Hydrogen Peroxide?

[cowgirluntamed]

I was curious if the 3% hydrogen peroxide treatment would work for hair algae? I have a 20 gallon tank that I added new plants too. I originally just had anubias plants so no need to fertilize. I added some water sprite(Ceratopteris thalictroides) at the end of March. It started to grow but then hasn't done much since though there is a small amount of growth on it. At the end of May I added some crypt wendtii(1), crypt retrospiralis(11), corkscrew val(1), and dwarf sag(3). All but the retrospiralis came from another tank that had cyanobacteria. The wendtii was growing great but others kept getting covered.

Anyway...the retrospiralis came from eBay. Great looking plants. I added a couple of flourish root tabs and a dose of aqueon liquid plant food. After this I started seeing hair algae. This happened in my other tank too before the cyanobacteria took over. I think this may have been caused by my liquid fertilizer. There was a ton of it in my small tank but I think the cyanobacteria caused it to go away. I don't think I spread it with the plants. Inhad them floating in the 20 gallon before I planted them for around a week or so. I was waiting on my retrospiralis to come in to plant everything at once.

I noticed the hair algae soon after dosing the tank. It hasn't really taken over much except it's choking my water sprite and killing it. They have a bunch of gunk on them. There are also some threads on my spray bar. I also have a reddish brown algae appear in my anubias plants and sides of tank(this was before adding the fertilizer but it hasn't let up. My bristlenose passed so I'm not sure if she had been keeping it at bay or not. I haven't gotten another one yet.)

I'm just wondering if the liquid fertilizer put too many nutrients in my already hard well water(hard water deposits are on all fixtures in my house). the tank currently houses 7 black neon tetras and 3 glowlight tetras. Would 1 ml of hydrogen peroxide a gallon be ok to dose the tank with?

Mostly asking because I just purchased a different type of water sprite (Ceratopteris cornuta) which is going to maybe recover from shipping in my small tank that the cyanobacteria just got cleared out of. (If it doesn't within a week the seller will ship more). I also bought some water lettuce. I want both to go into my 20 gallon but I don't want the hair algae to kill them like the other water sprite. I have both in a plastic container with a heater at the moment until I move the water sprite to the small tank(5 gallon betta tank) in the morning(maybe with a thing or two of the water lettuce) but I just dont know about putting the water lettuce in the 20 yet. I saved some of the current water sprite in the 20 and put a couple sprigs of that in the small tank. Have roots on one and no hair algae either.

Any help is much appreciated! And sorry for the somewhat rambling post, haven't slept in over 24 hours....too much life happens sometimes!

 

[NickAu]

 
Mostly asking because I just purchased a different type of water sprite (Ceratopteris cornuta) which is going to maybe recover from shipping

This stuff grows like mad in my Betta tanks, one plant the size of a thumb nail can half cover a 2 foot tank in about 3 months and the roots look cool hanging in the water.
 

 

[cowgirluntamed]

Well, this is how it came in so I hope it survives.

 

[StevenF]

I was using I Aqueon liquid plant food after I learned that RO water was not compatible with plants.  RO water has no micro nutrients in it and without that plants will die.  Initially the Aqueon seemed to work but over time the growth rate of the plants slowly slowed down and I got hair algae.  I couldn't clear it and after doing a lot of study determined I might be deficient on copper.  Copper is a necessary plant micro nutrient and Aqueon doesn't have any in it.  I switched to a competing product (SeaChem Flourish Comprehensive) and gradually things improve and now I have very little algae in my tank.  Looking at the labels of Seachem and Aqueon the ingredients are the same except for copper.  I am guessing adding more plants to yuor aquarium may have triggered a triggered a nutrient deficiency.
 
Now it is importunate to note that I use very soft RO water while you have hard water.  So in your case it might not be copper or the Aqueon.  However  you are the second person this year I have seen on this site with hair algae using Aqueon.  That might be a coincidence or not.

 

[NickAu]

Wow sad looking plants.
 

 
 

 
These bits should be fine, You can break off the leaves about half an inch above the roots, I have done this with mine and they survived.

 

[cowgirluntamed]

That's interesting to know. I think I've had this bottle for 1 1/2 years now but the expiration date is for late 2017. So hopefully it stays good! Lol. I had started up a 10 gallon grow out tank for some plants and bought it then. It seemed to work ok then. I don't remember any hair algae. However, I got tired of looking at just plants and some of them didn't make it(came in bad) so I decided to add driftwood and guppies. Well, the driftwood released tannins and my dwarf sag that was growing amazingly well...died out. It's also not growing in my 20 gallon at all. So I think the dwarf sag is a higher light plant than I read about. It was growing good in my 5 gallon but there aren't any tannins in that tank. Then the cyanobacteria took over and I'm hoping it recovers now and starts to grow again. I don't plan on dosing that tank with the aqueon again either! (I had also put in 5 flourish root tabs too...lol. don't know if that had anything to do with it or not. Byron didn't think so in another thread I had going recently.) And I wasn't doing many water changes at all so I'm getting better with that now.

Thanks Nick! I'll do that before I put them in Aiden's tank. I wasn't sure if I should leave them on or not. Figured if they fell off I'd just take them out of the tank.

 

[NickAu]

 
Figured if they fell off I'd just take them out of the tank.

Yes you can also do that, But remember those leaves will add nutrients to the water as they rot.
 
I am a bad fish keeper as I never remove the odd dead leaf, But then my tanks are stuffed with plants shrimp and snails and way over filtered.  I do not vacuum the substrate or use any fertilizer other than fish poop, I change 50% of the water once a week and I clean my canister filter once a month, Mainly to rescue baby shrimp, I once found 2 baby Kuhli Loaches happily living in the canister. My tanks are as low tech as you can get.
 
