Guide to Hydrogen Peroxide in hydroponics systems.

I found this pretty easily using Google, but I thought I would share the info. If it has been done already I apologize.

This is originally from http://www.jasons-indoor-guide-to-or...-peroxide.html

There are no doubts about the benefits of using hydrogen peroxide properly in a hydroponics system. This becomes especially true if your nutrient reservoir is kept above 72 degrees. Warm water holds less dissolved oxygen, and therefore encourages the growth of more viruses, fungi, and anaerobic bacteria. Using hydrogen peroxide adds oxygen to you water and cleans the water of pathogens. Benefits include healthier root systems, increased nutrient uptake, thicker stems, and bigger leaves.

One expert claims it should be used on all soil gardens as well as in hydroponics sytems. Knowing as much as I do about beneficial fungus and micro-organisms and the benefits they provide to living plants, I am shy in taking this advice. However, when this first line of defense fails and plants become sick I often resort to using hydrogen peroxide treatments on my soil grown plants.


The chemical formula for hydrogen peroxide is H2O2. You may notice it is simply water with an extra oxygen atom. In fact, as hydrogen peroxide breaks down in a solution the result is oxygen and water. Its application helps deliver oxygen to over watered plant roots and helps to sterilize the growing media by killing harmful anaerobic (not oxygen compatible) bacteria and pathogens that cause disease. This includes bacterial wilt, pythium fungi, fusarium fungi, and others.

Using 3% Hydrogen Peroxide
In your Hydroponics Garden


I avoid using hydrogen peroxide you commonly find at drug stores. This is because such low percentage (3%) solutions are unstable, and chemicals are added to the peroxide to keep it from breaking down before it can be used. I did a little research because I did not know what chemicals were used for this, or if the plants uptake these chemicals, or if there was a health risk associated with any of these stabilizing chemicals.

Hydrogen peroxide is usually stabilized with acetanilide. Acetanilide is a synthetic compound that was first used for its fever reduction and pain killing properties in the late Nineteenth Century. For many years it was utilized as an alternative to aspirin to treat various ailments, but large scale medical use stopped when the toxic side effects of consuming acetanilide became apparent. This was enough to convince me to use 35% hydrogen peroxide instead.



Using 35% Hydrogen Peroxide
In your Hydroponics Garden



Firstly, 35% peroxide is caustic and should be treated with the same caution as a strong acid. 35% strength hydrogen peroxide should be readily available at any quality hydroponics supply shop. The stronger concentrations do not use the added stabilizers.

The recommended dosage is to add 2-3 ml to each gallon of water, however, I use 5 ml per gallon and have never had any problems. At every nutrient change treat your fresh water using hydrogen peroxide. The general idea is to let the hydroponics system circulate the hydrogen peroxide solution for about a half hour to let the peroxide work against pathogens and to let the solution stabilize before adding your nutrients.


The beneficial effects of using hydrogen peroxide last about 4 days. There are some gardeners who add a little peroxide to their nutrient reservoirs every 5 days in between nutrient changes. If you decide to do this, stick to the guidelines and always make sure your solution is thoroughly mixed before exposing your plants roots to it. Another option is to top off your nutrient reservoir with peroxide treated water whenever it is low.

Quality, Straight forward information. THANKS

Word. Im thinking of switching from Hygrozyme to H202. It says 35% in that post, but ive heard people say the 50% grade is more effecient, Anybody know?

It would require you to use less but I just heard it can be used to make bombs. So they will take down your info which is a little shady. I might just go for 12% or something and use more of it.

35% food grade works great, but a tad expensive @ $15 a quart... no name recording. Check your local health food store.

I'm moving away from h2o2 and attempting to replace it with hygrozyme. I like beneficial bacteria and if your using ANY organic nutrients you should not be using h2o2. Now if your doing pure chem ferts, and going for a sterilized system, h2o2 is the way to go.

I use 29% H202 and have been adding about 4 tablespoons for 20 gallons every 3 days. Its $10 per liter from grow store.

Why no H2O2 with organics? I heard hygrozyme builds up the bacterias immunity and eventually your using more and more of it to control bacteria. H2O2 doesn't build up superbacteria.

Originally Posted by Someguy15

35% food grade works great, but a tad expensive @ $15 a quart... no name recording. Check your local health food store.

I'm moving away from h2o2 and attempting to replace it with hygrozyme. I like beneficial bacteria and if your using ANY organic nutrients you should not be using h2o2. Now if your doing pure chem ferts, and going for a sterilized system, h2o2 is the way to go.

See for me hygrozyme works well, the thing is though my roots are still slightly brown and i feel like they could be in better shape if i used h202 instead. Im Using General Hydroponics lucus formula so i think i would be fine with h202.

Originally Posted by Hydroneer

Why no H2O2 with organics? I heard hygrozyme builds up the bacterias immunity and eventually your using more and more of it to control bacteria. H2O2 doesn't build up superbacteria.

Ya know this could be true, Cause originally my roots were pretty clean, slowly they have got kinda brown, not slimy at all, but just kinda fucked up. Ive constantly been using the same amount, maybe this is the reason its slowly gotten worse.

Yeah, maybe what you could do is alternate. Use H2O2 to clean out the system every few cycles and start fresh. I also heard of people using bleach to basically chlorinate and do something similar to H2O2 but personally I would be terrified to bleach my plants!