Hi Everyone,
Thank you for your input. I really do appreciate all of your thoughts.
I have also been a non Iodine user for about a year now and have not noticed any change in my corals since I stopped. But because of the test kits available to us I may have not been using it properly. I tried three different brands of test kits and was never able to get any readings. All of the test kits read zero. The most noticeable effect that Iodine had on my tank was the increased growth in bubble algae and it is also the main reason that I stopped using it.
What I did find interesting is what Don said:
No quantitative data, but my green metallic mushrooms seemed to get much brighter colored after I started using an iodine supplement. And my results with an iodine test kit have been fairly consistent - from an initial reading of zero which gradually climbed to my current reading of about 0.04.
What Don has said here seems to be on track with what Bob Goemans was talking about. Now my simple thoughts on this information is
maybe by keeping the level of Iodine constant, which seems to be almost impossible for most of us using our test kits, that it can have a positive impact on our aquariums. Don, if you see this could you tell me what brand of test kit you are using?
It is also interesting that Eric saw an improvement in his GOB when using Iodine. Now Brad said that the results that Julian Sprung saw with the crashing Xenia could have been the effect of the Iodine treating a bacterial or protozoan infection and even if that is the case it would seem that Iodine did have a positive impact in that situation and maybe also in the situation that Eric had.
Now this also brings up an interesting question about those of you that had bad results with Iodine usage. Could the problems, that many of you saw in your tanks, have been caused by too high a level of Iodine. Maybe or Maybe not.
Larry has summed this up for me better than I ever could have myself and has also seems to have found my ulterior motives for this question. I was not looking to prove Bob G. or anyone else wrong about Iodine usage but was looking for the type of information provided by all of you on both the positive and negative effects of Iodine that you have actually seen in your own tanks. Also the information provided by Don and Eric on the positive effects that they have seen are making me more interested. Even though dosing Iodine seems to be useless to many reefkeepers maybe it has a purpose in the treatment of sick corals because of its oxidative properties that Brad had mentioned. Also, many of our members are biologists and scientists who may also be able to influence the development of accurate and affordable hobbyist test kits if they feel that there is a chance that Iodine could be useful to the reefkeeping population.
So am I going to start adding Iodine to my tank based on the directions off the bottle? No, but if the brand of test kit that Don uses proves to be as accurate for me as it was for him I am willing to try it. Also, if I have a sick coral that I am likely to loose anyway will I try a shot of target Iodine to save it? Yes I most certainly will because at that point I have nothing to loose.
I want to thank all of you for helping kick start my old brain into thinking again and am grateful for all of your input.
Doug