Where can I buy Hydrogen Peroxide?

[dasouljah]

Have been battling hair algae for some time now without much success. So have decided to nuke the tank with H202 after transfering the livestock to another tank.

Where can I get H2O2 locally?

[Shadow]

guardian or watson have it

[reagan022]

wow... must be really bad condition for you to nuke the tank!!!...

[dasouljah]

Shadow: thanks, i will check them out tomorrow.
reagan022: yes very bad. threads 15 cm in length can form overnight and if i leave it for another day, they become thick clumps..

[IlOutfitter]

I am starting to have that issue, IRON is too high in the water.

My MTS eat around the stuff but it doesnt grow on my new leaves only the old ones so I trim those out, I also used a toothbrush and basically wiped it off in a matter of minutes.

http://www.aquarium-pond-answers.com...ium-algae.html

that might help.

I am going to start dosing with HP tomorrow when I do the WC however I am going to scrub the decor off first and use a syringe to administer it to the plants directly.


Take all the chemical media out of the filter, as in carbon or ammo chips ect.ect. before you do this or the HP will have no effect on the algae.

[felix_fx2]

The infestation must be really bad, i scrubbed most of them off the last time and redid the whole tank. All this while the inhabitants were living in a pail.

[seanskye]

What's the size of your tank? Hydrogen peroxide may be quite expensive especially if you buy little bottles from the pharmacies to nuke a large tank.

[EddyTing]

I'm having the same problem too...now trying to dilute CO2 24hrs a day, reduce feeding to 2-3days once and larger portion of WC. Seems like it slowed down the growth. O...and also apply 5ml H2O2 on the algae once every 2-3 days, direct into my 3ft tank. All my live stock are still alive, including CRS. Hope this will clear them up...or else, I'm considering restart the tank.

[dasouljah]

What's the size of your tank? Hydrogen peroxide may be quite expensive especially if you buy little bottles from the pharmacies to nuke a large tank.

Im running only a 5g tank so I hope 1 bottle will be enough.

[Tristan]

i think excel might be a better alternative, and you won't need to transfer your fish if you don't overdose too much

[mozaqua]

Im running only a 5g tank so I hope 1 bottle will be enough.

Yikes! Don't add more than 5cc of Hydrogen Peroxide (3%) to such a small tank! Also, peroxide will KILL liverworts! This includes that mini-pellia (Riccardia sp.) as well as other pellia and aquatic liverworts. Regular plants and moss are ok for short duration of oxidation. Keep in mind the peroxide can kill beneficial bacteria as well, so do a water change after 1 day of treatment. Apply with a syringe directly to the effected areas. Also check your water parameters for Nitrites, Nitrates, Phosphates, as these will cause hair algae (cyno-bacteria). If you can't spread the 5cc around to all the areas, just repeat treatment after 2 days if you don't have shrimp in the tank. For Shrimp tank, wait one week between treatments. I typically will use 20cc per 100L, but use directly to the algae -NOT into the filter. Too much your plants will turn light green-white, or even die.

Regards

[dasouljah]

I'm having the same problem too...now trying to dilute CO2 24hrs a day, reduce feeding to 2-3days once and larger portion of WC. Seems like it slowed down the growth. O...and also apply 5ml H2O2 on the algae once every 2-3 days, direct into my 3ft tank. All my live stock are still alive, including CRS. Hope this will clear them up...or else, I'm considering restart the tank.

Hi Eddy, any updates from your treatment regime?

i think excel might be a better alternative, and you won't need to transfer your fish if you don't overdose too much

Hi tristan, I'm actually considering that at the moment after reading more about the potential downsides of H202 from bro cobalt quoted below. For excel, what is a suitable dosage over how many days?

