IODINE- friend or foe

[VIC]

For years I've heard the pro's and cons of iodine additions. My experience is that bi-monthly water changes will add enough iodine to do the trick. When I look at some of these sps tanks with aquapora I wonder if my sps's would do better with weekly additions.I never had luck with aquapora staying alive eventhough I am using 4 250 watt hqi bulbs. I am running a calcium reactor and I know it replenished calcium and trace elements. I was under the impression that iodine is not replaced through the reactor! Am I correct?
Anyway, can anyone give me some insight on using lugol's iodine as an addition or should the 10 percent monthly changes do the trick?
Thanks
Vic

[SPasse]

VIC,

Iodine is necessary for a system.

Systems that use micro/macro algae for filtration can use it up quite rapidly. Skimmers have a similar effect.

But food is likely to be a major addition of it.

Some foods such as “Golden Pearls” contain a lot of it.

I used to add Lugal’s solution at ½ the recommended dose.

But since I started feeding Golden Pearls, this has not been necessary.

The Iodine test kits are almost useless.

Don’t overdose.

Regards,

Scott

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The definition of an expert is a washed-up drip under pressure.
You can see my reeftank at http://www.homestead.com/spasse/

[VIC]

Thanks for the help buddy.
What is the rec. dosage for a 300 gallon tank? Also where can I get Golden Pearls? Finally, was I right in assuming that the calcium reactor will not add iodine.
Thanks for the help.
Vic

[SPasse]

VIC,

I shall have to grab my old bottle of Lugal’s (or look it up in my tank log) to see what I was dosing.

No doubt about it though, overdosing is a very bad thing.

I have been using Golden Pearls for about a year now, so I haven’t had to think about the dose for a while.

Brine Shrimp Direct/Golden Pearls: http://www.brineshrimpdirect.com/

I use the “Rotifer Size Golden Pearls 100-200 microns (Rotifer / Artemia Replacement)” size.

What a CA reactor put into a system besides CA is dependent on the media, but I don’t believe that a CA reactor would have any effect on Iodine levels.

Regards,

Scott

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The definition of an expert is a washed-up drip under pressure.
You can see my reeftank at http://www.homestead.com/spasse/

[djheywood]

I was under the impression that a calcium reactor will NOT add iodine back into the system. Water changes will. I dose iodine once per week, I have 3 SPS frags under 110 watts of PC lighting that have grown a lot in the past 1 1/2 months.

Good luck.

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http://www.ssaland.com/reefpages/reefhome.htm

[36]

Suggested dosage for Lugol's is one drop per 25 gal. I dose three drops per week for just over 120 gallons actual water. Some will say adding iodine is a bad or unnecessary thing, but I have done it for a year and all corals do well. I add iodide also. I use Golden Pearls but at a much lower amount that most. Why change what works, right?

[SPasse]

36,

Thanks for jogging my memory.

I dosed at half of that strength, I.e. 1 drop per 50 gallons.

So for a 300-gallon system, 6 drops per week, or 1 drop per day.

Regards,

Scott

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The definition of an expert is a washed-up drip under pressure.
You can see my reeftank at http://www.homestead.com/spasse/

[Ironreef]

http://www.animalnetwork.com/fish/data/foods.asp why change what works is right. I use to dose lugols all the time. Not its only for dips. @2yrs now never dose iodide directly just with foods. if you feed good foods you are dosing 100x as much as nsw daily. The only difference I see with not dosing is my crustations seem to live longer and don't molt as much. But if the tanks all good why change it. JME

[jmick01]

Ive heard iodine is a must for all softies. Anybody got some info or facts to prove or disprove this?

JMM

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Remember Fish are alive when we get them, lets keep it that way!!!

[Ironreef]

I belive softies and other animals need iodide. its just if you look at the link above= if you feed good foods everyday you are adding iodine everyday in large amounts.

[Bubafat]

Most people don't have enough corals in their tank to justify adding iodine to their system. djheywood, you have 3 FRAGS, they don't soak up enough iodine to justify what you are doing, you are just slowly poisoning your system. Now, if you have a tank FILLED with softies and xenia maybe, but food does have a lot of iodine in it. If you wanna help your coral, throw away that bottle of iodine and buy a bottle of bionic.

Read this http://www.reefcentral.com/vbulletin...threadid=15012

Buba

[Ironreef]

my tank is full of corals never dose iodide in chemical form.