So I know that in the last few years people have been using hydrogen peroxide to target attack hair algae on rocks, corals etc.
I was talking with a friend who owns a LFS in Las Vegas about using it to treat algae as I have a 400 gallon system here that has a ton of hair algae everywhere. He told me that he had actually started dumping the hydrogen peroxide directly into the tank and that it works great! The only thing is that it will kill shrimps.
I was a bit skeptical but since I am breaking down this tank I decided to give it a try and see what happens. It seems weird to me since my understanding is that adding hydrogen peroxide will function almost like an ozone. In that it will effect the ORP and it kills the algae. If that is true then why wouldn't it kill the symbiotic zooxanthellae algae that lives in the coral? It was suggested that the corals tissue acts as a semipermeable membrane that doesn't allow it to negatively effect the zooxanthellae.
So I left a all the corals in the system and directly added 32 oz of hydrogen peroxide to the tank Thursday morning. After a few hours much of the LPS began to recede dramatically. Many of the corals began to slime up. After the fourth hour the corals did not look happy at all so I decided to run activated carbon in the tank. After a few hours the corals all looked much better.
Now Monday morning I would say 75% of all the hair algae is gone! I am amazed. I am going to dose another 16 oz today and see what happens.
Has anyone else tried this before? FYI the 16 oz bottles of hydrogen peroxide cost me 48 cents each at wallmart.
I know I suck for not providing any pictures.
I was talking with a friend who owns a LFS in Las Vegas about using it to treat algae as I have a 400 gallon system here that has a ton of hair algae everywhere. He told me that he had actually started dumping the hydrogen peroxide directly into the tank and that it works great! The only thing is that it will kill shrimps.
I was a bit skeptical but since I am breaking down this tank I decided to give it a try and see what happens. It seems weird to me since my understanding is that adding hydrogen peroxide will function almost like an ozone. In that it will effect the ORP and it kills the algae. If that is true then why wouldn't it kill the symbiotic zooxanthellae algae that lives in the coral? It was suggested that the corals tissue acts as a semipermeable membrane that doesn't allow it to negatively effect the zooxanthellae.
So I left a all the corals in the system and directly added 32 oz of hydrogen peroxide to the tank Thursday morning. After a few hours much of the LPS began to recede dramatically. Many of the corals began to slime up. After the fourth hour the corals did not look happy at all so I decided to run activated carbon in the tank. After a few hours the corals all looked much better.
Now Monday morning I would say 75% of all the hair algae is gone! I am amazed. I am going to dose another 16 oz today and see what happens.
Has anyone else tried this before? FYI the 16 oz bottles of hydrogen peroxide cost me 48 cents each at wallmart.
I know I suck for not providing any pictures.