Yikes! Don't add more than 5cc of Hydrogen Peroxide (3%) to such a small tank! Also, peroxide will KILL liverworts! This includes that mini-pellia (Riccardia sp.) as well as other pellia and aquatic liverworts. Regular plants and moss are ok for short duration of oxidation. Keep in mind the peroxide can kill beneficial bacteria as well, so do a water change after 1 day of treatment. Apply with a syringe directly to the effected areas. Also check your water parameters for Nitrites, Nitrates, Phosphates, as these will cause hair algae (cyno-bacteria). If you can't spread the 5cc around to all the areas, just repeat treatment after 2 days if you don't have shrimp in the tank. For Shrimp tank, wait one week between treatments. I typically will use 20cc per 100L, but use directly to the algae -NOT into the filter. Too much your plants will turn light green-white, or even die.

Regards

[GaspingGurami]

H2O2 breaks down into Oxygen and pure water when it oxidises your algae. Therefore, it is harmless, in fact, good for your tank, as opposed to overdosing Excel, which stays in the tank till plants take it up.

However, too much H2O2 will also oxidise your fish, so application must be controlled to the minimum. Best is to turn off filters so that no current will take away the peroxide from the spot you apply. After bubbling stops, then you can turn back on the filters.

[mozaqua]

H2O2 breaks down into Oxygen and pure water when it oxidises your algae. Therefore, it is harmless, in fact, good for your tank, as opposed to overdosing Excel, which stays in the tank till plants take it up.

However, too much H2O2 will also oxidise your fish, so application must be controlled to the minimum. Best is to turn off filters so that no current will take away the peroxide from the spot you apply. After bubbling stops, then you can turn back on the filters.

Yes, it breaks down into H2O and O2 but in the process it is a strong oxidizer and mild acid. This means it can strip the water of its hardness if you overdose.
H2O2 is good stuff for water purification because of its ability to remove organic toxins (by oxidizing them) similar to the way an Ozone (O3) machine or UV purifier works. So caution must be taken, especially with the sensitive animals like shrimp.
Don't want to get too many bubbles on your shrimp, or inadvertently squirt some on the shrimplets (babies)
Due to the peroxides ability to change the water chemistry, the shrimp may require molting after dosage. They will need time to recover from molting before a subsequent dosage should be added.

Regards,

[illumbomb]

How about just adding a pack of say 50 to 100 malayan shrimps into the tank, I thought they are quite effective against hair algae?

[mozaqua]

How about just adding a pack of say 50 to 100 malayan shrimps into the tank, I thought they are quite effective against hair algae?

Yes, I have seen them eat some. Although you need to starve them, which means some might die. If you got that many it is worth a try. Some types of Cyanobacteria (hair algae) are not eaten by any shrimp though.
Be sure to rid the tank of the harmful excess nutrients which caused the algae in the first place ( excess Nitrates, Phosphate, etc.) before introducing any shrimp.


Regards

[dasouljah]

Update:

What I did was to transfer all of my plants, mostly mosses into a 20L (red color household pails) and dosed 50ml of H202 (3%) into the pail. Left it overnight and a full WC the next day and repeated the treatment. This dosage did not cause the rapid bubbling, but slow but consistent bubbling throughout the night.

I would have done a third treatment if not for some mosses starting to turn brown. As of now, most of my mosses survived, color is abit dull but I'm sure they will pull through. Riccia was hopeless, all melted.

The thread algae seems dead and brown and are still attached to the mosses. The plants are back into the tank and I have introduced a cleanup crew to clear out the remaining algae.

Will update again, thanks for all the comments and advice so far buddies.

[dasouljah]

Update:
After 2 days with a pack of 5 endlers and 5 yamatos, all thread algae seem gone. Most of the willow moss turned brown but flame, spiky and singapore mosses are all doing well.

[Tristan]

Yes, it breaks down into H2O and O2 but in the process it is a strong oxidizer and mild acid. This means it can strip the water of its hardness if you overdose.

sorry but I don't think hydrogen peroxide reacts with calcium and magnesium ions.

[StanChung]

Of course it does- metal ions destroy peroxide.