# H202 for BBA?



## secuono (Nov 19, 2009)

Does H202 really work for BBA? I found a few articles on it and I know other things like Excel will be needed forever and get expensive. I won't be getting pressurized CO2 and diy didn't always work right. 
I've already shortened the light time. 80watts in a 40 breeder, 7am to 7pm. Was 6am to 9pm before. Only one of my tanks is automatic, it reminds me to turn on or off the other two tanks. 
Anyone here use it? Have a thread on it? I searched on here, but found other things instead. 
:icon_ques


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

Works fantastic. Use a new bottle as peroxide tends to break down easily. I used this method: http://www.malawicichlidhomepage.com/aquainfo/algae_peroxide.html

Much cheaper than excel in the long run, but like excel it does a number on some plants like hornwort. Didn't bother my moss, though.

Edit: Might help if I linked the right thread, eh? :hihi: Fixed link.


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## Postal Penguin (Mar 30, 2009)

I use H2O2 at 3mL/gallon to great effect. For example in my 20 gallon I use up to 60mL of H2O2 injected via a syringe. I leave the lights and filters off for at least an hour. Repeat every 24 hours until algae is all dead.


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## secuono (Nov 19, 2009)

Alright, dosed all the tanks, the BBA started to pearl from direct application in less than 5 seconds! Eee! I can't wait to see how this progresses. =)


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## audioaficionado (Apr 19, 2011)

Man that thing looks scary ugly. Looks like it would eat all your fish if they got near it.

I used to have some sparse thin branchy/twiggy dark green algae here and there that I found quite attractive in my low-tech tank years back.


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## secuono (Nov 19, 2009)

I actually like the fuzzy wood. If it would just stay there, I wouldn't mind, lol. 
It's purple/dark pink today, re-dosed.


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## secuono (Nov 19, 2009)

I'm not seeing anymore change. No bubbles and no lighter color.
1st day 1ml per gal. today 2ml per gal. 
Ideas on the next step?


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## SuperWen (Mar 24, 2011)

secuono said:


> I'm not seeing anymore change. No bubbles and no lighter color.
> 1st day 1ml per gal. today 2ml per gal.
> Ideas on the next step?


drain up your tank, brush the BBA with peroxide or laundry bleach. dont forget to dilute with water before treatment, 1:20 is good


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## audioaficionado (Apr 19, 2011)

Don't use bleach. Hydrogen peroxide is good enough and not highly alkaline like sodium hypochlorite is.


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

secuono said:


> I'm not seeing anymore change. No bubbles and no lighter color.
> 1st day 1ml per gal. today 2ml per gal.
> Ideas on the next step?


Lower your water level if you can to target it and leave it with the lights off for a while. Peroxide is breaks down quickly when exposed to light. If you can remove the driftwood, take it out and spray it with peroxide, leave it 30 minutes or more and rinse it a bit before putting it back in.

But I would treat it everyday for a good week to see if you notice a difference. If not, is it a new peroxide bottle? It's not the most stable thing and I've found newer bottles are best.


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## secuono (Nov 19, 2009)

The bottle is brand new, bought it the same day I first treated. 
The h202 killed my 9in pleco. Selling off one of the 40s and it's fish. None of the zillion kinds of plants I have were harmed, all other fish didn't even notice. 
Dosing the whole tank is a stupid idea... Better to remove the infected plants and treat them out of the tank..ugh.
Did a 1/4 water change. Will do another tomorrow.


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

Oh no! Poor pleco! Something to make note of in the future when recommending H202. Terrible news. Sorry to hear that.


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## trixella (Jan 24, 2011)

secuono said:


> The bottle is brand new, bought it the same day I first treated.
> The h202 killed my 9in pleco. Selling off one of the 40s and it's fish. None of the zillion kinds of plants I have were harmed, all other fish didn't even notice.
> Dosing the whole tank is a stupid idea... Better to remove the infected plants and treat them out of the tank..ugh.
> Did a 1/4 water change. Will do another tomorrow.


Did it die after the first 1 ml treatment or the second higher dosage treatment?


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## mott (Nov 23, 2006)

I believe I killed my bn plec a while back with h2o2, it may be because plecs tend to stay in one spot?


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## secuono (Nov 19, 2009)

It died last night or early this morning. 
I have several plecos, different kinds and sizes. None of the others were affected.


