Peroxide

[shobby]

Wondering if anyone has ever dosed peroxide in their reef aquarium. I have been reading online, that people have used 1 ml to every gallon of tank water, to rid their aquarium of nasty algae. I have diatoms, can't seem to rid myself of them, and really would like a way to see them go bye bye.
Thanks shelley

 

[silverado61]

Try a sand sifting goby. Works wonders.

 

[jay0705]

Agreed, perfect sand.

 

[shobby]

Funny thing, bought two of them Wednesday, haven't seen them since I put them in.

 

[shobby]

Funny thing, bought two of them Wednesday, haven't seen them since I put them in.

Okay, I actually bought two orange diamond gobies and haven't seen them but I do have 4 convict gobies and another goby that looks similar to the watchmen but different colors

 

[reefkeeperZ]

Diatoms cannot form without silicates. if you cannot get rid of them silicates are being introduced to your tank, either through water or some other medium. no need to dose anything just eliminate the source of the silicates. How old is your tank? how long have you had diatom problems? what kind of water are you using?

 

[shobby]

I had a 55 gal, had it for ten plus years, acquired a 120 and transferred everything over to the 120. Added of course, more sand and more rocks. That was in June. Could not get my nitrates to drop. Was a very deep deep red. Everything looked good though, but went and bought the aquripure nitrate remover. That was September, with in one week of adding that, diatoms. Never had the problem before and have not been able to rid myself of them. Was using tap water, swapped to ro and even added a phosphate remover for good measure, tested phosphates and it was almost a zero. And still have diatoms. Someone suggested it could be in the frozen fish food. But still have the ugly crap even after doing a lot of water changes, sucking out the stuff with sand. Even changed my t5 lights to led lights, nothing has changed.

 

[reefkeeperZ]

Silicates not phosphates cause diatoms, diatoms NEED silicates to form their casing.

RO water will still contain silicates if it is not de-ionized. Make sure its RO/DI
and tap water who knows whats in that?
water changes wont help if its coming in your water, and from season to season content of your water can change wether its city water or well water so RO/di is the safest bet.

 

[eric b 125]

FYI, I have dosed H2O2 recently for a dino problem. It didn't cause any problems, but also didn't produce any results. I ended up turning off my lights for a few weeks and they're finally gone. Not the same as diatoms, but the H2O2 was fine.

 

[shobby]

My next question was going to be that. How long can I go with out the lights with out causing a problem? I do have corals and don't want to damage them.

 

[reefkeeperZ]

what kinds of corals? LPS softies SPS, or mixed reef?

 

[shobby]

It is mixed, but mainly soft corals.
Reading another post about diatoms and red slime, and my problem sounds more like cyano
now.

 

[reefkeeperZ]

Unfortunately, Having light demanding corals reduces how much you actually reduce light to combat anything. and if its cyano even worse news is light reduction is completely ineffective as far as defeating cyano goes in my opinion. I did an experiment where siphoned cyano and some sludge (cyano fuel) into a white bucket and put a lid on it, just the ambient room light that bled through the sides of the bucket was enough to allow the cyano to grow profusely. Nutrient reduction, through export is your best bet, water changes, sand stirring, phosphate sponges, turf scrubber, macro algaes etc.

 

[shobby]

I do have macro algae, quite a bit in the sump, just did stir up the sand since my gobies have disappeared, well the new ones that is, I was worried about stirring sand though, that is acceptable. It will not hurt the bacteria in it or create a nitrate release? I do only feed every other day, and just what they can eat in about a minute.
I also was doing water changes, daily, pulling up the stuff off the sand bed, but by the next day, back again.

 

[reefkeeperZ]

Sand stirring done regularly keeps the sand bed oxygenated, and is beneficial to the bacteria in the sand bed by keeping it aerobic. It may also lift detritus into the water column for filtration as well as consumption by corals (if the particles fall in the right size range for the coral to eat, there is some debate both directions about it).

however if the sand bed has gone anaerobic disturbing too deeply can cause problems. but since the sand bed is new I highly doubt that is the case here.