Treating ich with peroxide

[nyshoots]

I was just replying to a thread about ich and I thought I would share my response here as well...

This is just my experience so please don't take it for fact but I've had really good luck treating ich and possibly velvet with hydrogen peroxide.. I had Fairy Wrasse develop what I think was velvet but may have been something else along with ich and die very quickly in my tank. It was a new addition that I didn't quarantine. Soon after it died I noticed ich on my 2-3 inch hippo tang and what looked like the start of velvet on my 4 inch swallowtail angel.. I don't have a hospital tank and I really didn't want to set one up and after reading a lot of posts about treating with peroxide I decided to give it a shot.. I started dosing 1ml per 10 gallons of tank water daily at no specific time in the day and did this for a month straight with no issues on my coral or inverts and all my fish are still alive and looking good. I have no sps in this tank but I have softies, lps, zoas, gorgonian, bubble tip anemones, a tiny snowflake eel, various snails, an orange serpent star, and a macro algae reactor with a lot of chaeto, nobody had any issues and it didn't affect the chaeto at all.. Also I had some little patches of cyano that cleared up as an added bonus.. Durning this time I kept up with the weekly water changes and ran carbon and rowaphos as usual. I didn't change anything else.

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[marrone]

Using hydrogen peroxide is good in killing unwanted algae, like hair algae and such, but it doesn't have any affect on killing parasites. So even though you treat your tank with it, and it seemed that the parasites went away, it most likely was something else and not the hydrogen peroxide that did it.

 

[nyshoots]

I've read that it kills the ich in it's free swimming state before it latches on to your fish. Also I'm pretty sure polyp lab medic witch is used to treat ich in a reef is just hydrogen peroxide salts.. It seems to be effective on some peoples tanks but not all. Here is a link from advanced Aquarist that talks about treating ich with H202

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2004/1/mini#section-5

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[marrone]

The link you put down is for 2004, and if you read the article it talks about experimental treatments, with most, or a lot, of the fish dying during treatment. So it's not really a good source.

In the end hydrogen peroxide isn't going to kill Ich or marine velvet parasites, and as for polyp lab medic, well that doesn't work either. You actually have just a better chance of getting spores out of your system by using an overflow and a filter sock.

 

[marrone]

By the way, the article did list a number of other methods, copper, hypo, and the transfer method, that do work, though some only work on Ich and not velvet.

 

[nyshoots]

I'm not arguing with you that there's no scientific evidence here and in the first sentence of my post I wrote that this is only my experience and not to take it for fact. That being said there is a mix of people online reporting H202 working and not working as a possible cure for ich and velvet. What do you think is going on with the tanks that apparently worked on ? I'm not asking in an argumentative way I'm just curious what it might be ? Maybe a different type of disease that presents as ich or velvet ? Is it possible all the fish just fought it off ? There are a lot of variables...

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[nyshoots]

Here's an article on a study that shows H202 will kill velvet

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[nyshoots]

Here's an article on a study that shows H202 will kill velvet

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As you can see it works but very experimental and not recommended

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[marrone]

That being said there is a mix of people online reporting H202 working and not working as a possible cure for ich and velvet.
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That statement right there tells you that it's not H2O2 that is killing the Ich/Velvet but most likely something else.

It's possible that fish are fighting it off, which does happen in some case, and in reef tanks, where there are filter feeders, overflows, and filter socks, all of which can reduce the amount of spores in the tank, which in turn can reduce the possibility of a fish getting effective again and can make the difference in some case.

I think people need to not get caught up in things that they think may be the reason why something is work, when in turn it wasn't that thing but something else and that it just happened to be during the time that they were trying that particle thing.

 

[Rebels23]

Isn't part of @Humblefish 's Hybrid Tank Transfer Method based off of this?

 

[ducati335i]

In my experience if a fish has no internal parasites and has some meat on it it will rarely die from ich.. i have never had an established fish die from ich and I have had them covered at certain points.. after they get it “bad” I see spots here and there and then eventually the ich in the system will die off after 12/14 cycles... Or in time as long as no new strains are introduced..

I also quarantine and copper all my fish. Ich happened tp
Slip through w a wrasse ( I don’t always coppper wrasses but I do qt/observe and wait months before dt)

 

[Rebels23]

Thanks Ducati. I have also read somewhere that after about 11 months, the ich cycles just die off. Nothing is fool proof, but have you found copper to be pretty reliable?

I currently have a QT going through Cupramine after an out break. I also have a separate QT going on with the tank transfer method. Was about to incorporate H2O2 for hybrid TTM.

 

[ducati335i]

I

Thanks Ducati. I have also read somewhere that after about 11 months, the ich cycles just die off. Nothing is fool proof, but have you found copper to be pretty reliable?

I currently have a QT going through Cupramine after an out break. I also have a separate QT going on with the tank transfer method. Was about to incorporate H2O2 for hybrid TTM.

Absolutely... copper is great.. I go up slowly w copper and never had any issues w Cupramine with the exception of wrasses.. use copper power or copper safe instead for wrasses.. Cupramine is too harsh on them and after much reading and experience only copper power or copper safe (it’s a different copper and more gentle on wrasses)

I wish I would have used it on all my wrasses...

my main worry is velvet (brook too). it will kill every fish in your tank... always qt.. (No exceptions lol)

If the ich is in your main tank you have to keep it fallow 80 days or more..
also,you should qt coral as well for the same time if you never want to see ich again... annoying but it’s the only way..

 

[vetteguy53081]

Peroxide is mainly comprised of H2O and I would deem it ineffective unless at high dosage. Polyp Lab "Medic" is a reef safe and very effective treatment and DOES work.

 

[Stickboy97]

Humbelfish also has some articles on experimenting with H2O2 to treat ick or velvet. Nothing as set in stone as say copper, but it sounds like he's had good results