Has Anyone Used H2O2 (Hydrogen Peroxide) As Spot Treatment?

[David]

Hi everyone

Has anyone used H2O2 as a spot treatment for Algae issues instead of SeaChem Excel?

[teowxu]

hi, i have used it before as spot treatment for BBA. After a few squirts, the algae turned red and then got eaten by my shrimps. i have shrimps in my tank and they did not suffer any negative effects. So i guess its shrimp friendly.

[hann]

I am having bba algae issue. Any brand of H2O2 to recommend?

[ltsai]

Just try not to overdose. I did it once and the whole tank was bubbling like soda water. And all the fish turned upside down.

Spot treatment is good especially for BBA.

If possible, remove the hardscape and bleach it.

[David]

@teowxu...thanks for the input. Incidentially any idea how much you squirt at the BBA? I am assuming you are using a stringe?

@hann...I think H2O2 is generic and is the same used to bleach hair before dying...so I guess a good brand of any hair dye company will be good?

@ltsai...How much H2O2 did you pump into your tank?

[Ken_ng]

It works but just be mindful of a few points:
1) filters should be turned off preferably 30mins prior to administering the h2o2. You want the water column to be completely still so that the h202 doesn't go all over the tank
2) get the right concentration of h2o2. Any off the shelve h2o2 from guardian or Watson would be fine
3) don't over administer. If you look around AQ, there a few threads on how to do it and what limits are the generally safe.
4) after dosing, water change is highly recommended before you restart the filter.
5) mosses generally don't do too well after administering. Mine died off but will eventually grow back.

Just sharing what I found and learnt.

[ltsai]

Use the H2O2 that you buy from any local pharmacy. It is typically 3% concentration.

Fill up a syringe and squirt at the BBA when the filter is off. You need not squirt too much and use sparely. Don't attempt to treat the whole tank at once because you will likely overdose. Spread it over a few days if there is a lot of area to cover, otherwise just remove the hardscape and bleach it.

H2O2 is a bleaching agent but will decompose into water and oxygen.

I overdosed by using about 15-20ml (I think) into my 2 feet tank.

[David]

It works but just be mindful of a few points:
1) filters should be turned off preferably 30mins prior to administering the h2o2. You want the water column to be completely still so that the h202 doesn't go all over the tank
2) get the right concentration of h2o2. Any off the shelve h2o2 from guardian or Watson would be fine
3) don't over administer. If you look around AQ, there a few threads on how to do it and what limits are the generally safe.
4) after dosing, water change is highly recommended before you restart the filter.
5) mosses generally don't do too well after administering. Mine died off but will eventually grow back.

Just sharing what I found and learnt.

Thanks Ken_ng....

@ltsai...thanks ...wow...15 to 20ml and everything went belly up....

[ltsai]

@ltsai...thanks ...wow...15 to 20ml and everything went belly up....

If I remember correctly. Just be careful and you will be fine. A small squirt directly onto the BBA will be sufficient. It will turn reddish pink later and your shrimps will clean them up.

If there's a large area to cover, do the treatment over a few days.

[David]

Is it actually better to do the squirting with the needle attached to the stringe? the delivery would be smaller and more precise?

[ltsai]

Is safer without the needle.

[David]

for the least I accidentally jab myself...?

[ltsai]

Safer for you and your inhabitants, otherwise it doesn't make a big difference.

[David]

Okie...thanks for all the advice....

[Ingen]

I bought those 3% concentration from our local pharmacy. I would suggest getting the 500ml bottle if you have a large area to treat and in term of cost effectiveness, it cost double of the 75ml if i recall.

I tried using H202 and Excel on thread algae previously, not sure how the effect on BBA.

First try, h202 spot treatments. Area started to bubble and some thread algae around the area started to turn white, but most survived.
Second try, h202 and excel. My fissiden turned brown after two days and thread algae survived!

I followed the instructions from articles found online, perhaps I didn't do it correctly, it just wasn't every effective, at least on thread algae and for my case.

I end up following the suggestion from the boss of c328 (Turn off the lights for 4 days with daily dosage of Ista Algae Remover) and also increased my co2 after the treatment, now my tank is cleared of thread algae and no sign of any since I treated two weeks ago.

[surfersp]

hey ingen, the thread algae you are referring to is it same as hair algae? they are green in colour and when you try to pull or pluck out by hand, they appear to be thread-like in texture and feel, as in they dont break easily? as I also have them stuck in between my spiky moss and US fissidens. I tried to turn off the lights while turning on my co2, but seems like no effect. As my plants are in my CRS tank, i am not sure if algae remover is shrimp safe?

Any advice?

[Ingen]

I may have word it wrongly, I mean to say I increased the co2 during light period after the treatment. It's not advisable to turn on co2 when lights are off, first its wasteful and second it may overdoes the tank since plants are not producing oxygen.

Thethread algae that I encountered are very flimsy, easy to break off, especially if I try to pick them using tweezers. You may want to visit http://www.aquaticscape.com/articles/algae.htm for more information.

As for CRS, seeing how sensitive they can be, I would suggest you ask the shrimp experts before adding anything to the tank, I have never kept CRS before thus am not in the position to share if the aglae remover is safe. I plan to keep them sometime in future though

[David]

@surfersp...I would not go with the algae remover way as you have not attended to the root problem of the cause of algae which is water imbalance of either nutrients or water circulation giving algae the advantage.

I will also second Ingen that you visit the website he posted.

Water circulation is definitely what you should attend first. Most if not all of such algae tend to develop where there are dead spots. This means that nutrients which also includes CO2 does not reach this areas. NH and NO at the same time build up around this areas because the muck tends to accumulate here...again may favor algae.

If you read the website, the key areas focused are water circulation, CO2, Nitrate and water change.

[Aganor]

Guys, in my Hemianthus Callitrichoides DSM project im having abig case of threaded molt/fungus all over the substrate and amost all the HC speially the bottom part of them,
I cant remove the molt since its not in a form that just comes off as it breaks the thread and just reforms some time after,
My only ideia is H2O2, squirting as with water but in this case only with the bottle of the 3% solution,

Any advice on it? i just squirted it once until now and i dont have any other ideia how o get rid of it since i dont cover the tank and it still doesnt go away, meanwhile some of the HC are getting eak and drying out even with the ADA New Amazonia substrate moist