Randy Holmes-Farley
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FWIW, it is interesting to postulate how hydrogen peroxide would potentially kill bryopsis.
Hydrogen peroxide is known to oxidize Fe++ to the much less soluble Fe+++ in seawater:
http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/es00162a012
Many organisms are known to take up Fe++ preferentially over Fe+++. People, for example. While it is not entirely established (best I can determine) what forms of iron are taken up by marine algae, it has been suggested in the scientific literature that Fe++ may be important. It is formed by various redox reactions, including some photochemical reactions, from the more prevalent Fe+++ in surface seawater, increasing the bioavailability of iron.
So if one is constantly adding hydrogen peroxide to an aquarium, the iron may be forced to mostly stay in the less bioavailable Fe+++ form, and organisms that need a lot of iron (which includes algae) may become deficient.
Couple that with the readily seen effect of dosing iron on some types of macroalgae, and this seems a reasonable hypothesis of how such a method might work.
Hydrogen peroxide is known to oxidize Fe++ to the much less soluble Fe+++ in seawater:
http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/es00162a012
Many organisms are known to take up Fe++ preferentially over Fe+++. People, for example. While it is not entirely established (best I can determine) what forms of iron are taken up by marine algae, it has been suggested in the scientific literature that Fe++ may be important. It is formed by various redox reactions, including some photochemical reactions, from the more prevalent Fe+++ in surface seawater, increasing the bioavailability of iron.
So if one is constantly adding hydrogen peroxide to an aquarium, the iron may be forced to mostly stay in the less bioavailable Fe+++ form, and organisms that need a lot of iron (which includes algae) may become deficient.
Couple that with the readily seen effect of dosing iron on some types of macroalgae, and this seems a reasonable hypothesis of how such a method might work.
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