Iodine article in TFH magazine.

[Martyn]

I use to dose iodine and stopped dosing several months ago.
nothing changed except it seemed as if the acropora polyp extension during the day was much better.
But it could of been because of a whole lot of other changes I did.
Just resently one of my fish I have had for nearly 2 years came down with some sort of stomach bacteria.
I thought it would not do any harm to start adding some iodine.
Over a week I tested with the salifert test kit bringing levels up to 0.04 ish.
I did notice that my acropora's polyp extension was not as good as normal I added iodine when the levels dropped from 0.04 after about 4 days to bring it up again and still the polyp extension was not so good as normal.
the fish recoverd for some reason don't know why and I stopped adding the iodine solution again over the next few weeks My acropora's polyp extension have come back to normal and the one that that had stopped completly extending its polyps is just starting to show them again.
tests on the salifert test kit now show zero.
Well I suppose it could of been anything causing the polyps to not come out so well but it is strange it happend when adding iodine to keep levels near 0.04ish for just over two weeks and coming out better when the reading went back down too zero.
I could of brought the levels up to fast or the test kit could be giving a wrong reading.
But I was squeezing Racemoser for about 4 days when the fish first showed signs of an infection and adding it to the tank then stopped?
But none of the other SPS corals where effected like the Acropora's the other SPS corals where the same as always.
Sorry for the ramble Brad And J Newton.
Martyn

[Edited by Martyn on 10-14-2000 at 07:45 AM]

 

[JohnNewton]

Martyn,

Ramble away. It's just more support for my guess above

 

[smpolyp]

With so many variables it will be hard to say if iodne is needed or what levels are best fora closed aquarium.
From experience I have seen many people get thier corals to color back up after they bleached by using iodine. I also played around with it. I would say to save from over dosing and to get benefits from it would be to directly dose it on the coral. Softies will show the most results. You can try it out on one coral and see what you think.

 

[Doug]

Thanks for the additional input.

YZ, You have a good point about the two parters. It does seem that many of them contain extra elements which is a bit of a problem. If you have to add large amount of the two part products to keep up with CA/Alk demand you may also be adding too much of the other elements without knowing it. When I was using C-balance I had to use near double the recommended dosage to keep with the CA/Alk demand in my 90g tank. Now this could be a potential problem if the amount of other elements contained in these products are toxic based on dosing too much. I guess they to follow the directions for a reason. I have taken a different approach and have been using a combination of calcium chloride (Kent liquid calcium) and carbonate & bicarbonate & sulfate & borate salts (Pro Buffer dKH). Now the Pro Buffer says that it includes trace elements but I have feeling that they may be a by-product of the buffers and not directly added to the product.

As far as the shrimp molts, I have noticed that since I stopped dosing Iodine my shrimp do not molt as often as they used to. Before I stopped using Iodine my shrimp would molt every two - three weeks and after I stopped they only molt about once every two months. They had not been any impact in the health of the shrimp from what I can tell and it is possible that the molts have slowed down from age and not my stopping the Iodine. This is just an observation and I can't back this up any other way.

Simon, I looked at Craig's' site but I could not find any new information other than his 1997 article. He did have many un-answered questions that I wish he would revisit.

Marty, that is some very interesting info that you have given us here. One of the things that I found interesting is that you said your acropora polyp extension was not as good. Craig B. made a note that a sudden shift in Iodine/Iodide concentration could also cause issues when raising the dosage from near zero to near NSW in a short period of time. Bob G. also said that he follows a procedure of small daily additions of Iodine instead of the recommended weekly large amount. Please, like John said "ramble away". You may have just answered one of Craig's' questions which is good for all of us.

John, I also agree with you said in a prior post and you make a good point.

Let me save you some time. I'm willing to bet that given enough responses you'll get anecdotal evidence saying that iodine is everything from a miracle cure to the equivalent of the plague. But then I'm only guessing.

Could it be possible that adding a weekly large dose of Iodine is what caused some reefkeepers to say that it has caused problems for them where as the ones who added a small daily amount have had good results? Again this is just a guess here.

Smpolyp, You have another good point. Maybe the reason that the corals colored up after bleaching is like what Brad mentioned above about the oxidative properties of Iodine. Is it possible that the corals bleached because of some kind of bacterial infection and the Iodine use cured it? So maybe the use of Iodine to treat unhealthy corals is something that can be used if all else fails.

Thanks again.

Doug