# Cloudy water after h2o2 treatment



## samee (Oct 14, 2011)

45 gal high tech setup (EI dosing, T5HO, pressurized co2)

Hey guys, so I recently have blue green algae in addition to my diatom algae Ive had for over a year. My front glass gets diatoms real quick these days and the bg attaches to it. So last weekend I dosed about 40 ml of h2o2 in my tank before my weekly water change. Since the peroxide bottle was opened for about 2 weeks, its effects were not noticeable. I saw a little bit of bubbling, but not much. Which meant it didnt do much. There was a bit of algae on my crypt leaves, nothing happend to the algae. 

This past weekend, I dosed 100 ml or more of h2o2 before water change. Again, not much in terms of bubbling. I think it was alot more than 100 ml. But I did a 50% water change and went about. A little while after, I noticed that my water is slightly cloudy. I also noticed a strong smell coming from my tank. All of my fissiden moss which had bg on was floating and I think that was the culprit. I threw it all out and today, the tank does not smell. It is however still a little cloudy with no effect to the algae. (I did another 10% water change at the end of the day).

A little bit of back story. Ive been dosing alot interms of EI dosing, to get those reds to come on my stubburn aromatica. I even dose iron. I think my water changes (50%) are not enough to remove all the nutrients. On top of that, Im over doing it with the co2. The past 3 days, my SAE has been swimming at the top to get more o2. The guy usually come maybe 2 to 3 hours before light shut off. So Ive re-adjusted my co2 timer. Im still trying to master co2, which seems to be the cause of all my problems. 

So, whats causing the cloudy conditions? My powerhead and filter were on during the h2o2 dosing.


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## DarkCobra (Jun 22, 2004)

Simply opening a bottle of H2O2 will not cause it to lose potency, at least not anywhere that fast, unless it's contaminated by putting organic material back in the bottle.

The filter should be OFF during the H2O2 treatment, as the H2O2 will react with the biofilter; which is both undesirable and leaves less H2O2 to react with algae.

The powerhead, on the other hand, should be ON during the treatment. H2O2 only kills what it contacts, and it has to flow around the tank to contact the algae. Otherwise most of it will just float slowly around, contacting nothing.

My "One-Two Punch" treatment, although it doesn't stop with H2O2, fully describes the best way to do a whole-tank H2O2 treatment. Worth a read.

I'd suggest you test your ammonia levels, to ensure you haven't caused significant damage to your biofilter.


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