Oxygenating your tank with Hydrogen peroxide
- Thread starter stdreb27
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stdreb27
New member
Y'all should get a fresh water tank with a MBU puffer in it, It would be cheap a 200 gallon tank or so with a large canaster filter or a wet-dry. It is a spectacular fish and you'll have a cool addition to your Amazon display. Texas State Aquarium has a tank with two giant mappa puffers. Probably the coolest fish there except for their 800 pound jew fish they had for years.
I crated an oxidative shock to my corals once dosing about 10 fold the maximum quantity of H2O2 that resulted in socked and dead (not all) sps corals,one dead chromis, and many dead crustadea.That was because of dilution problems....
H2O2 is oxidative, like ozon, potasium permanganate, strondium and iodine.You need to be carefull!I think a dose of 150ml H2O2 by fast dripping in 2-3 hours, in your tank will sufficiently raise O2 levels in order not to loose any fish and coral during power loss.Keep the tank water mixing by hand though, in order to distribute the solution....I dripped the H2O2 in order to get rid of organic......don't pay attention to redox meters, they don't work with H2O2 (it is lowering the redox value)...
H2O2 is oxidative, like ozon, potasium permanganate, strondium and iodine.You need to be carefull!I think a dose of 150ml H2O2 by fast dripping in 2-3 hours, in your tank will sufficiently raise O2 levels in order not to loose any fish and coral during power loss.Keep the tank water mixing by hand though, in order to distribute the solution....I dripped the H2O2 in order to get rid of organic......don't pay attention to redox meters, they don't work with H2O2 (it is lowering the redox value)...
shaft187420
New member
I used to work for a LFS who used industrial strength hydrogen perxoide to clean large tanks. They did this to avoid having the employees spend a day cleaning the alge off of the decor so the employee could clean 6-7 tanks a day and make more money for the LFS. These tanks belonged to very rich people. I don't think the owners of the LFS knew what they were doing cause they would dose these tanks with so much of the stuff the plastic fake decor in the tank would start to turn white. One of these large tanks had close to 30 fish in it and most of them died. I think the customer paid at least 600$ for one of his large rare fish.
Then to top it all off I told the owner that I thought the peroxide was the problem, he didn't believe me and decided to try and see what happened when he dosed it on the hospital tanks. The hospital system was all plumbed together, containing fish from mutiple customers tanks that were ill or recovering. I think you can guess how that turned out, another 20 fish all dead. Needless to say I don't work for that company anymore.
Would I ever use peroxide in my tank? Nope.
Then to top it all off I told the owner that I thought the peroxide was the problem, he didn't believe me and decided to try and see what happened when he dosed it on the hospital tanks. The hospital system was all plumbed together, containing fish from mutiple customers tanks that were ill or recovering. I think you can guess how that turned out, another 20 fish all dead. Needless to say I don't work for that company anymore.
Would I ever use peroxide in my tank? Nope.
chrisdamage
New member
bottom line... there seem to be better, easier, and more efficient ways of oxygenating your water if a power outage occurs.
surfjeepzx
New member
Go to Waldo-mart, buy a small 12v Rule bilge pump for a boat. The smaller ones come with 3/4" fittings. You can plumb this into the sump to recirc the water or simply hang it in the tank to move water. Hanging it in thetank is the preferred way as it will draw less amps while in service vs the pump pushing headpressure from the sump.
You can utilize a car battery to run it. I ran this basic set-up after a hurricane here in Fl on a fully stocked 40 gallon and everything made it. No lights, nothing but that one pump and a deep cycle marine battery which ran the pump for 3 days around the clock.
When the battery was dead I used jumper cables and recharged the battery from my Jeep in 1 hour at idle. It ran the pump for another 2 days. I repeated this and on the 7th day we had power restored. I didn't lose one single anything.
You can utilize a car battery to run it. I ran this basic set-up after a hurricane here in Fl on a fully stocked 40 gallon and everything made it. No lights, nothing but that one pump and a deep cycle marine battery which ran the pump for 3 days around the clock.
When the battery was dead I used jumper cables and recharged the battery from my Jeep in 1 hour at idle. It ran the pump for another 2 days. I repeated this and on the 7th day we had power restored. I didn't lose one single anything.
All,
My understanding is that if you want hydrogen peroxide to supply an aquarium with oxygen, you need to run it over a catalyst (I'm not positive, but I think platinum can be used). Aquarium Pharmaceuticals had a product that did that. Otherwise, adding H2O2 is just going to oxidize other compounds, and not release much free O2.
I recently did some qualitative testing exposing H2O2 on static water samples to see what benefits might result - I was not impressed, it worked a lot like chlorine bleach<grin>. I never even bothered running quantatative tests.
