Hydrogen peroxide spot treatment for BBA
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When I've done it, I've used regular 3% from the drug store. Don't exceed 1.5 ml/gallon tank volume (not that you would, but that's the level where it gets dangerous to livestock).
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I've recently had some success getting rid of BBA from my grass (eleocharis pusilla) - it was growing on little tufts at the end of the leaves. I have stopped using Excel daily with shrimp in the tanks (after lots of reading here and elsewhere decided it was an necessary risk), so now only use it occasionally at the one big dose / day one rate. But this didn't seem to touch the BBA...
Then I read a post where someone suggested dosing the Excel mid water change. You take out the old water, as much as you dare, then spot dose the affected plants (at the day 1 / full dose rate based on full tank volume) with the filter off and the water level low. After 5-10 mins you add the new water to refill the tank. So in effect you are doing a short term, higher dose treatment, before adding the freshwater and diluting back to the normal day 1 dose.
Obviously you need to be careful depending upon what sensitive livestock are in your tank e.g. you would want to shoo any shrimp and snails from the area you are directly spot treating. I tried to keep fish away, but my zebra danio are super curious and always wanted to swim around teh area I was working, but didn't seem to do any harm.
Long story short, my BBA was vastly reduced after doing this for two consecutive week's water changes (whereas dosing with a full tank seemed to have minimum effect). Having the filter off and water still also helps when spot dosing to keep the chemicals where you want them of course.
For H2O2 treatment, search Youtube for the video by Mark's Shrimp Tanks which goes through the full "shrimp safe" procedure he uses on his tanks (and which I have copied with success to treat hair algae in my shrimp + moss tanks). His recommended dose is 1.5ml per one UK gallon (4.5 litres). He found shrimp started acting a bit odd at 2ml / UK gallon, but you might be able to push the 1.5ml dose slightly upwards if needed depending upon livestock.
I've never managed to find "food grade" H2O2 here in Singapore and am still confused why / what this would be. I have used 3% hydrogen peroxide bought from my local chemist. The point is to make sure that it is pure H2O2 without anything else added, but I've also not fathomed out what might be added and for what applications.
Shrimp seem to enjoy H2O2 baths, snails seem unbothered so long as they don't sit directly on top of bubbling substrate (someone mentioned this killed their snail, but it has never bothered my trumpet snails).
Regards, James
Then I read a post where someone suggested dosing the Excel mid water change. You take out the old water, as much as you dare, then spot dose the affected plants (at the day 1 / full dose rate based on full tank volume) with the filter off and the water level low. After 5-10 mins you add the new water to refill the tank. So in effect you are doing a short term, higher dose treatment, before adding the freshwater and diluting back to the normal day 1 dose.
Obviously you need to be careful depending upon what sensitive livestock are in your tank e.g. you would want to shoo any shrimp and snails from the area you are directly spot treating. I tried to keep fish away, but my zebra danio are super curious and always wanted to swim around teh area I was working, but didn't seem to do any harm.
Long story short, my BBA was vastly reduced after doing this for two consecutive week's water changes (whereas dosing with a full tank seemed to have minimum effect). Having the filter off and water still also helps when spot dosing to keep the chemicals where you want them of course.
For H2O2 treatment, search Youtube for the video by Mark's Shrimp Tanks which goes through the full "shrimp safe" procedure he uses on his tanks (and which I have copied with success to treat hair algae in my shrimp + moss tanks). His recommended dose is 1.5ml per one UK gallon (4.5 litres). He found shrimp started acting a bit odd at 2ml / UK gallon, but you might be able to push the 1.5ml dose slightly upwards if needed depending upon livestock.
I've never managed to find "food grade" H2O2 here in Singapore and am still confused why / what this would be. I have used 3% hydrogen peroxide bought from my local chemist. The point is to make sure that it is pure H2O2 without anything else added, but I've also not fathomed out what might be added and for what applications.
Shrimp seem to enjoy H2O2 baths, snails seem unbothered so long as they don't sit directly on top of bubbling substrate (someone mentioned this killed their snail, but it has never bothered my trumpet snails).
Regards, James
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Thank you for the responses. Alas, I still managed to kill my amano shrimp. I didnt go above 1.5 ml h202 per gallon of water. I only spot treated a few places with the filters off. I did a water change after 20 mins. I guess it was all too much. Live and learn.
maybe the water change plus the treatment was just too much stress1 - 5 of 5 Posts
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