Journal on Peroxide Dosing to Eliminate Uronema

[kartrsu]

After 41 days of dosing, or 34 days at full dosage, I have decided to discontinue the use of peroxide dosing. The tank has not crashed, but the impact on the microbiome is starting to get worse with algae getting majorly out of hand. I would say that peroxide has definitely impacted the growth rate of corals but every coral has survived through the entire journey. However, the bloom of dinos is starting to take its toll on the corals and I suspect it's been upsetting them, even the more resilient ones. I will likely reseed my biome with live reef sand from aquabiomics.

As mentioned in the prior update, I sent a sample to aquabiomics at 38 days (31 days full dosage), so we will atleast have a data point on whether peroxide dosing was successful in eliminating traces of uronema without an active outbreak.

 

[Dierks]

After 41 days of dosing, or 34 days at full dosage, I have decided to discontinue the use of peroxide dosing. The tank has not crashed, but the impact on the microbiome is starting to get worse with algae getting majorly out of hand. I would say that peroxide has definitely impacted the growth rate of corals but every coral has survived through the entire journey. However, the bloom of dinos is starting to take its toll on the corals and I suspect it's been upsetting them, even the more resilient ones. I will likely reseed my biome with live reef sand from aquabiomics.

As mentioned in the prior update, I sent a sample to aquabiomics at 38 days (31 days full dosage), so we will atleast have a data point on whether peroxide dosing was successful in eliminating traces of uronema without an active outbreak.

This is simply awesome!!

 

[EnderG60]

Out of curiosity, how is this different than dosing ozone?

 

[Snoopy]

11/2/22 update - Week 5 update

I have finished 31 days of full peroxide dosing and will be sending a sample to aquabiomics tomorrow. Still waiting on the initial results from my earlier concerns. The past two weeks have been hard to stay the course. I’m eager to return the tank back to normal with live reef sand and rebuild the biome. Observations below.

• Algae management has been the challenge. I’m seeing increasing amounts of hair algae, dinos, chrysophytes and film algae. I blow them off the rocks everyday and have done multiple removals of sand to be bleached.
• Given the Dino bloom, I am running carbon to remove any potential toxins.
• My doser shut off as I ran out of peroxide. After I replaced the bottle, my doser automatically dosed almost a full days worth of peroxide into the tank at once. Surprisingly, inhabitants were largely unaffected although I lost a fire shrimp due to a bad molt
• Nutrients continue to bottom with nitrates at 0.1ppm from 5ppm over 2 weeks. I keep levels up by dosing Brightwell neonitro.
• Coral growth has stagnated and while they have adjusted to peroxide dosing, I can tell conditions are not optimal be it from peroxide itself or from biome disturbance. However, recent additions of Acropora are doing well so I’m pleased they adjusted quickly.
• Fish all look healthy and behavior has improved. Unclear if it’s my recent training to eat while I’m there or if I am killing some parasite. Will need that aquabiomics test to know for sure.
• Ammonia levels remain undetectable

Will be checking for the update from the test

 

[kartrsu]

Out of curiosity, how is this different than dosing ozone?

Not sure, following @Jessican who used peroxide to eliminate fish disease in her tank. Perhaps peroxide is safer since it’s done in bombs vs continuous ozone application? Just a guess but no idea.

 

[kartrsu]

Will be checking for the update from the test

Thanks, hopefully aquabiomics can turn it around this month.

 

[Jessican]

Not sure, following @Jessican who used peroxide to eliminate fish disease in her tank. Perhaps peroxide is safer since it’s done in bombs vs continuous ozone application? Just a guess but no idea.

From what I have read, peroxide + UV has a higher oxidation potential than ozone, which should make it more effective.

 

[kartrsu]

As I mentioned above, a pretty significant consequence of dosing peroxide has been the growth of dinoflagellates. I have confirmed the ID as ostreopsis. Unfortunately, I lost my porcelain crab today, a filter feeder that I suspect got poisoned. The other porcelain crab is not looking good either, and my gorgonian has stayed closed. Without a way to instantly add diversity at the moment, I’m going to try turning off UV, adding pods, and running massive chemical filtration.

 

[bolek]

I am running h202 for 6 weeks and have no algea / dinos / whatever at all, only a tiny bits of cyano which i always had in small quantities. I was dosing weekly bacteria /MB7 so this could be the differentiating factor. Also dinos often succeed with low PO4 - i am keeping them at 0.05-0.07 som again another idea for what you can check if you have problems with dinos.

 

[Jposch]

Have you been watching po4? Depleted po4 and elevated (basically any) no3 can have some of the worst effects on a tank and coral. Alage on rocks due to leaching po4, coral decline due to lack of dissolved po4, etc.

 

[kartrsu]

I was also dosing weekly MB7 and biospira to the tank.

I’ve been measuring PO4 at around 0.04 to 0.07. I’ve had nitrate dip to 0.1 several times and I would dose it back to 5-10 ppm. Gonna try feeding reef roids to raise the phosphate. I’m actually doing a 1 day blackout + UV to set back the dinos.