And regardless of what some may say I only use Easy Life Fluid Filter media This stuff is great,  Indian Almond leaf.

 

[cowgirluntamed]

That easy life stuff looks interesting. I'll have to look into it more. I'd love to be able to have as low tech as possible. Lol. I only just cleaned my canister filter and it had been three months. It's new...i wasn't sure how long to leave it. Started seeing stuff floating and less water clarity so yeah. I at least need to change the polyfil more regular! I'm still going back and forth on what to do with the 20 after I move the current fish out of it and use it for quarantining new fish for the big tank. I want a school of neon tetras. Around 15 or so. I had wanted a bristlenose for it but I was rethinking it a bit the other day. I love my horned nerites in my betta and guppy tanks. I need to get some MTS. But I kind of wanted more activity than what the snails would be. Hence a bristlenose instead. But I'm still not sure. Lol.

 

[NickAu]

 
I want a school of neon tetras

My rummy nose, flame, black skirt  are all cool I have 10 of each I also have 10 neons in the 6 foot tank, But if I was to ever re do it I would just get about 60 to 70 Neons.

 

[cowgirluntamed]

I would do a good cleanup crew of just snails and maybe some different shrimp, the amano and I know they have some different bright colors of shrimp that I though were cool. I like the orange samurai and I've seen some red ones, yellow ones and blue ones. But I don't have the plant cover for that right now since I'm still trying to find out what grows well. If I did that I would think of adding 6 cories of some type. But I still like the bristlenoses....lol. I found a seller that has super red calicos....so yeah....lol.

 

[cowgirluntamed]

Just put in 18ml of 3% hydrogen peroxide in my 20 gallon about 20 minutes ago. I turned the filter and air pump off first. Will turn those back on in a little bit. Fish seem perfectly fine. There are bubbles on my water sprite and spray bar(I put it there majorly while adding to the tank) and some bubbles shooting up off some of the plants in there. Hopefully this will work! I mostly stuck with 1ml a gallon minus some for substrate and decor. I didn't want to over dose either though I was reading on another forum somewhere that some people were putting 2ml per gallon into the tank. Up to 5ml a gallon if it was just a plant/decor bath away from the fish.

 

[Byron]

I would be very careful adding any substance to a tank holding fish.  I certainly would not use hydrogen peroxide.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

I agree with Byron.
 
The only time I've used H2O2 to clear out algae (BBA), I removed all the fish first.  Then added the dose, swirled around the H2O2 and then did a complete water change.
 
 
I only put the fish back into the tank after I had completely drained the tank, filled it back up about halfway (while spraying down all the surfaces), then draining it again, and filling it back up, and let it run for about 2 hours to get back up to the proper temp and give any of the remaining H2O2 a chance to completely dissipate.  Then I added the fish back to the tank.   Everyone did fine.  Though the BBA came right back.  

 

[cowgirluntamed]

No bad side effects happened to the fish. I actually dosed the tank twice. Nothing really happened the 2nd time as I didn't turn of the bubbler. I think it made it dissipate too fast. There is still hair algae, more so than when I first posted. Any recommendations on how long to leave the light on for? I have a ramp timer and have it set for twelve hours. I'm going to lower it to ten right now but if it should be less than that let me know. I added a couple of water lettuce to see if it would get hair algea on it or not. I still have more to add but I don't want it to be killed completely off.

I'm almost wondering if the blue slime remover I got might work...as I stuck a piece of water sprite in the 5 gallon to try and save it from the hair algae and no more hair algae on it. I just don't know if it would work with hair algae since its supposed to kill the cyanobacteria. I just wonder if it made the water conditions better though. Got rid of wasn't supposed to be there in other words...starving the cyanobacteria, maybe it would starve the hair algae.

It was just a thought. Haven't dosed anything else. I just don't want this killing my plants. I don't have money right now too buy more! Any help would be appreciated though!

 

[Byron]

No bad side effects happened to the fish.
 

 
I shake my head whenever I read this.  May I ask, in all seriousness and honesty and with the intent of providing true assistance...how can you possibly know this?  
 
The relationship of a fish to their aquatic environment is unlike that of a terrestrial animal.  Fish have a much closer interactive relationship to the water than land animals have to air, meaning that fish are more affected by anything that is not "normal".  To say that adding any substance to the water has not been detrimental to the fish is like saying that a person who lives in a tobacco-smoke filled house is not being affected.  In both situations, the effect may be down the road.  Read the blue citation in my signature.
 
Every substance--plant additives, water treatments, medications, salt, minerals--added to and dissolved in the tank water does get inside the fish.  Fish do not drink because water is continually passing through their cells via osmosis, and it enters the bloodstream and is carried to the internal organs.  Substances also enter via the gills during respiration.  At the very least this causes stress, but it may be much more problematic.
 
Studies on the effects of calcium (as in hard water) on cardinal tetras carried out in the 1980's proved that the more calcium in the water, the shorter the lifespan of soft water fish.  The fish lived for several years with no sign of any issue; but upon death they were dissected and found to have died from calcium blockage of the kidneys.  To the observer of the fish in the aquarium, nothing appeared to be wrong, but the fish were still being affected by the minerals in the water.
 
As for hydrogen peroxide, I was watching a program last evening on the developments in the submarine made by the Germans during the Second World War.  A scientist discovered that hydrogen peroxide could be used as a fuel for submarines, in place of diesel (oil/gas), and it meant that the submarine did not have to surface for air.  The experimental submarine, which did work, was small, and fortunately for the allies the war ended before the Nazis were able to perfect this.  But the point is that if a substance will power a submarine, is it OK to get it inside the fish?
 
On the algae issue, this is caused by am imbalance in the light/nutrients.  Unless you correct whatever is out, no amount of any treatment will work, as the algae will only return.
 
Byron.