Hydrogen Peroxide: The Nuclear Option with Nuisance Algae

I'm think about shooting some Peroxide onto some Cyano areas on my bottom Crushed /coral. Doing a little each day. I've had my params great for a long time now. I still seem to get some self limiting cyano on the bottom CC only.
I"ve tried vacuum siphoning it, but it seems to come back within a day or two.

 

Matt how is test coming ~

 

Hi Brandon - sure - here is an update:

The main rock (the smooth one) that I did two applications to is looking great. I am very happy about that.

What I find interesting is that my royal urchin has suddenly found that rock really attractive and has been cruising it daily. I love this as I think he will keep it clean.

The bad news: that SPS frag I accidentally hit looks totally dead now. I am a bit shocked by this but I suppose it really highlights the strength of hydrogen peroxide even with a partial hit with 5 seconds before rinse. Use with extreme caution! Lesson learned.

The porous rock that is now in the sump still has red slime. I am not surprised as I found it difficult to tackle that rock with a syringe. A soaked towel perhaps, Q-TIPs would have been better. Since it is so porous, simply putting it in the sun for a couple days may be the way to go there.

Overall I am very happy with this experiment. It cost me a frag but dealt with some slime that has been driving me nuts. There are a couple small spots left mostly on one other rock that I will use peroxide on out of tank again down the road. Thanks for your help with this method!

matt

 

Hey that is great that stinks about the sps, I've damaged non targets too. Your observations with the urchin are helpful I don't know any other urchin treated tanks that's cool

 

It definitely works on Bryopsis. I just treated some patches of bryopsis in my 900g reef and it worked like a charm.
The scary thing is I overdosed (way more than the recommended 1ml per 10gallons). I got so excited watching the fizzing action of the peroxide as I applieded the peroxide onto the bryopsis patches (I used airline tubing and rigid airline as a siphon from a beaker of peroxide above the tank). I ended up dosing 1,200 ml H2O2 into a 900 gallon reef system.
The only casualty was a 10" T. derasa clam (bummer). Results were a bit scary at first buy everything else has bounced back. The most affected were the SPS corals, which lost much of their color (faded to brownish) but are now coming back.

Other observations: Spawning event! Yes - I said spawning. The first was a short-spined urchin, and then two of the three 10" Tridacna dersa clams spawned as well.
And it drastically improved the clarity of the water - which can be bad and can cause corals to bleach from light shock (but fortunately they didn't).