[AquaticLife] Hydrogen Peroxide
Sam,
While I concur that vinegar is the best product for cleaning the hard water mineral build-up, I wanted to point out that Hydrogen Peroxide (HP) is not as dangerous or alarming as you implied and is often used in aquaria, ponds, etc.
The kind that most people buy at their local drug store is only a 3% solution and then when mixed into the tank, it’s far less of a solution. I have used 1 oz. per 10G squirted directly onto a stubborn hair algae that I had in a 10G planted tank and it killed the algae without affecting the fish, snails, etc. Of course, you don’t want to squirt the HP directly onto a fish but they run whenever I’d put the turkey baster in the tank anyhow.
In ponds, HP is added to ponds that are suffering from O2 depletion due to summer over-heating, pump failure, etc. HP is also the by-product of decaying barley hay which is used in ponds to help control algae buildup.
As you pointed out HP’s chemical composition is H2O2 so it is very similar to water but has an extra Oxygen molecule. When you see it bubbling (when treating an injury on us humans), it is basically releasing that extra Oxygen molecule during the oxidation and basically becomes distilled water… albeit still not drinkable in its “pure” (or 3% diluted) state. But after it is further diluted with lots of water, it is virtually harmless.
Here are some other threads/articles about using HP in aquaria…
http://www.thekrib.com/Plants/Algae/hydrogen-peroxide.html
http://www.malawicichlidhomepage.com/aquainfo/algae_peroxide.html
Lenny Vasbinder Fish Blog - http://GoldLenny.blogspot.com
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