Too much Iodine?

olddreamer

New member
Hi,

New guy to the forum :lol:

I have a D-D 90L nano tank, which I am trying to bring back to life after a LONG period of dire and regrettable neglect (It has been running for probably 3 years, half of which it was neglected) It contains aprox. 11kl live rock, one and a half inches of coral sand, nothing but coral rubble in the way of filtration in the rear compartments. The original surviving live stock include a huge healthy Catalaphyllia, a large healthy Duncan, and a few more healthy LPS, plus a few less healthy ones and an assortment of corallimorphs, a host of varied small hitch hiker snails from the rock....and an 8/9 inch serpent star (grey banded)

Having got the water back to well within recommended parameters, as far as I can tell with the limited test kits I have (Salifert NO2, NO3, NH4, PO4, Ph, Ca, Mg, KH/Alk) I decided to add a few CUC, the old ones having long since died of old age. Sadly, the first small batch (3 red leg hermits and 1 Mithrax crab) all died within days. Thinking it may have been a batch already on it's last legs in my dealers tank (quite usual :rolleyes:) I left it for a month or two and bought a similar batch, plus a few Trochus snails, from another dealer...and they (certainly the crabs) look to be going the same way :sad1:

Thinking of possible causes, I recall I repeatedly made a silly mistake months ago, that of adding small amounts of Iodine (at the recommended dose on the bottle) because a dealer sold it to me as a 'vital additive' which my tank had been missing out on :rolleyes:. Now that I know better (a bit late, I know) I was wondering if a too high level of Iodine may be the cause of this problem? I don't have an Iodine test kit (I know...don't add what you can't test for) and finances don't allow for buying one if, in you collective opinions, that is unlikely to be the cause of my problem. No doubt you will all say 'buy the test kit', because you are mostly from across the big pond in the US of A...but being a pensioner in England makes it a tad more painful to buy something which turns out to be something you don't need...trust me on that :lol:

All the best guys, and thanks in advance.

Dave.
 
How did you correct the other parameters? Water changes would've lowered the iodine, as well.

How much and what types of algae do you have? Do you have any fish that you're feeding?
 
[welcome]

Iodine will be depleted fairly quickly if the supplementation is stopped, so I don't think that's the problem. If the corals still are healthy, I might suspect problems with acclimation or possibly the stock, although that's two dealers now.
 
Wha t type of iodine did you dose.?
I wouldn't worry about getting a test kit most of them at hobby grade are confounding at best.
I'm not sure what's killing your snails and crabs. Alot of things could be going on in a refurbished previously neglected tank.
The tolerance for iodine toxicity varies from organism to organism and there isn't much in terms of specific reactions for specific marine organisms. In one of his articles on Iodine , Randy Farley notes many macro algae use a good bit of it and may store it up for herbivore defense , ie to poison them or dissuade them from eating it.

The good news is that inorganic iodine levels deplete in reef tanks in time. Running some granulated activated carbon may speed it up.

As you probably know dosing iodine is not generally recommended. in most cases there is plenty to go around from foods and slat mix.

Here are a couple of articles on iodine in the reef aquarium by Randy H Farley if you want more details and information:

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/mar2003/chem.htm


http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issu...l2003/chem.htm
 
Hi guys,

Many thanks for your answers, much appreciated.

I corrected the parameters by weekly 10% water changes and the addition of Kent liquid calcium and Salifert liquid magnesium, with ordinary sodium bicarbonate for the alk (cooking bicardonate of soda). I have found from the start with this tank that the D-D salt I have been using seems unable to maintain the Ca and Mg levels without additives, despite weekly 10% water changes. I find this odd, because I don't have high demands from SPS etc. There are no fish present in the tank by the way.

Incidentally, I forgot to mention that there is a tridacnid clam that has survived my wicked ways as well...obviously reveled in the nutrient levels when I got myself in a state and abandoned all tank care. It might astonish you to know that for over a year, I did NOTHING to this poor tank. NO water changes, NO additives, NO food....NOTHING. Occasional top ups with RO water was my sole contribution to the amazing survival of this tank. Some things obviously survived, even flourished....considering where cats live in nature, I guess that was the least surprising survivor, but it is astonishing none the less. I just hope I don't go and kill the poor things now that I have my head back together :worried:

The Iodine I used was Salifert natural Iodine.

