowed to gently fall upon the area. Localised bubbling is seen.
Bubble algae do seem to be affected negatively, sometimes repeated doses have been given to the area. However effects are hard to judge as most of the time remove the bladders and spot
treat the area immediately. But on occasion I have seen disappearance of bladders after treatment without removal.
Dinoflagellates: Spot treatment is very affective in sterilization of the area.
Coralline algae: Spot treatment also completely destroys all coralline algae in the treated area, however algae surrounding the treated areas and elsewhere in the
tank continue to grow.
Corals that have been directly been "spot-treated" are listed below:
Actinodiscus sp., Discosoma sp., Acanthastrea lordhowensis, Blastomussa merletti, Blastomussal Wellsi, Trachyphyllia geoffroyi, Ricordea florida, Zoanthids.
All corals appear to return to normal within 24 hours of being treated. All LPS stated show a minimal response and appear to return to normal within minutes.
No other effects seen on any other live organism.
Treatments of corals exposed to air:
The coral (and live rock to which the coral is attached) is lifted out of the tank and placed on dry
tissue paper. 30% H2O2 solution is added dropwise to the affected area. Vigorous bubbling is observed and is allowed to continue for 20-30 seconds before the specimen is restored to water again.
Corals that have directly been exposed to h2O2 solution this way include: Blastomussa Merletti, blastomussa Wellsi, all mushrooms listed,
Zoanthids.
The mushrooms "shrink" after treatment while the LPS and
Zoanthids close. However they return to normal within 24 hours of being treated.
Algae: This method does seem to kill Bryposis, however sometimes I do repeat this process again before it is completely affective. I remove byropsis using a toothbrush and/or forceps before treating the area. Prior to H2O2 treatment, manual removal would result in regrowth from the same area but H2O2 treatment usually successfully sterilizes the area after the first treatment.
This method needless to say is very successful for Valonia.
Other comments:
I started the chronic H2O2 dosing regimen to eradicate a minor dinoflagellate problem that had stated. I have found this to be very well tolerated by the tank inhabitants. I have since extended this to "spot treatments" and direct application out of water. Please note that I am using a laboratory grade 30% H2O2 solution for all treatments.
Coralline algae does not seem to be negatively affected (except on the locally treated area). I have performed a scratch test where I have using a blade completely or partially removed the coralline algae growing on tankglass.
These areas were not "spot treated" but only the
water column was dosed with H2O2 regularly as stated above. The partially "scratched" coralline algae grew during treatment. Areas which were completely cleared of coralline algae (as based on my vision) were seen to house new colonies.
Copepod population is not noticeably different since prior to starting treatment. Copepods are easily visible on tank glass and I use these numbers as an indicator of the tank population.
Chaetomorpha does not seem to be adversely affected by this long term water column dosing.
Corals appear to be very healthy and are growing: new polyps on Blastomussa (both species), Acanthastrea lordhowensis, Euphyllia glabrescens and ofcourse the mushrooms and
zoanthids. Montipora digitata is increasing in size.
The 30% H2O2 solution is fairly strong and can be corrosive to human skin. However surprisingly, direct contact of the undiluted solution with corals (as stated above) did not appear to cause any damage at all. Localised treatment under water causes a less pronounced response. Aiptasia's appear to not be negatively affected by either treatment under water or upon direct application emeresed.
All of the above are my observations gathered over a 3 month period. All inhabitants have been housed in this system since the start of
water column dosing three months ago, with the exception of Trachyphyllia geoffroyi (which has been in this system for over a month).
The reason for "spot treating" corals such as Trachyphyllia geoffroyi and Acanthastrea lordhowensis was not to eliminate any algae. I treated them after moving them to a different location, on sites on the coral which I suspected I may have damaged due to the move. I must admit this was also partially curiosity driven.
I hope these observations help answer some safety issues of long term
water column dosing as well inform about about tolerance of corals to direct application either in an immersed or emmersed state.
Many thanks for reading,
Saif Bham
