NO Bugs WHY?

[jasondean]

I have a 150 FOwLR over 200 pounds of LR and 1-2" of sand. I also have a 50 gallon fuge. My problem is that I don't see any little critters no worm tracks in front against the glass nothing in my algae growing in my fuge. I've takin out some algea shakin it and nothing falls out. The tank is around 4 yrs old moved a couple times and 1 crash back when the east coast lost power but things are going good. I've seen a couple little snails and a few little stars but not much of anything else. Is there a reason I can't keep these?

 

[bang guy]

Do you keep your salinity at or above 35ppt?
Have you ever added real live sand to your sandbed?
Have you ever used copper in your tank?
Have you ever overdosed Iodine?

 

[jumpfrog]

Bang Guy; The higher salinity is better for pod reproduction?
I have the same issues as above and recently added about 7 lbs of fresh lr rubble. Still not seeing much in the way of micro fauna.

 

[jasondean]

No copper. I don't know about overdose in iodine but my salts 1.26-.28. I also went down to the lfs and got about 2 dozen little bugs about 2 months ago and still nothing. What would a o.d. of iodine do? No bristle worms or nothing that looks like a bug at all.

 

[bang guy]

My suggestion is to buy a box of live sand. Not the bagged stuff on a shelf, live sand just harvested from the ocean.
An Iodine overdose will kill crustaceans (like pods).

 

[lion_crazz]

Originally Posted by Bang Guy
My suggestion is to buy a box of live sand. Not the bagged stuff on a shelf, live sand just harvested from the ocean.
An Iodine overdose will kill crustaceans (like pods).
All crustaceans, or just micro-crustaceans such as pods and bristle worms? I am just asking because you are an expert in this area. If I were to start dosing iodine for my xenia and buy an iodine test kit (Salifert, of course), where do I want my iodine level to be, Bang?

 

[bang guy]

All crustaceans.
In my opinion if you're going to dose Iodine then you should maintain Iodine levels as close to natural seawater as possible. The combined Iodide & Iodate levels are below 0.1ppm in the ocean, I seem to remember 0.06ppm is actually the highest level it gets to. This raises a problem because most Iodine test kits are not accurate enough to tell the difference between 0.1 and 0.5ppm. I have heard that the new Salifert Iodine test kit is accurate at low levels. I read a study not too long ago that the average hobbiest reef tank has Iodine levels 10 times higher than natural sea water. This is cause for concern IMO. If true then I can't imagine why anyone would dose more.
On the other hand, Iodine is taken up by algae very quickly and probably depletes Iodine completely sometime between water changes.
If you want my opinion it will differ from most. I do not dose Iodine regardless of the level. The reason is that it does not need to be in the water for any of the reef animals I keep including Xenia and Shrimp. I believe algae uses Iodine to attempt to become unpalatable or at least to taste bad to avoid being eaten. I also believe that the small amount of Iodine needed by fish comes from their food, not from the water column.
My suggestion is to not dose Iodine but if you decide to dose it then never dose immediately after a waterchange, only dose if you have the Salifert kit and understand what it's telling you, never dose molecular Iodine and if you dose Iodate make sure it's in a solution that contains mostly Iodide.

 

[jasondean]

So I don't really need iodine or just a small amount for the 5 shrimp I have?
And Bang thanks for the info.

 

[bang guy]

Originally Posted by jasondean
So I don't really need iodine or just a small amount for the 5 shrimp I have?
And Bang thanks for the info.
Especially for the Shrimp. Iodine is highly toxic to shrimp.

 

[lion_crazz]

Thank you for your opinion, Bang.