Hydrogen Peroxide Dip Killed a lot of my frags!... Different strength okay?

[Mxx]

Does anyone know/have experience with if there is a dip of hydrogen peroxide which soft corals will tolerate but which will also still kill any algaes?

As per the recommendations on BRSTV, I did a 2 minute dip in 3% hydrogen peroxide with all of the frags I added to my new (cycled) tank, but a number of them looked like they didn't survive!...I've also seen other people recommending a 1.5% dip of hydrogen peroxide, but for 10-15 minutes.

The Fireworks clove polyps, other clove polyps, GSP, Xenia and Furry Mushrooms are not yet showing any signs of life a few days later... The Euphyllias and SPS frags seem okay thus far, even if not 100% yet, although a few of the tiny SPS frags are looking a little bleached...

I also first did a 5 minute dip in Furacyn-2 with one packet to a gallon of water to try to prevent the introduction of brown slime disease/etc, and a 5 minute dip in Reef Primer Coral Dip.

(And yes I know I am am trying a fairly aggressive approach to keeping diseases, pests, and algae out of the tank, after having had rather too many of those with my previous tank!)

Thanks in advance for any help and advice!

 

[kharmaguru]

Does anyone know/have experience with if there is a dip of hydrogen peroxide which soft corals will tolerate but which will also still kill any algaes?

As per the recommendations on BRSTV, I did a 2 minute dip in 3% hydrogen peroxide with all of the frags I added to my new (cycled) tank, but a number of them looked like they didn't survive!...I've also seen other people recommending a 1.5% dip of hydrogen peroxide, but for 10-15 minutes.

The Fireworks clove polyps, other clove polyps, GSP, Xenia and Furry Mushrooms are not yet showing any signs of life a few days later... The Euphyllias and SPS frags seem okay thus far, even if not 100% yet, although a few of the tiny SPS frags are looking a little bleached...

I also first did a 5 minute dip in Furacyn-2 with one packet to a gallon of water to try to prevent the introduction of brown slime disease/etc, and a 5 minute dip in Reef Primer Coral Dip.

(And yes I know I am am trying a fairly aggressive approach to keeping diseases, pests, and algae out of the tank, after having had rather too many of those with my previous tank!)

Thanks in advance for any help and advice!

I have never dipped new frags in peroxide unless there was something already wrong - necrosis or algae. At most these days I would dip in Revive, and if new cuttings I would add a few drops of Lugol's iodine, and if it's something that regularly carries flatworms then a few drops of Flatworm Exit as well. You kind of pounded new frags and then put them in new (to them) water so it could be the 3 tier blast more than just the peroxide. I find Justincredible's peroxide dipping guidelines usually are safe:

Tolerance
Dip 5 minutes Milliliters of Hydrogen Peroxide 3% to 1 Liter of Seawater per Type of Cnidarian

Low 20-40ml
Acropora (tolerance varies widely among species), Montipora, Astreopora, Duncanopsammia, Turbinaria, Galaxia, Cyhpastrea, (*Alveopora)(**Hydnophora) Echinophyllia, Mycedium, Oxypora, Tubastrea,

Low/Med 50-70ml
Pocillopora, Seriatopora, Stylophora, Caulastrea, Clavularia, Pachyclavularia, Sympodium, Cespitularia, Yellow Leathers, Pachyceris, Echinpora, Leptoseris, Pectinia, Psammacora

Medium 80-120ml
Porites, Xenia, Brown Leathers, Pavona, Fungiids, Heliofungia,

Med/High 130-200ml
Goniopora, Favia, Favites, Goniastrea, Platygyra, Leptastrea, Blastomussa, Cynarina, Physogyra, Plerogyra, Symphyllia, Sinularia, Corallimorpharian (Mushroom Anemone)

High 210-350ml
Zoanthids, Palythoa, Scolymia, Acansthstrea, Micromussa, Lobophyllia, Euphyllia, Catalaphyllia, Trachyphyllia,

Coral can be dipped longer in a lower concentrate solution. ? concentrate for up to 20 minutes for deep, persistent algae or bacterial infections, or necrotic areas.

 

[shred5]

How do you know it is the Hydrogen peroxide?

You dipped in 3 things.

Were theses corals mail order or local?

That is allot of dipping on corals that maybe stressed already.

Some of these dips are pretty aggressive on corals and can take a few days for them to recover for them.

It also could have nothing to do with any of the dips and could be just the environment you are keeping some of them in.

 

[Mxx]

Thanks, just finally watched Justin Credible's hour long MACNA lecture where he talks about hydrogen peroxide dips, as I was hoping he'd advise on by what methodology he arrived at those figures, but he doesn't get into such detail. I suppose the answer is just trial and error anyway.

And I had actually used those guidelines a few years ago, for the corals I bought and placed in a coral quarantine tank, but they didn't seem to work that well, as my sterile coral quarantine tank then still ended up with many different types of algae!

So I was excited when in the BRSTV video they said they'd never lost a frag from dipping in full-strength hydrogen peroxide for 2 minutes!...

But some of Justin's recommended dipping strengths, such as 20 ml to 1 litre of seawater is just 1/50th the strength of the dip that BRSTV were talking about using. So I wonder then if there is much point even in doing an H202 dip if it doesn't fully eradicate algae.

And yes I did hit the corals with three different dips, all of which would have added some stress I guess. I suspect it was the H202 though, as the corals which were most affected by it were the ones that reacted and bubbled the most strongly to that, including the heads of the clove polyps inflating even. They were store-bought corals.

To update, the GSP opened up again after having been closed for like two weeks. But some of the SPS which I thought survived it, such as the Birdsnest and Stylophora are looking quite dead now, although the Montiporas seem to be okay. (Most were only $10 each per frag, so no huge loss, though still unfortunate).

Doing the H202 dip seems to have FULLY kept algae completely out of my display tank thus far however! I have some diatoms, but haven't seen a single speck of algae yet, much to my surprise! (Although unfortunately that also has meant no coralline algae either).

I'm yet undecided about whether I'll drop the H202 dip dosage to what Justin Credible recommends...

 

[BlueOcean168]

Made that mistake here too. Make sure to dilute it. A pure 3% hydroperoxide is too strong for many corals. Some guides can really mislead you, thinking it is safe to do so. Also, newly arrived corals via mail, they are already under lots of stress. Many reefers just temperature acclimate,then straight to a quarantine tank or main tank. skip dipping or drip acclimate. Technically it can take days or weeks for a coral to acclimate. This makes drip acclimate not really a priority.