Having looked in the tank this morning, I can see two of the hermits...they are alive but still sitting in the same place, after 12 hours or so in the tank. The third I can't see...either it has survived and moved off, or died and was breakfast for my serpent star. The tiny (10mm dia.) mithrax has disappeared, but I guess you would need good eyes to spot it anyway :spin2: .The Trochus snails have been wandering around a little, but not as almost continuous moving as you would expect for Trochus.

I acclimatised them by floating the bags in the tank, with clamped airline tubing drip feeding my tank water into them over a two hour period...always worked for me before?

Best regards,

Dave.
 
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Hi guys,

I am fairly sure that two of my hermits have perished and been eaten by my ever hungry serpent star. His central body area (being just a stomach with teeth :p) is looking puffed up and lumpy...a sure sign he has eaten something largish :sad2:....any further thoughts on this conundrum? I won't dare add anything until I solve my problem, so need your highly capable brains to help my ageing grey matter along :idea:

By the way, it isn't a rogue serpent star getting bored of waiting...these crabs look distinctly ill immediately on being placed in the tank. I must say that they were not moving about in the dealers tank either, so that looks highly suspicious...but then again this is, as you say, the second successive time this has occurred, which worries me a lot.

I have never used copper based treatments or any such nasties that would be curtains for inverts.

Just in case I am loosing it and got things very wrong, my params are :-

Temp 27<28c, SG 35 ppm, Ph 8.3, Alk 2.63/KH 7.40, Ca 390(bit low), Mg 1350, with NO2, NO3, NH4 and PO4 all reading zero to my eyes, but I doubt they are that good...test kit variations and old eyes together breed optimism...but they wouldn't be too far from that :lol:

Cheers, Dave.
 
Serpent stars often are predatory, and are likely to eat anything that they can catch, but dying animals are a bit easier to grab.

For acclimation, I always check the salinity from time to time, and dumped out water as needed to keep the SG changing slowly. For snails, an hour likely is fine, but getting the SG rate to match the tank generally requires removing water from the bag regularly.
 
Serpent stars often are predatory, and are likely to eat anything that they can catch, but dying animals are a bit easier to grab.

For acclimation, I always check the salinity from time to time, and dumped out water as needed to keep the SG changing slowly. For snails, an hour likely is fine, but getting the SG rate to match the tank generally requires removing water from the bag regularly.
 
Parameters look good. If your dealer keeps his holding tanks low in sg it could be a problem. Inverts can't osmoregulate,their internal sg is close to the water around them. They have a very limited ability to adjust it unlike fish which regulate internal fluid levels by drinking and urinating.If it's too far off they lose homeostasis;all the internal chemistry goes off and they die.
As Jonathan notes acclimation is important for them . Reasonably high sg is as well but you have that; maybe your dealer or whoever is shipping them doesn't.

I don't have any other ideas other than disease, bad food or a predator, maybe a mantis shrimp for example.. I thought about the magnesium dosing but that parameter looks fine.

BTW,my wife and I were in London for a bit back in 1969.Loved being around all that history. I have old eyes too.
 
Many thanks again guys,

I think this is just one of those things, something I will have to put down to experience, because it seems now I will probably never really find an answer to it. Although I have been keeping fish for 40 odd years, and marines for a few of those, I do not have the brain or scientific mind set you guys have, so if you cannot solve it, I sure can't :spin2:

However, the tiny Mithrax and one of the red legs I had thought eaten turned up on the rock work after lights-out last night, so the mystery deepens. One of the red legs has disappeared, and the third one is still sitting in exactly the same position as it was when placed in the tank a couple of days back. It is still alive, with it's eye stalks and antennae moving around. That must be a record for a hermit not moving if nothing else :lmao: I guess it COULD just be down to it acclimatising itself slowly...I certainly won't mind how long it wants, so long as it survives. The Trochus are moving around sporadically, so perhaps they are going to make it too.

I tend now to think it may be a case of critters on their last legs in the dealers tank. Unfortunately we do have numerous dealers here in the UK who run very poor, inadequate systems which are incapable of keeping stock alive for more than a very short time. They are prepared to have the majority of their stock die after a week or so if not sold, with the profit they make on those they do sell covering their losses...sad but true :hmm2:

So...many thanks guys, I feel happier now even if I may not be entirely sure exactly what occurred. I know you may see it as a lot of fuss about nothing, but I see any loss as a tragedy...and want to know why!

My very best regards,

Dave.
 
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