 

[kartrsu]

Happy thanksgiving everyone! Hope you all had a great weekend. I didn't forget about this experiment. Here are a few updates.

Fish are happy and healthy with no symptoms of any disease.

As you know, I was dealing with an explosion of chrysophytes, dinos (ostreopsis sp), and hair algae. I was able to control the first two, but still have hair algae which likely will need fluconazole. My glass has been clear for several days without scraping. Here are the steps I took to restore balance.

1) Blew off dinos and debris from all surfaces
2) Did a large water change and manually removed the top layer of sand
3) Performed a 36 hour blackout same day including turning off refugium and running UV the entire time. I also turned off all dosing.
4) After blackout, I dosed phyto and Algaebarn galaxy pods (4 jars). I also added trochus snails but my snail population has always been thin.
5) Checked my nutrients and tried to keep at 0.1ppm PO4 and 10ppm NO3
5) Run the refugium on same period as lighting cycle
6) Turn on UV at night only from 8pm to 8am.
7) Replaced with fresh carbon to soak up toxins

It's been 1 week since and dinos / chrysophytes have completely disappeared. The sand was washed, bleached, and detoxed and added back to the tank. I have switched the refugium to running at night and will see if this becomes a safe haven for dinos over time.

I’m still waiting on tests from @AquaBiomics. Will post those once they come in.

 

[kartrsu]

I just got my initial tests back from Aquabiomics! This was part of the batch that had to be rerun. The results show no uronema in the tank! I sent the sample about 5 days into my accelerated ramp up (see my older post for what I did). I’m impressed peroxide was able to kill traces of uronema so quick, maybe because it doesn't have an encysted stage. If I can confirm no uronema in the follow up test, I would be convinced that it can work against uronema rather quickly. Also the other positive is that I did not have velvet or ich in the tank and the fish were reacting to the peroxide.

9/30/2022

 

[Humblefish]

@kartrsu Wow, this is awesome!

 

[Dierks]

SO, so, sooooooo Awesome!

 

[kartrsu]

I am going to run another test near the end of this month as a follow-up. I discontinued peroxide dosing on 11/5/2022. I have run periods with UV on and off to battle algae, but since I'm dosing fluconazole to eliminate hair algae, I will be keeping the UV off until end of the month. I think it'll be good to revisit and see if peroxide worked or not.

My understanding is that Aquabiomics testing is picking up DNA fragments in the sample to identify the microbial makeup. Given that peroxide breaks down organics, I wonder if testing while dosing may render the samples inert or distorted without necessarily reflecting that the source organism has been eliminated. Makes me wonder if that's why a batch of tests needed to be rerun. Given that I'll be peroxide free for almost two months + sporadic UV, we can find out if it truly worked.

Stay tuned!

 

[kartrsu]

So my aquabiomics test came back inconclusive again. I suspect that hydrogen peroxide dosing neutralizes too much of the organics in the water rendering the sample inert. Unfortunately we won’t have 30 day results because I was still dosing at the time but I have an extra test for follow up afterwards. Stay tuned and happy holidays!

 

[Oscarmk]

I had not seen this before, but I also had Uronema and dosed h2o2, I stopped dosing 7 months ago and fish look great! i did not send a second test to aquabiomics though, but seeing this makes me more confident it worked

 

[kartrsu]

1/27/2023 update

I didn't forget about this thread! A bit of a lengthy update.

So my initial test from aquabiomics at the start of peroxide dosing needed to be rerun. The conclusion afterwards was that there was no traces of DNA from parasites. See my 9/30/22 update above.

I sent in a follow up sample 38 days after the beginning of dosing or 31 days at full dosage. Aquabiomics said the sample needed to be rerun again. I finally received the results and to my disappointment, I tested positive not only for uronema but also marine ich!

Between the tests, the things I have introduced that are "wet" have been pods from algaebarn, live reef sand from aquabiomics, corals qt'd for 45 days at 79-80F, and fish and snails from Dr. Reef. Too many variables to pinpoint exactly what the source is, but a major bummer.

I have had some livestock losses lately unfortunately. My royal gramma and mccosker wrasse jumped out. My neon goby disappeared. Very recently I lost a male anthias that was ousted from his pack after adding new anthias (the second in line female became the new aggressor). That said, I don't see any spots on my fish right now. Behavior is normal. No flashing or rapid breathing. It's a bit perplexing to me, so I will send in another tankDNA sample today and see what it registers when the results are ready.

In the meantime, I'm running UV at night and will hold off on peroxide dosing since my tank is still recovering from the mess it made to my biome.

 

[Humblefish]

Between the tests, the things I have introduced that are "wet" have been pods from algaebarn, live reef sand from aquabiomics, corals qt'd for 45 days at 79-80F, and fish and snails from Dr. Reef. Too many variables to pinpoint exactly what the source is, but a major bummer.

Supposedly Algaebarn cultures their pods in a fishless environment, and I would trust sand coming from @AquaBiomics. I can't speak to the rest of it.