i dont know
- Thread starter derickd
- Start date
ophiura
Active Member
IMO, you get plenty of Iodine through feeding (esp marine algaes), and there is no need to add more from a bottle. If you do, you should be testing it. Randy Holmes Farley has an excellent article on reef water parameters (and several other articles). The addition of Iodine is certainly hotly debated...
Here is a quote from Randy Holmes Farley
I do not presently dose iodine to my aquarium, and do not recommend that others necessarily do so either. Iodine dosing is much more complicated than dosing other ions due to its substantial number of different naturally existing forms, the number of different forms that aquarists actually dose, the fact that all of these forms can interconvert in reef aquaria, and the fact that the available test kits detect only a subset of the total forms present. This complexity, coupled with the fact that no commonly kept reef aquarium species are known to require significant iodine, suggests that dosing is unnecessary and problematic.
For these reasons, I advise aquarists to NOT try to maintain a specific iodine concentration using supplementation and test kits.
There is little doubt about some animals (and esp marine algae) need for it, what is unknown is what level they need and whether they absorb it directly from the water. But certainly a lot gets in the tank simply via food.
Here is a quote from Randy Holmes Farley
I do not presently dose iodine to my aquarium, and do not recommend that others necessarily do so either. Iodine dosing is much more complicated than dosing other ions due to its substantial number of different naturally existing forms, the number of different forms that aquarists actually dose, the fact that all of these forms can interconvert in reef aquaria, and the fact that the available test kits detect only a subset of the total forms present. This complexity, coupled with the fact that no commonly kept reef aquarium species are known to require significant iodine, suggests that dosing is unnecessary and problematic.
For these reasons, I advise aquarists to NOT try to maintain a specific iodine concentration using supplementation and test kits.
There is little doubt about some animals (and esp marine algae) need for it, what is unknown is what level they need and whether they absorb it directly from the water. But certainly a lot gets in the tank simply via food.
ophiura
Active Member
Actually now that I am looking into it, it seems the idea that shrimp need the iodine to molt may be an old oudated idea as well....
From noted Invertebrate Zoologist Rob Toonen
The requirement of iodine for crustacean molting is a wives tale -- there is *no* scientific basis for it. In fact, quite the opposite, iodine seems to be a poison to crustaceans, and causes premature molts. I'm told it has been used to trigger premature molting in a variety of species for research (and this might be where the myth comes from), but this is an unnnatural phenomenon and is generally accompanied by high mortality.
We had a recent discussion about this on one of the reef mailing lists. The general conclusion was that there is some evidence that iodate is useful to certain types of marine algae. It seems to be more or less inert with respect to vertebrates. Whether or not it is potentially of any use to other marine phyla is unknown, but it pretty clearly not required for normal molting in crustaceans (no matter what you read on a bottle of iodine supplement in you LFS). A search through the literally *thousands* of scientific papers on the physiology of molting in crustaceans turns up not a *single paper* that mentions iodine/iodide. Personally, I would recommend against using iodine supplements in any tank, but *especially* one in which you are trying to rear larval crustaceans!
From noted Invertebrate Zoologist Rob Toonen
The requirement of iodine for crustacean molting is a wives tale -- there is *no* scientific basis for it. In fact, quite the opposite, iodine seems to be a poison to crustaceans, and causes premature molts. I'm told it has been used to trigger premature molting in a variety of species for research (and this might be where the myth comes from), but this is an unnnatural phenomenon and is generally accompanied by high mortality.
We had a recent discussion about this on one of the reef mailing lists. The general conclusion was that there is some evidence that iodate is useful to certain types of marine algae. It seems to be more or less inert with respect to vertebrates. Whether or not it is potentially of any use to other marine phyla is unknown, but it pretty clearly not required for normal molting in crustaceans (no matter what you read on a bottle of iodine supplement in you LFS). A search through the literally *thousands* of scientific papers on the physiology of molting in crustaceans turns up not a *single paper* that mentions iodine/iodide. Personally, I would recommend against using iodine supplements in any tank, but *especially* one in which you are trying to rear larval crustaceans!
ctgretzky9
Member
I test for iodine/iodide. The test kit is not something I would 100% rely on for the results, as they seem a bit inconsistent, but not completely out of wack.
I believe you get iodine through proper water changes with most salts anyway.
I admit, i dose it on a weekly basis. I use 5ml in my 60 hex of the kent's stuff.
I really dont know if it is helping, but it certainly hasn't harmed anything yet.
One suggestion, is to never dose iodine within a couple of days of a water change, as this may be a good way to have too much in your tank if you decide to dose.
I believe you get iodine through proper water changes with most salts anyway.
I admit, i dose it on a weekly basis. I use 5ml in my 60 hex of the kent's stuff.
I really dont know if it is helping, but it certainly hasn't harmed anything yet.
One suggestion, is to never dose iodine within a couple of days of a water change, as this may be a good way to have too much in your tank if you decide to dose.