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## secuono (Nov 19, 2009)

Put a bunch of plants covered in bba into a tank w/2gal of water. Added around 60ml of H202, put cardboard over it and left them for a few hours. They bubbled, I mixed them around every now and then. Just put them back in the tank, guess what? Light purple BBA, finally! 
Hopefully it will continue to die off while the plants are floating in their original tank. Will plant them tomorrow. Got to much Subwassertang and not enough floor space, lol. Put the wood in there, will have to flip it in a few hours to let the other side soak. =)


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## 150EH (Dec 6, 2004)

I used to pull out things like wood and use bleach to kill the bba, although there is a lot of soaking and rinsing with bleach it kills the bba and it will turn white but it's still very hard to remove the dead bba you have to use a hard brush and scrub, then cut out and effected plant leave and I even remember removing single pieces of Flourite with long tongs, what a pain. But I must say that pic you posted was just a beautiful stand of bba and the pearling made the whole shot.


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## im2smart4u (Dec 7, 2010)

secuono said:


> The h202 killed my 9in pleco. Selling off one of the 40s and it's fish. None of the zillion kinds of plants I have were harmed, all other fish didn't even notice.
> Dosing the whole tank is a stupid idea... Better to remove the infected plants and treat them out of the tank..ugh.
> Did a 1/4 water change. Will do another tomorrow.


I killed my albino ancistrus when I dosed my tank with H202. I did some searching with Google and found out that I wasn't the only one. For some reason, ancistrus and other similar fish will be killed by it, even though most other fish are fine. I had some green neon tetras, which are pretty picky about water quality, and they survived the dosing just fine the first time. (I then did a second dose a few days later and accidentally did a massive overdose and killed all the tetras )


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## kevmo911 (Sep 24, 2010)

Dosing a tank with the purpose of killing algae - with anything - carries big risks for flora and fauna, and is generally not a spectacular idea.

Spot-dosing is better, and removing particular plants for a dip is even better. But you've figured this out by now, unfortunately at the cost of the lives of fish.

There's never a quick-fix, though it takes "incidents" to figure that out for virtually everybody.

In the future, remember that the most effective long-term fix for algae is either decreasing lighting or increasing ferts and CO2. It really is that simple.


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## secuono (Nov 19, 2009)

That simple and that expensive, yes.

I posted a note on another forum and they all totally freaked on me that it's not possible to kill fish with it. I wasn't trying to fight with them, just let people know to dip plants or be very careful. But noooo, they lost it on me...ugh. 

Dug out my little diy CO2 thingi and put it on one of the 40s. Guess I'll buy another one and put it on the other 40. I like the diy more so than the other high tech ones. =p


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## AirstoND (Jun 17, 2011)

*Catfish Sensitivity*

I've read corydoras are sensitive since they have no scales, does this applies to plecos also?


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## dysorder (Oct 9, 2008)

While at Meijer shopping the other day I found a handy spray bottle of 3% H2O2.


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## feh (Feb 13, 2011)

secuono said:


> Does H202 really work for BBA? I found a few articles on it and I know other things like Excel will be needed forever and get expensive. I won't be getting pressurized CO2 and diy didn't always work right.
> I've already shortened the light time. 80watts in a 40 breeder, 7am to 7pm. Was 6am to 9pm before. Only one of my tanks is automatic, it reminds me to turn on or off the other two tanks.
> Anyone here use it? Have a thread on it? I searched on here, but found other things instead.
> :icon_ques


The real solution to getting rid of algae is the find the root cause. Do you use fertilizers? Do you have good flow around the plants? How far from the substrate is the light fixture? Treating it with Excel or H2O2 isn't going to fix the real problem and it will keep growing back.

Since you aren't using CO2 I'd lower the photoperiod to 8hrs max and depending on how close the fixture is to the substrate maybe raise it up so its around 24 inches from the substrate. I'd also make sure you have good flow around the plants.


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## firefiend (Sep 3, 2009)

Another word of caution... I spot treated some BBA last night and this morning my three Zerites were dead. There are still lots of little pond snails running about but the Zerites didn't make it.


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## DerangedCorgi (Oct 15, 2010)

secuono said:


> That simple and that expensive, yes.
> 
> I posted a note on another forum and they all totally freaked on me that it's not possible to kill fish with it. I wasn't trying to fight with them, just let people know to dip plants or be very careful. But noooo, they lost it on me...ugh.
> 
> Dug out my little diy CO2 thingi and put it on one of the 40s. Guess I'll buy another one and put it on the other 40. I like the diy more so than the other high tech ones. =p


Which forum is this? They're probably as smart as a beamer driver. :icon_mrgr


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