# Can h2o2 be used as a whole tank treatment before WC



## Iwagumi_Scaper (7 Sep 2018)

Hi all,

Just wondering if it's ok to use Hydrogen Peroxide as a whole tank treatment as part of maintenance. My algae/BGA issue seems to be largely under control now after spot treating and doing a couple of good tank cleans and water changes. No real re-growth since my last WC but I am wondering if I could drop a 1ml per gallon dose into the water column and allow it to circulate for 24 hours, followed by my usual 50% water change each week. What are your thoughts?

Many thanks,

Chris


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## Something Fishy (7 Sep 2018)

With livestock in there? You’re essentially reversing the process of removing any bleach from tap water that most of us do as livestock is never going to like bleach in their column.

Whether they die from it is another matter I guess, but I can’t see them being overly fond of it.

I also thought of that for algae but ended up using liquid carbon - higher dose when down to 50% in tank and leave uncirculated for 30 mins then full back up.

I found any neat liquid carbon that touches plants burns the plants leaves though and they fell off shortly after.


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## ian_m (7 Sep 2018)

I think the H2O2 would quickly react with any organics in the water and be quickly neutralised, before it had a chance to kill algae. I think you would end up with having added very expensive water and slightly reducing the organics.

I have seen a water treatment system in a zoo (penguin pool) where they added H2O2 to the water during filtration to lower the organic load.

So no I don't think adding H2O2 will achieve anything useful.



Something Fishy said:


> You’re essentially reversing the process of removing any bleach from tap water that most of us do as livestock is never going to like bleach in their column.


Nothing to do with bleach, which is sodium hypochlorite. Chlorine and sometimes chloramine is used to disinfect drinking water.


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## Iwagumi_Scaper (7 Sep 2018)

Something Fishy said:


> With livestock in there?



Just 2x Amano shrimp and a horned nerite at the moment. They survived the spot treatment and didn't show any signs of distress when swimming over the treated patch.


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## Something Fishy (7 Sep 2018)

Iwagumi_Scaper said:


> Just 2x Amano shrimp and a horned nerite at the moment. They survived the spot treatment and didn't show any signs of distress when swimming over the treated patch.



Ah ok, likely not a big deal then but not sure it would be enough to achieve anything significant?


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## Something Fishy (7 Sep 2018)

ian_m said:


> Nothing to do with bleach, which is sodium hypochlorite. Chlorine and sometimes chloramine is used to disinfect drinking water.



That’s what I meant Ian, the chlorine in the tap water that we’re trying to remove.  I’m no scientist but I always understood Chlorine was at least a form of a type of bleach.



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## Something Fishy (7 Sep 2018)

Have you tried liquid carbon already Ian? Could be worth a go, it strips my algae right down, like I say just don’t hit the leaves with it neat haha.

Best of luck mate.


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## ian_m (7 Sep 2018)

Something Fishy said:


> Have you tried liquid carbon already Ian?


Yes I automatically daily dose liquid carbon, in my opinion it does keep algae (mainly BBA) at bay. Allows a little more wriggle room (and food for plants) before things start going wrong in my tank.

Often, mainly when I come back from holiday and have obvious BBA moving in due to lack of water changes, I dose say a x5 (or more) liquid carbon (Excel appear be better than Glut based liquid) and that generally wipes out all the BBA. Some people dose high after 50% water lowering to do the same.

 Liquid carbon can be toxic to shrimps, some fish and can melt away some plants, but generally in larger doses than we use in our tanks.


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## zozo (7 Sep 2018)

If you are interested in H²O² 3% against algae you might like to read this thread, unfortunately it is in German, so if? You need a translator site.
But the thread / discussion is quite extensive and explainatory with different H²O² concentrations for different types of algae tested.. Anyway it's one of the most complete threads about the issue out there..

https://www.flowgrow.de/algen/algenbekampfung-mit-h202-wasserstoffperoxid-t23463.html

Adviced 2-5 ppm H²O² at 3% seems to be very effective, relative to lifestock sensitivity rather 2ppm than 5ppm.
0.1 ml peroxide / L water equals 3ppm. 10ml /100L.. Some tested up to 30ml/ 100L without negative effect on lifestock and plants.

Personaly i have no other experience than spot treatment with lifestock not exceeding 10ml/100L. I once tried the full 30ml/100L in a planted setup without lifestock and it realy works very good. Even Clado comes out damaged. plants were not affected.. Experienced it less agressive than glut.

Tho not addressing the cause it'll be back, you never get it all, probably spores dug into the substrate, finaly will surface and regrow again. 

Some also go for a combination with Glut and Peroxide together.. Also described in above thread.. Also explained bellow
https://www.plantedtank.net/forums/23-algae/203684-one-two-punch-whole-tank-algae-treatment.html

Personaly i'm not a fan of drastic methods like this that likely kills a lot more than algae only... I rather addres the issue with less shocking and drastic methods called patience and common sense and i don't mind looking at some degree of algae what ever (non blue) algae it is.


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## rebel (7 Sep 2018)

Definitely can. 

IME I can spot dose about 50ml of 3% into a 125L tank. Wait for 15 minutes to BBA to die and then do a 60% water change (not sure that it's needed). BBA gone.

I would love to see any papers on the half life of hydrogen peroxide in the sort of conditions that we use.

Here is what I found so far. I am hoping an expert can search the appropriate literature or give me a hint on where to look.

From another forum:

The half life in seawater is several days:

http://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2014/mpo-dfo/Fs97-6-3080-eng.pdf

from it:

Preliminary work in the laboratory with Interox® Paramove™ 50 in raw seawater has shown the half-life of 1200 mg·L -1 H2O2 to be 28 days at 10°C. Degradation studies in the laboratory were performed under static conditions with raw seawater at 10°C and a range of concentrations of H2O2 from 300 mg·L-1 to 1800 mg·L -1 . The calculated half-life of H2O2 ranged from 8 to 19 days. The calculated half-life of 1200 mg·L-1 H2O2 was inconsistent with the preliminary calculated half-life (14 days versus 28 days). The influence of biotic communities and organic matter on the degradation of H2O2 in the Interox Paramove™50 formulation was investigated using filtered (0.2 µm) raw seawater at 10°C and a range of concentrations of H2O2 from 300 to 1800 mg·L-1 . Degradation of H2O2 was not dependent on concentration. The calculated half-life of H2O2 ranged from 1 to 4 days indicating a faster rate of H2O2 degradation in filtered seawater than in raw seawater. These results indicate that degradation of H2O2 in Interox Paramove™50 was slowed down by the presence of biotic communities and/ or organic matter in raw seawater.​


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## Nick Norman (7 Sep 2018)

How long does it take for the algae to die off/disappear? I spot treated black algae with 3% h2o2 a few days ago and its still there. It bubbled for about 15 min when I applied.


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## zozo (7 Sep 2018)

Nick Norman said:


> How long does it take for the algae to die off/disappear? I spot treated black algae with 3% h2o2 a few days ago and its still there. It bubbled for about 15 min when I applied.


It depends on the species.. There are many and very difficult to ID.. Dead algae, some turn red rather soon after a treatment others take a week and slowly turn grey in color.. Some are more sensitive than others and some need more than 1 treatment..

So it's very difficult to give a conclusive answer..


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## Something Fishy (8 Sep 2018)

I used neat EasyCarbo to clean rocks with a brush to try and keep algae down as started to see green algae for the first time - perhaps from over fertilizing I’m not sure.

After that I noticed so nearly plants dropping leaves - I presume some of it hit them and they didn’t like it?


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