Smitty's 37gal reef
- Thread starter Smitty
- Start date
EricTheRed
No, I'm not a communist..
The new scape looks awesome!
Smitty
Premium member
Hey everybody, just wanted to share my experience with you all about my peroxide experiment to rid my tank of bryopsis. *Disclaimer* "noobies should not try this at home". 
As you all may remember, I posted a pic of an unknown algae a while back and have been trying to manually remove it. I know my water was perfect, and all corals(especially my 9 sps's) are growing like crazy. At least every 2-3 days, I would manually remove a lot of the algae, just to watch it grow back with a vengeance, and grow somewhere else too. It even started growing in between my corals, that's when I got fed up. I've been doing about a month of research on hydrogen peroxide, and it's uses in aquariums, and figured I'd try it (our tanks aren't nothing but a big science project anyway). My first attempt was on a small leather coral that had the algae on it, since I didn't care for it really, I would be bad if it died. I prepared a mixture of 50/50 solution of tank water and h202 in a small container and dipped the coral for about 2-3 minutes. The algae bubbled and fizzled during that time, and when u placed the coral back in the tank, the algae look withered and weak. Over the next two days, I noticed it fade away to nothing, and no harm to the coral. Eureka! I then tried it on my zoas, success also. I've mustered up the guts to try my smaller acan colony, and dipped him too, he didn't even close up while in the solution, and now all the algae is home off of him too. This stuff is really working. During the next week, I did my usual 10% water change, and while the water was low, I put some h202(full strength this time, no dulluting) in a spray bottle, and sprayed the algae around the sps's directly, and let it sit for 3 mins before refilling the tank. All the algae turned white over the next few days, and is now completely gone. Tested all my parameters, nothing changed, still perfect water levels. Now yesterday, during my weekly water change, I got real bold, and drained my tank all the way down to the sand, and sprayed all the algae that was on my lower, bigger rocks. The corals were a lil pissed, but it was for their own good. I left the tank completely drained for 3 mins, and refilled it. I woke up this morning to check on the tank, and the corals look great and completely unaffected. The algae is dying, my levels are still perfect, and life is good. I have not lost any corals, inverts, nor fish in the process.*
As you all may remember, I posted a pic of an unknown algae a while back and have been trying to manually remove it. I know my water was perfect, and all corals(especially my 9 sps's) are growing like crazy. At least every 2-3 days, I would manually remove a lot of the algae, just to watch it grow back with a vengeance, and grow somewhere else too. It even started growing in between my corals, that's when I got fed up. I've been doing about a month of research on hydrogen peroxide, and it's uses in aquariums, and figured I'd try it (our tanks aren't nothing but a big science project anyway). My first attempt was on a small leather coral that had the algae on it, since I didn't care for it really, I would be bad if it died. I prepared a mixture of 50/50 solution of tank water and h202 in a small container and dipped the coral for about 2-3 minutes. The algae bubbled and fizzled during that time, and when u placed the coral back in the tank, the algae look withered and weak. Over the next two days, I noticed it fade away to nothing, and no harm to the coral. Eureka! I then tried it on my zoas, success also. I've mustered up the guts to try my smaller acan colony, and dipped him too, he didn't even close up while in the solution, and now all the algae is home off of him too. This stuff is really working. During the next week, I did my usual 10% water change, and while the water was low, I put some h202(full strength this time, no dulluting) in a spray bottle, and sprayed the algae around the sps's directly, and let it sit for 3 mins before refilling the tank. All the algae turned white over the next few days, and is now completely gone. Tested all my parameters, nothing changed, still perfect water levels. Now yesterday, during my weekly water change, I got real bold, and drained my tank all the way down to the sand, and sprayed all the algae that was on my lower, bigger rocks. The corals were a lil pissed, but it was for their own good. I left the tank completely drained for 3 mins, and refilled it. I woke up this morning to check on the tank, and the corals look great and completely unaffected. The algae is dying, my levels are still perfect, and life is good. I have not lost any corals, inverts, nor fish in the process.*
The reefer
Active member
That's kool that it worked. So u just sprayed peroxide right out of the bottle to the corals and rock?
EricTheRed
No, I'm not a communist..
You are a bold man!! Thanks for sharing and I'm glad to hear it worked.
Would it be possible for you to share any of the research you did? I'd like to read up on it.
Would it be possible for you to share any of the research you did? I'd like to read up on it.
Smitty
Premium member
Thanks...yep, as the tank was drained, I just sprayed the peroxide (3% solution) onto the algae...although I tried my best not to spray the corals directly, they still had a lil contact, with no negative effects. I did have to spray my candycane and green birdsnest directly because of algae growing between the branches, and they are fine also.
Smitty
Premium member
Thanks bro...
When I did a google search on the subject, I've noticed nanoreefs.com had 24 pages of research with multiple documented pics, scientific facts, dozens of links. It literally took me days to read all the information.
Smitty
Premium member
Although some people have dosed their entire tanks with the h202 directly, and had mixed reviews, due to some more delicate corals and inverts dying, I thought that was extreme. Some people remove the entire rock, some people remove the corals, and some drain the tank, and I've tried all three. You don't have to spray if you don't want to, you could use a dropper to target the spots even more.
Smitty
Premium member
Thanks...I only sprayed that sps because I couldn't get to the algae that was between the branches...so it was more of a desperation.