# How Much Peroxide?



## BoxxerBoyDrew (Oct 16, 2005)

After battling Clado for over a year I have decided to tare the tank (55G) down and start over! I am keeping a few of the fish, and they will be in the quarantine tank till the 55g is ready for them again, but the rest are going to the LFS. All of the plants will be trashed as well as the substrate. Then I will clean the tank, heater, 2 Fluval 205s, as best as possible, and plan on buying new tubing and making new spray bars and intakes.

I really want to save the bacteria I have on the ceramic media ( Fluval) I have in the top baskets of the filters, and from what I read here using Peroxide to kill the algae remaining in the system after cleanup is my best bet. So after clean up I was planning to set the tank back up with nothing in the tank but water and running the system with the peroxide in the water for a few days to make sure all the algae is dead.

Does that sound like the best plan, and if so how much peroxide should I add the the tank?

OR should I just not worry about the bacteria on the ceramic media and use bleach/water in the empty system to make sure there is no more algae? If so how much bleach in the 55g of water?

If I go the bleach route I am unsure about using the ceramic media. I have used bleach in the past to clean pleated filter cartridges, and washable filter pads, and have never had a problem after rinsing and dechlorinating them properly, but I don't know about getting all trace amounts out of the ceramic rings/cylinders!??!

Thank You in advance for ANY help or advice Y'all can provide!!!
Drew


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## JoeRoun (Dec 21, 2009)

*Just Starting Over is Often Best*

Hi Drew,

Personally I would use bleach to clean everything except the ceramic media. The ceramic media I would keep in the quarantine tank, keep it aerated, water moving through, get the changeover as quick as possible. If you go the bleaching tear down route it is best just to break everything down and scrub and bleach.

Yes some _Cladophora spp.__ (being sure we are talking _reticulated filamentous (hair?) green algae) will survive and it will still be necessary to address the underlying causes.

If you wish to try 3% hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) with fish in the tank, I think the standard recommendation is not exceed 1ml per liter. I routinely exceed that level in well-established tanks. Any use of oxidizers really comes down to how much organic material is in the water.

Joe

From Behind the Beard


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## exv152 (Jun 8, 2009)

Hey Drew, I use H2O2 often with great success against BBA and clado. It will eradicate it in a day or so. The concentration is 3 ml of 3% hydrogen peroxide per gallon of tank water, and you can put it in a spray bottle, a syringe or whatever container you have that will enable you to spray the affected areas. I would turn off all the filters right before adding the perioxide, so it has time to kill the algae before being swept away. The H2O2 has a very short window of affectiveness so I would keep the filters off for just a few minutes. In your case for a 55g you can add 165ml of H2O2, without diluting it, directing at the algae affected areas. I use this with shrimp and fish in the tank with no ill effects. Just try not to exceed the ml per gallon concentration. Some folks use it to break up the oil slick that tends to build on the water surface.


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## JoeRoun (Dec 21, 2009)

*How Much Per Gallon*

165-ml of anything in a 55-gallon tank would seem closer to 1-ml per liter than gallon, especially if speaking actual water. 



Would appear to be about 28.5-ppm H2O2, based on 165ml H2O2 into 46-gallons of water. Seems a reasonable level in a Clado infected tank.

Just an observation.

Joe


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## exv152 (Jun 8, 2009)

correction: 3 ml per gallon


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## BoxxerBoyDrew (Oct 16, 2005)

THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH FOR THE HELP GUYS!!!!!

The tank is so infested with the clado, yes the green, stinky, hair feeling, demon algae:icon_twis:angryfire:angryfire I feel tearing it down and restarting is my only option!:icon_cry:

I "dirted" the tank about a year ago, and all was great, but I bought a Algae Ball, and put it in the tank and the next week I started getting clado algae growing on the driftwood, then the substrate and plants! I tried Excel, spot treating with peroxide, black outs, lighting changes, more CO2, less CO2, more and less ferts, and the only thing that slows it down was NO CO2 and no ferts. Then the plants suffered!!!:icon_sad: So i have just been living with it, but I am sick of it!!!

I screwed up when dirting the tank anyway by making the dirt layer much to thick as well as using too much sand. The sand screw up was easy to fix. I just removed some at each weekly water change till I got it where it needed to be, but the dirt is still too deep. The only way to fix that is by tearing it down, so the clado is the excuse to fix it all in one stroke!

I am also not truly happy with the last spray bars and intake pipes I built, so I am going to redo them too. :wink: The majority of the fish will be going to the LFS, and the ones I am keeping will going the QT, so I might just bleach everything, get new ceramic media, and start over from scratch! Which SUX cause a got a lot of nice crypts in the tank I would love to reuse, but I DON'T WANT TO TRANSFER any clado into the clean tank!!! I know I can dip treat them, but as tough as this clado has been, I don't want to take any chances!!! Plus being disabled I don't have any extra cash to get new plants only to get clado back trying to save some crypts! They aren't expensive ones, and I started with only 4 tiny plants, so it isn't a big financial loss. I just really like crypts!!!:tongue:


Anyway I will post some pics here and in my journal of the tank before tare down to give Y'all a look at what I have been dealing with!

Again THANK YOU ALL for the help and advice!!!:thumbsup:
Drew


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## g4search (Aug 10, 2014)

BoxxerBoyDrew,
you got a lot of good suggestions here, but IMHO the only sure way to absolutely get rid of clado is to break down your tank and sterilize EVERYTHING. 

There are many ways to sterilize; for you the most convenient way is to soak everything (perhaps the entire tank?) in a 0.1% solution of H2O2. Let it sit over night, then get rid of the water. Rinse everything with some water (may be twice), after that all is ready for use again.

If you keep the ceramic media separate, you will most like carry over some spores! so don't do that. 
Good luck with your new tank set-up


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## exv152 (Jun 8, 2009)

I’ve overcome clado by not breaking down tanks, the point is to save the time, expense and hassle of having to tear it down. Even with sterilizing everything you still run the risk of having it come back, and then what, break it all down again? I think it’s best to learn how to manage it once it arrives. The H2O2 is not a solution but rather an effective control, you still want to get down to the root cause of where the clado most likely came (probably from plants bought at the LFS etc). I would definitely suggest sterilizing new plants.​


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