Here is an exceprt from my "Advanced Marine Aquarium Techniques" book:
Hydrogen peroxide:: With the chemical formula H2O2 this compound has some unexplored uses in marine aquariums. Hydrogen peroxide is available over the counter in pharmacies as a 3.5% solution. At this level, it is not reactive enough for most potential uses. Available through some home water treatment services, a 7% concentration solution of hydrogen peroxide is stronger and has more uses. Do not use this product until you have read and fully understand the MSDS for it. Although stronger concentration of H2O2 are available, they are very reactive and their use entails too much risk. In addition, these products have had stabilizers added to them which may not be suitable for use in and around aquariums. Perhaps the most immediate use for hydrogen peroxide is as a disinfectant / oxidizer. Filter elements and other aquarium items that have been fouled with organic materials can be soaked for 24 hours in a 7% solution of hydrogen peroxide. It is much easier to rinse off than bleach is, and does not leave a toxic residue like some other disinfectants might. Knowing the propensity for this compound to give off an oxygen atom in oxidizing reactions, some people have experimented with using it to raise the ORP level of aquariums, or to temporarily enhance the dissolved oxygen level in water. Remember, like ozone, too much hydrogen peroxide can pose a threat to the animals themselves. Some researchers have shown that protozoans can be killed by doses of hydrogen peroxide ranging from 12.5 to 25ppm. Because this is in the range that some fish have shown sensitivity, more study is required.
Testing for this compound can be done using a standard DPD chlorine test, at least in terms of presence or absence.
Jay Hemdal
My understanding is that if you want hydrogen peroxide to supply an aquarium with oxygen, you need to run it over a catalyst (I'm not positive, but I think platinum can be used). Aquarium Pharmaceuticals had a product that did that. Otherwise, adding H2O2 is just going to oxidize other compounds, and not release much free O2.
I recently did some qualitative testing exposing H2O2 on static water samples to see what benefits might result - I was not impressed, it worked a lot like chlorine bleach<grin>. I never even bothered running quantatative tests.
Here is an exceprt from my "Advanced Marine Aquarium Techniques" book:
Hydrogen peroxide:: With the chemical formula H2O2 this compound has some unexplored uses in marine aquariums. Hydrogen peroxide is available over the counter in pharmacies as a 3.5% solution. At this level, it is not reactive enough for most potential uses. Available through some home water treatment services, a 7% concentration solution of hydrogen peroxide is stronger and has more uses. Do not use this product until you have read and fully understand the MSDS for it. Although stronger concentration of H2O2 are available, they are very reactive and their use entails too much risk. In addition, these products have had stabilizers added to them which may not be suitable for use in and around aquariums. Perhaps the most immediate use for hydrogen peroxide is as a disinfectant / oxidizer. Filter elements and other aquarium items that have been fouled with organic materials can be soaked for 24 hours in a 7% solution of hydrogen peroxide. It is much easier to rinse off than bleach is, and does not leave a toxic residue like some other disinfectants might. Knowing the propensity for this compound to give off an oxygen atom in oxidizing reactions, some people have experimented with using it to raise the ORP level of aquariums, or to temporarily enhance the dissolved oxygen level in water. Remember, like ozone, too much hydrogen peroxide can pose a threat to the animals themselves. Some researchers have shown that protozoans can be killed by doses of hydrogen peroxide ranging from 12.5 to 25ppm. Because this is in the range that some fish have shown sensitivity, more study is required.
Testing for this compound can be done using a standard DPD chlorine test, at least in terms of presence or absence.
Jay Hemdal
shaft187420
New member
The standard operating procedure on those hospital tanks was that when we took the fish there was no guarantee on any of the fish we put in those tanks. The only exception might be if we were holding fish for a customer that was moving. I really didn't have much to do with issuing refunds or handling money except to bring it back to the LFS so I can only assume one of two things would happen in all cases:
1. Whoops we are sorry! - No refund
2. Here is some store credit. - Most of the time credit would be something like 50% of actual worth.
And why were the hospital tanks all interconnected? It was a cheep easy way to operate about 25 tanks. There was no second thought about the fish that went in there. It was a standard joke to the employees that anything that got better or lived longer then a week in those tanks, it was a miracle.
*Sigh* This was one of those places where every tank I went out to I knew it could be run better if we had put their system together better or the customer was willing to invest some money into better equipment. It got to the point that I was convinced that we were installing sub performance parts just so they would break and we could continue to make money off of repairs and replacing livestock.
1. Whoops we are sorry! - No refund
2. Here is some store credit. - Most of the time credit would be something like 50% of actual worth.
And why were the hospital tanks all interconnected? It was a cheep easy way to operate about 25 tanks. There was no second thought about the fish that went in there. It was a standard joke to the employees that anything that got better or lived longer then a week in those tanks, it was a miracle.
*Sigh* This was one of those places where every tank I went out to I knew it could be run better if we had put their system together better or the customer was willing to invest some money into better equipment. It got to the point that I was convinced that we were installing sub performance parts just so they would break and we could continue to make money off of repairs and replacing livestock.
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