Iodine Dosing in Nano

[FishNutty]

I'm looking for some guidiance on iodine dosing, in a 7.5 gallon nano. I just ordered some of the Kent's brand to use for my maxi mini propagation, but I'd like to get some more information on dosing it for softies(and if it's harmful to LPS and anemones-I currently have rock flower and maxi mini, although I'm thinking about selling those and moving to a BTA).

I've had on-again/off-again success with softies, they did well in my 12 gallon with PCs, I switched to LEDs, and they seemed to still be doing fairly well, four months after the switch I got sick though(as in, no water changes for six weeks sick) and the softies went down hill-the worst was the GSP, which had grown from a one inch frag to cover about 6 inches of rock and was thriving, started receding at a mid-range rate. The shrooms weren't multiplying, the zoas and palys were disapearing quickly...about the only thing that WAS happy-ish was the kenya tree. The LPS in the tank was fine during this, as were the nems, but the poncillipora almost didn't make it(I sold it before it could die)
And before the light change and illness, I never could keep xenia alive, the one ric I got melted after 2-3 weeks and zoas were always a shot in the dark as to whether or not they'd do well.

I guess what I'd like to know is, will iodine help with all of this^? How much and how often would I dose in a 7.5 gallon? I don't have a skimmer, run carbon off and on, and dose nothing else. My approach is VERY low-tech: water changes and spot feeding mysis. Hopefully that's enough tank info without going overboard, but let me know if I left something off.

 

[philosophile]

its not entirely clear what iodine does for softies.... Lots of theories out there from keeping the water free of harmful bacteria, to they use it in their metabolism. You add iodine everytime you do a waterchange, but iodine gets pulled out pretty quickly by macroalgae and skimming.

So what to do if you want to dose a small tank? Usually iodine bottles have instructions on how to get to sea-level concentrations. Add one drop to X gallons. I try to dose something close to that, every day, except for the day I do water changes.

Now usually it'll say something like, 1 drop for every 10 gallons. So what you'll need to do is dilute it, then add it to your tank. If you have the patience, this is what I would do... get your bottle of iodine, figure out how many drops you need for your tank. this should be some fractional number. Then get a CLEAN bottle and eye dropper (container store is handy for this) and measure out 1 drop of iodine for every 10 drops of ro/di water. Then you multiply the fractional number you had, by 10, round it down, and add that many drops to your nano tank of your diluted solution. If you have a graduated cylinder 1 drop is about .05 ml which can speed up dilution considerably.

Always err on the side of under dosing, so if you think you added on too many drops of water, don't worry about it. But if you think you added one too many iodine drops, add another 10 drops of water.

 

[Greg 45]

I dont have a exact number but on most bottles there is a starting dose.
My system is large , i add 5 drops lugols in am 5 drops in pm
there arent any accurate test kits to use so please go slow and track your dosing

 

[philosophile]

Oh and some general advice I forgot... If you're not running a skimmer, you need to do frequent water changes... once a week minimum, and maybe 25% of your water volume.

Are you topping off for evaporation? In a small tank, salinity can rise very quickly with a small amount of evap. Even though softies generally like "dirty" water, its still water that is a lot cleaner than people think it is.

 

[FishNutty]

Thank you for all the detailed information philosophile, that really helps! I like the diluting idea, could definitely save some headache.
I was wondering about testing(although I'm horrible about it...), thanks for clearing that up Greg.

So it's everyday except for water changes. Maybe an odd question, but do they get withdrawal if you do it religiously everyday and then go out of town or get sick and miss a few? What's the before and after like, growth wise/polyp extension/general happiness-just wondering...?