# How to use hydrogen peroxide



## klibs (May 1, 2014)

Sounds like you're thinking of doing a dip which I have never done. For dips (especially with anubias) you could probably make a pretty toxic solution up and let it sit for some amount of time. I personally have never used dips to treat algae on my plants. I spot dose every time. Not sure if H2O2 kills GSA but here's how you do it... you will need 3% H2O2 solution and a syringe of some sort (I use one of those plastic meat flavor injectors)

during photoperiod (max lights if you do a ramp)
turn off all flow (filters, pumps, etc)
fill syringe with H2O2 (use no more than 1.5mL per gallon of water in your tank)
release H2O2 directly onto infected areas (should start fizzing a million bubbles after a few seconds)
Let sit for 20 minutes or so
Turn everything back on

Repeat this every day or every other day for a couple times and you should be all set. Again I have never used H2O2 to kill GSA so I have no idea if it will work at all. Other algaes (rhizo, BBA, clado, BGA) get crushed by H2O2.

Also feel free to hit it with some Excel after 10 minutes of roasting in H2O2. This works particularly well for BBA and other algaes that don't like excel.

For full tank treatments just dump the amount (no more than 1.5mL per gallon of tank water) right into your tank and increase flow if needed. IMO spot treating is FAR more effective for obvious reasons.

Also I am pretty sure that people who algae-dip plants use bleach which is probably much more effective but obviously cannot be used in your tank. Your bathtub would work here. Just make sure you rinse it all off good before replacing in your tank. They make up some solution with a % bleach (I think it's something like 5% bleach solution) and dip plants in it for a short period of time. Anubias in particular can handle more because it is durable.

People have mixed results though.. If you screw up you'll kill your anubias. This is why I prefer spot dosing which is much less error-prone. Be wary that some species of plants hate H2O2 and you may kill them if you put some in your tank.


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## hachi (Jul 30, 2015)

Thank you for the detailed reply! This was very helpful. I have quite a few crypts, which I had read were sensitive to H2O2, which is why I thought I'd try doing it outside of the tank. Bleach is a little scary, so I think I'll try the H2O2 first, and if that doesn't work I'll move on to the harder stuff. Thanks so much!



klibs said:


> Sounds like you're thinking of doing a dip which I have never done. For dips (especially with anubias) you could probably make a pretty toxic solution up and let it sit for some amount of time. I personally have never used dips to treat algae on my plants. I spot dose every time. Not sure if H2O2 kills GSA but here's how you do it... you will need 3% H2O2 solution and a syringe of some sort (I use one of those plastic meat flavor injectors)
> 
> during photoperiod (max lights if you do a ramp)
> turn off all flow (filters, pumps, etc)
> ...


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## dzega (Apr 22, 2013)

GSA dies immediately after drying out.


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