Quote:
Originally Posted by
Jrse7en http:///forum/thread/385157/to-scrape-or-not-to-scrape-that-is-the-question#post_3376999
My Calcium has always read high and it still is high. Its in the ideal range for coraline growth I have read. I havent tested Alk. in a little while and while I do have buffers I think I should test for that tonight. Iodide I occasionally put a capful in, myabe once or twice a week. This is not "occasionally", this is way too much. I used to be able to see the iodides effects because after a good dose the shrimp I used to have would molt that night. Because the shrimp was stressed. I have a coral banded shrimp and he hasnt molted in quite some time now. Maybe 3 or 4 months?? This leads me to believe the iodide level is on the low side, but I would be liberally dosing my bottle away. Oh and my tank is a year and a half.
You're dosing too much Iodide in my opinion. While it can help with molting, it can also spur molting when it isn't necessary and this is not a good thing. As shrimps get older, they tend to start molting less and less, as they're not growing as much and therefore don't need a bigger shell. I am highly against dosing with Iodide/Iodine in almost all cases. A good salt mix and routine water changes should provide your aquarium with the proper amount. This is true of almost all trace elements. If you have a heavily SPS dominated reef, than it's more likely that you'll have to dose Calcium and Alkalinity if you're not running a reactor, but for a normal tank, it's not necessary. 2 capfuls of Iodide/Iodine weekly is way too much IMO.
From Reef-Eden:
Do I need to add Iodine..?
Well, yet again there is a bit of a myth, in that it is 'claimed' that Iodine is depleted from aquaria extremely quickly by the use of powerful skimming, Carbon, or simply by assimilation. What isn't frequently considered is the fact that if you are feeding on a regular basis and doing regular water changes, the chances are in most cases, that your keeping up with demand quite admirably. Commercially available, and natural frozen foods contain more than enough to keep the vast majority of normally stocked systems happy. Its only in heavily stocked, or powerfully filtered Reef aquaria that problems with depletion 'may' be encountered or where water changes are infrequent. Sadly the advertising chat on the backs of most commercially available Iodine additives doesn't highlight this fact, and simply gives a weekly recommended dose aimed as a 'just in case' method of attack. This is one mentality most experienced reef-keepers would disagree with quite strongly. In essence, most experienced aquarists would always say 'don't add it unless you can test for it and can see you need it, and that goes for 'any' additive.
The problem, is with the fact that iodine isn't a fixed 'single' element that can be measured easily like nitrate or nitrite etc... As already stated above, many forms are created and converted within the marine environment dependant on the system design and organisms present. so it doesn't take long to realise that there's no possible way to give a definitive guide to what should and shouldn't be present, especially baring in mind the hit and miss quality of many marine test kits when it comes to testing iodine.
A good read: http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2007-04/rhf/index.php#17
