Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hey all -

to deal with an infestation of seed shrimp, ostracoda order, I may need to douse my water with some hydrogen peroxide.

I currently stock my fish tanks with tilapia - does anyone know of their sensitivity to H2O2?? I am hoping that i will only need to add 2ppm hydrogen peroxide to deal with the shrimp, but may need to hit 3mg/L. Would this kill them?

Since no one has answered I'll suggest trying this with a fish in a separate tank and if it shows signs of distress remove it and try something else. I'm also not sure if using this in the main system will have any effect on the bio-filter portion of your AP system (or the ostrocods for that matter ). Kind of doubt the low level will be a problem for the fish.

Thank goodness I have no experience with Seed Shrimp. I did look at a few of my other favorite forums and read that the eggs appear to be indestructible. http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/88-shrimp-other-invertebrates/381513-killing-seed-shrimp.html Adding a fish which eats Seed shrimp seems like a good idea.

I don't know what effect hydrogen peroxide will have on your shrimp, but it will definitely kill off your bio filtration if you use it in your system.

I'm not sure that's true in this case but I'd definitely want to find out before I tried it. A lot of organisms can break down hydrogen peroxide using catalase enzyme and there are a lot of organisms in an AP system. There may simply not be enough hydrogen peroxide to do major damage but again, I'm not sure.

H202 is the perfect solution for sterilising fish tanks, pipework, glass and plastic.

Unlike bleach, H202 will turn into harmless water and oxygen after 24 hours in contact with water. It is therefore the perfect solution for use in the aquarium environment.

Not only will it kill all pathogens and algae spores at a dilution of 1 part H202 to 150 parts water, but used in stronger concentrations of 1 part H202 to 10 parts water it is ideal for cleaning algae from glassware and ceramic diffusers.

It is also very useful in treating tanks where major algae growth has been a problem. There is no form of algae that will survive this treatment.

For tank sterilisation where there has been disease or bad algae infestation the H202 should be added, the tank filled with water and the whole system including filtration run for a 24 hour period. All livestock must be removed and placed elsewhere as this product is lethal to all organic life-forms in its initial active state.

It must also be remembered that any filter medium treated will now need re-cycling as all beneficial bacteria will also have been killed.

After 24 hours the tank should be emptied, refilled with fresh tap water and run again for another 24 hours. It is at this point that the tank is ready to safely commence fresh set up procedure and the system treated as if starting from scratch.

For cleaning diffusers and glassware the objects should be left to soak for several days and the solution strengthened as you see fit.

It is a good idea to keep two ceramic diffusers so that whilst one is soaking clean, the spare may be used in its place.

Please note: this product must not be used with livestock present.

SOURCE: https://www.thegreenmachineonline.com/b ... xide-h202/


As an algae killer[edit | edit source]
Concentrations of around 60ml of 3% H2O2 (30ml of 6%, 15ml of 9%) in a 250 Litres (66US G.) tank directly applied (usually via a syringe) slowly over 5 minutes onto a clump of algae will kill it and then rapidly be diluted and converted into harmless oxygen and water. Observe the results and wait 48 hours before applying any more. Plants may be effected.

Over dosing will kill snails, shrimps, frogs, and fish!
Adding Barley Straw to ponds and aquariums has long been used to fight off algae. The straw decomposes and it is believed that it releases small quantities of Hydrogen peroxide which slowly kills the algae.[2]
As an antibacterial agent[edit | edit source]
Dilute concentrations added to the tank water can kill all bacteria in the water, including the nitrifying bacteria. It will also kill all micro-organisms, good and bad.

Taking an animal with a infected wound out of the water and dabbing the area with Hydrogen peroxide can be an effective way to remove bacteria from the area and it will remove dead decaying flesh from the wound.
But you have to balance this with stressing the animal by trying to catch it, removing it from the water and applying this chemical which may or may not cause the animal pain as it destroys bacteria and dead skin alike. A stressed animal can't heal itself. Plus how do you judge the amount of time to keep the animal out of water to ensure the chemical does it's work on the skin or fin, and determine the percentage of H2O2 to use?

Source: http://www.theaquariumwiki.com/wiki/Hydrogen_peroxide

Good info Joeblow, apparently we're now the target of the OP's question, lol.

Joblow - thank you so much for the info! I'll be digesting this over the day, then figuring out how to tackle the problem.

For any interested, after a bit of research on seed shrimp i found 2 interesting facts:
1 - seed shrimp are generally harmless, unless the infestation hits obscene numbers. Which mine has, primarily on the roots of my plants. woe is me, right?
2 - increasing water agitation makes it ahrder for them to settle on plants. I've increased air flow, hoping this will keep them from attaching to the roots in large numbers.

And,

their seeds do seem to be obscenely tough. however, a fellow aquaponics head i know has mentioned that he douses his system with H2O2 every two weeks, at a highly diluted amount, to no ill affect. it keeps his system clean, apparently.

I'll follow up when I figure out a strategy that works for these suckers.

Thank you for all the help!

Joblow - thank you so much for the info! I'll be digesting this over the day, then figuring out how to tackle the problem.

For any interested, after a bit of research on seed shrimp i found 2 interesting facts:
1 - seed shrimp are generally harmless, unless the infestation hits obscene numbers. Which mine has, primarily on the roots of my plants. woe is me, right?
2 - increasing water agitation makes it ahrder for them to settle on plants. I've increased air flow, hoping this will keep them from attaching to the roots in large numbers.

And,

their seeds do seem to be obscenely tough. however, a fellow aquaponics head i know has mentioned that he douses his system with H2O2 every two weeks, at a highly diluted amount, to no ill affect. it keeps his system clean, apparently.

I'll follow up when I figure out a strategy that works for these suckers.

Thank you for all the help!

FYI!

if anyone is interested, LD50 (lethal dose to 50% of population) of H2O2 to tilapia is 32mg/L.

for invertebrates, like seed shrimp, LD50 H2O2 is 1mg/L

big window!

Do you have a link to where that came from, I'm not clear on how they figure their amounts. I always think of hydrogen peroxide as a liquid but usually it comes as a solution with X percent hydrogen peroxide. It looks from this that you need to take the percent of the solution along with the molecular weight in order to get the right amount and I'd kind of like to see their method just to be certain. Thanks.

I don't personally have the information - my AP volunteer does. I'll get it from him then fwd it over.

Thanks.

from what i understand, 32mg/L could also be described as 32ppm, if that's any help.