Best Iodine Test

lady becca

lady becca

Member
Can anyone here tell me the best Iodine test to use???
I want to start adding Iodine for my corals, but need to know the most accurate test before I just get froggy and jump!
Thx
 
007

007

Active Member
agree with the salifert ideas, but I think that dosing iodine is risky and a waste of money. I have never dosed it and a friend does. There is no way to tell which tank does and which doesnt. I feel that I get all the iodine that I need through regular water changes . . . plus it is very easy to overdose iodine to toxic levels.
 
bang guy

bang guy

Moderator

Originally posted by I like fish
What are the signs of iodine overdosing?
The most obvious is dead crustaceans. This includes Shrimp, Crabs & pods.
 
lady becca

lady becca

Member
Hmmmm.....
Maybe we should think more about this iodine thing!
I wanted to give my corals something extra. Here are the types of corals I have:
7 Mushrooms
2 Green Hairy Mushrooms
1 Pulsing Xenia (not looking as well as it use to)
1 Green Favite (Moon?)
1 brain type
1 Kenya Tree
3 Different Polyps
1 Star Polyp rock
1 Snake Polyp rock
1 Waving Hand
1 Frogspawn
1 Branching Hammer
1 Candycane
Whew.....thats 23 corals. What are the best additives? Or Foods for each?
 
007

007

Active Member
All trace elements can be replaced/replenished through regular water changes with a high quality salt. Now, if you have a tank stocked with LPS and SPS corals, then you may want to add calcium and alkalinity buffers, but you need to find out if they are consuming it first.
I have never really fed my corals anything other than DT's phytoplankton, but then again, the corals themselves don't really eat this. They eat the things that eat the phyto.
I have on occasion fed my brain coral, but that's like for its birthday or christmas or something. :D
Good light and good water is all that corals need. Good water can be achieved with a good salt and RO/DI water . . . .
 
bang guy

bang guy

Moderator

Originally posted by Lady Becca
What are the best additives? Or Foods for each?
IMO... Light is the best additive. That and high quality water.
A calcium and carbonate supplement is advised with your coral load. You still need to test Ca and ALK though so you know how much to add.
For food I would feed you carnivores small chunks of any marine based animal. Scallops, silversides, squid, etc. This would apply to your Open brain, hairy mushrooms, Favites, snake polyps, Frogspawn, Hammer, and especially the Candycane.
For the others the new Cyclop-eeze seems to be really working well for me.
 
bigmac

bigmac

Member
I've had my share of reef tanks over the years, iodine was something I never tested for. About 5 years ago I did buy a bottle of some kind of iodine additive. I used half doses for a few months with no noticable change. I think this is one additive that's best left in the bottle.
I'd like to hear from a few of the other OFR, what are you doing about iodine.
 
bang guy

bang guy

Moderator
I'm far from an SPS person but I've yet to see anything suffer from lack of Iodine or thrive from an abundance.
I see nothing wrong with maintaining NSW levels... perhaps there is an undiscovered benefit. The average reef tank has a "documented" 10X NSW level of this element. Adding it, to me, is similar to adding Arsenic to your water just in case something needs it.
 
i like fish

i like fish

Member
Ive also been told that a good skimmer will remove Iodine. I never get so much as a trace of Iodine with a Salifert kit. NSW I believe is .06 ppm.
Has anyone here had 10x that?
Just curious as to why you put quotaion marks around "documented".
 
bang guy

bang guy

Moderator
I put documented in quotes because the sample size was tiny and could just be coincidence. I believe there were just 8 samples.
The Salifert test is about the best hobby level test but it's still wildly inaccurate. Your "trace" of Iodine could easily be 10X NSW levels. You need to send it to a lab to get a true reading.
Skimmate tested (by a lab) has shown that skimmers don't remove Iodine. Again, the sample size for the study I saw was 3. Really too small but probably a good indication.
 
bang guy

bang guy

Moderator
One more note that may or may not be useful. Sorry this stuff is so vague, but nobody has really spent any money studying this stuff so everything is anecdotal or guesses.
I recently posted about the results when I sent my water to be tested at a lab. I have never added Iodine and I have a LOT of caulerpa that should sequester most of the Iodine. It still came back at 0.09ppm. This is really high... this is 50% higher than NSW and I'm concerned about it. The Salifert test showed I had 0.00ppm.
 
bang guy

bang guy

Moderator
Nope... no typo.
That's why it's so easy to OD on Iodine if you dose it right after a large water change.
If you have 0.00 Iodine and do a 25% water change then you're back up to NSW levels.
 
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