uwiik
New member
Hi All!!
Lately I have been contemplating about using hydrogen peroxide for sterilizing my packing water.
Water sterilization has been accepted in the industry as the absolute necessity when packing fish or corals for 48h+ total transit time, only very few quality exporters from Indonesia worth their salt are practicing this. As far as I know, everybody who sterilize their packing water here use chlorine, leave overnight then neutralize the chlorine with Sodium thiosulfate or commercially available Amquel+ a few hours before packing. This is a time proven method and so far nobody tried to think outside the box and try something else superior. Why chlorine? Well chlorine absolutely guarantee that the water and containers will be free of ANY bacteria or parasites. Ozone is not widely used here due to high humidity here, even the most expensive model with air drier will become unusable within a year without very meticulous care and maintenance. Commercial facility have hundreds of equipments to maintain everyday, one less headache is always good for us...
Logic dictates that use of Hydrogen peroxide will actually have an edge over chlorine due to the somewhat non toxic nature of Hydrogen peroxide breaking down to pure oxygen and water which will significantly boost oxygen content in the packing water. Majority of fish DOA (Dead On Arrival) problem from exporters to importers are bacterial infection during transit due to bacteria laden water and oxygen depletion, by logic the use of H2O2 suppose to suppress this problem. From what I read, H2O2 with enough concentration will be as potent as chlorine in killing bacterias and parasites.
Today I tried sterilizing my trial packing water with 1% by volume of H2O2@50% strength (approx 16% by volume when using 3% H2O2), let the water sit for 30 min then neutralize the H2O2 with heavy aeration for 30 minutes (I really mean heavy to the point of local tsunami in the container), then pack some corals...Apparently after 30 min the H2O2 was still stable in the water as H2O2 instead of breaking down to O2 and H2O, so off course the corals was fizzing with tiny bubbles inside the plastic bag and off course it will be a goner soon. I tried aerating for another 30 min and did another trial and off course the corals was fizzing with tiny bubbles again and I think it will be another goner.. :headwallblue:... Apparently after 1 full hour of tsunami style aeration, H2O2 was still stable in the water and still oxidizes anything organic... :headwalls:
So the big question... How long does it take with heavy aeration to completely break down the H2O2?
I could take the simple and safe route of aerating overnight but I think that will defeat the purpose of boosting pure oxygen content on the packing water because free air from the aerator contains both O2 and Co2 and this will drive out pure oxygen from the water containing byproduct of H2O2 breakdown...
Once I have this figured out I will continue my trials with H2O2 use for our hobby, treating diseases, killing parasites, sterilizing ruined system, saving fish and corals and whatnot...Sitting on top of thousands of corals and fish direct from the source it is not expensive at all for me to do this trial here....Hoping to find some new or not so new discoveries for my contribution to this best hobby in the world!! Off course all fish and corals martyrs will be dearly remembered...LOL!!
Thanks in advance for any advices!!
Cheers!!
Lately I have been contemplating about using hydrogen peroxide for sterilizing my packing water.
Water sterilization has been accepted in the industry as the absolute necessity when packing fish or corals for 48h+ total transit time, only very few quality exporters from Indonesia worth their salt are practicing this. As far as I know, everybody who sterilize their packing water here use chlorine, leave overnight then neutralize the chlorine with Sodium thiosulfate or commercially available Amquel+ a few hours before packing. This is a time proven method and so far nobody tried to think outside the box and try something else superior. Why chlorine? Well chlorine absolutely guarantee that the water and containers will be free of ANY bacteria or parasites. Ozone is not widely used here due to high humidity here, even the most expensive model with air drier will become unusable within a year without very meticulous care and maintenance. Commercial facility have hundreds of equipments to maintain everyday, one less headache is always good for us...
Logic dictates that use of Hydrogen peroxide will actually have an edge over chlorine due to the somewhat non toxic nature of Hydrogen peroxide breaking down to pure oxygen and water which will significantly boost oxygen content in the packing water. Majority of fish DOA (Dead On Arrival) problem from exporters to importers are bacterial infection during transit due to bacteria laden water and oxygen depletion, by logic the use of H2O2 suppose to suppress this problem. From what I read, H2O2 with enough concentration will be as potent as chlorine in killing bacterias and parasites.
Today I tried sterilizing my trial packing water with 1% by volume of H2O2@50% strength (approx 16% by volume when using 3% H2O2), let the water sit for 30 min then neutralize the H2O2 with heavy aeration for 30 minutes (I really mean heavy to the point of local tsunami in the container), then pack some corals...Apparently after 30 min the H2O2 was still stable in the water as H2O2 instead of breaking down to O2 and H2O, so off course the corals was fizzing with tiny bubbles inside the plastic bag and off course it will be a goner soon. I tried aerating for another 30 min and did another trial and off course the corals was fizzing with tiny bubbles again and I think it will be another goner.. :headwallblue:... Apparently after 1 full hour of tsunami style aeration, H2O2 was still stable in the water and still oxidizes anything organic... :headwalls:
So the big question... How long does it take with heavy aeration to completely break down the H2O2?
I could take the simple and safe route of aerating overnight but I think that will defeat the purpose of boosting pure oxygen content on the packing water because free air from the aerator contains both O2 and Co2 and this will drive out pure oxygen from the water containing byproduct of H2O2 breakdown... Once I have this figured out I will continue my trials with H2O2 use for our hobby, treating diseases, killing parasites, sterilizing ruined system, saving fish and corals and whatnot...Sitting on top of thousands of corals and fish direct from the source it is not expensive at all for me to do this trial here....Hoping to find some new or not so new discoveries for my contribution to this best hobby in the world!! Off course all fish and corals martyrs will be dearly remembered...LOL!!
Thanks in advance for any advices!!
Cheers!!
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