iodine vs. protien skimmer

[The Aquaholic]

i just started dosing a small amount of kent marine iodine to my 40g to help my mushrooms, and need to know how often or how much I should be adding. i have a huge protien skimmer also, should I let it continue running or shut it off for a while when dosing? I noticed my skimmer working overtime,making more foam, now it's running clean again... has it already skimmed all of the iodine?

i just wanna help the mushrooms! free the mushrooms!

thanks reefers!
john

[Ninong]

Natural seawater concentration of iodine (all forms) is 0.06 ppm. You should strive for that level.

I never added iodine to my tank. Ever. And it always measured at least 0.06 ppm (iodate and iodide). That's because of all the iodine in the foods we feed. Obviously natural seawater concentrations of any elements are sufficient for any marine animals, assuming they are required in the first place and not just something that is tolerated.

Iodine is toxic in excess. I would never add iodine unless I was certain that it was depleted in my tank.

I'm not familiar with the study that shows that mushrooms require iodine. Do you have any links?

P.S. -- Dr. Randy Holmes-Farley has a nice article on iodine. And here is part two of that article.

[Randy]

I've read that one shouldn't add anything to a tank that you don't test for.

No iodine if you don't test for iodine. Who knows if you have too much or not enough.

[ReefBuzz.com]

I add seachem reef plus to my tank about once a week and my skimmer also goes crazy for a short time.