Iodine

[christan1959]

Hi reefers, anyone dosing iodine? Read that this is one element that needs to be added - insufficient replenishment from water change or calcium reactor.

First-hand experience appreciated. Tks.

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[JMW]

I dose a few drops in my 10G every few days. Have Xenia & macroalge in my DT, so they consume quite abit of it. I used to first problems with tips problems on my SPS, after dosing iodine things improved for me. I can't measure how much iodine is in my water though, so a dose lesser than the recommended amount & observe 

[christan1959]

Tks.
Wondering if feeding fish with nori (rich in iodine) is sufficient since only trace amts needed.

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[jon77877]

Hi Bro,

I do dose iodine (once in two weeks) with bromine to supplement for softies + corralline algae growth. Softies greatly appreciate this additional dosing (see more expansion with regards to anemone and ricordea florida), but i do not think its a necessity to do so. For me, its more to promote more corralline algae growth. 

[cedricang]

Hi Jon,

Do you think that your coralline algae benefited as a result from the iodine or bromine ? Just curious on this observation cause all long I have only knowledge that coralline ( beside having an ionic balance of CA and KH ) would be enhanced from strontium supplement.

 

[honkit]

From the week that just past after commencing iodine dosing, I swear by it now.  Some of my SPS corals had STN at the tips and looked beat up.  After discussing with some reefers from a UK reefing forum, I dosed Coontinum's Iodine solution everyday for a week (10 ML per day).  

STN stopped, polyps came out, LPS coral tissue became more inflated and colours and growth bounced back. Carbonate consumption shot up as evidenced by the drop in my daily dkh test results.  I had to redial my calcium reactor to compensate.  

I would suggest once everything is back on track from such an STN episode due to a lack of iodine, a maintenance dosage should be done with say 2-3 dosages per week.

 

[honkit]

Another tell-tale sign of a zero level of iodine in your reef tank is the brittleness of your SPS coral skeletons (on top of STN from the tips).  

The tips are easily snapped off and crushed with your bare hands.

 

[jon77877]

4 hours ago, cedricang said:

Hi Jon,

Do you think that your coralline algae benefited as a result from the iodine or bromine ? Just curious on this observation cause all long I have only knowledge that coralline ( beside having an ionic balance of CA and KH ) would be enhanced from strontium supplement.

 

Hi Cedric,

I do believe that i experienced and observed an increase in coralline algae after dosing both of them. However, i think it really has to do with how much your corals utilise it. For example, when i only had LPS, i observed much more growth as compared to now. Based on the above responses, it could explain why 

[cedricang]

23 minutes ago, jon77877 said:

Hi Cedric,

I do believe that i experienced and observed an increase in coralline algae after dosing both of them. However, i think it really has to do with how much your corals utilise it. For example, when i only had LPS, i observed much more growth as compared to now. Based on the above responses, it could explain why 

Ahh... that makes a lot of sense Jon   the amount of coralline growth could be limited by the amount of competing corals taking up iodine and bromine. Cool...thanks for sharing and I have learnt something new !

Thanks for the sharing Jon !

[cedricang]

4 hours ago, honkit said:

From the week that just past after commencing iodine dosing, I swear by it now.  Some of my SPS corals had STN at the tips and looked beat up.  After discussing with some reefers from a UK reefing forum, I dosed Coontinum's Iodine solution everyday for a week (10 ML per day).  

STN stopped, polyps came out, LPS coral tissue became more inflated and colours and growth bounced back. Carbonate consumption shot up as evidenced by the drop in my daily dkh test results.  I had to redial my calcium reactor to compensate.  

I would suggest once everything is back on track from such an STN episode due to a lack of iodine, a maintenance dosage should be done with say 2-3 dosages per week.

 

Excellent sharing from the senior reefer Honkit !

I think I have better stick back to my doing regime again... have been lazy and lay back on my iodine for a while

We need more of such sharing here

[cedricang]

4 hours ago, honkit said:

Another tell-tale sign of a zero level of iodine in your reef tank is the brittleness of your SPS coral skeletons (on top of STN from the tips).  

The tips are easily snapped off and crushed with your bare hands.

 

I think this zero iodine situation is more likely to happen in a system where no water change and no supplementing of iodine is done.

The brittleness , other then a possible of iodine deficiency, could also result from a lack of strontium level I think.

[christan1959]

Tks Honkit
....
10ml/day seems a lot.
How big is yr tank?

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[honkit]

9 hours ago, cedricang said:

I think this zero iodine situation is more likely to happen in a system where no water change and no supplementing of iodine is done.

The brittleness , other then a possible of iodine deficiency, could also result from a lack of strontium level I think.

In my case, I change 5% of my tank water on a weekly basis.  What apparently happened is that tanks with carbon dosing regimes (I had a few message exchanges with some overseas reefers who faced similar situations) and wet skimming depletes iodine levels quickly.  I utilize Fauna Marin Bacto Balls hence the result.  

Aggressive + more efficient skimming from bacteria consuming N+P = Loss of Iodine from tank water. 

Hence, regular water changes cannot keep up with the demand by my corals and thus the need for dosing iodine to supplement.

 

  

[honkit]

9 hours ago, cedricang said:

I think this zero iodine situation is more likely to happen in a system where no water change and no supplementing of iodine is done.

The brittleness , other then a possible of iodine deficiency, could also result from a lack of strontium level I think.

I haven't tested strontium but I do dose Fauna Marin MinS which is a cocktail of elements including strontium.  

[honkit]

7 hours ago, christan1959 said:

Tks Honkit
....
10ml/day seems a lot.
How big is yr tank?

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440 litres or 110 gallons of tank water.

It is over-dosing based on the manufacturer's recommended dosage levels but with the state of some of the sps corals and virtually zero iodine levels, I needed to do something quickly to rectify the situation.

Once things have reversed, I switched to a maintenance level dosage regime.

[cedricang]

Hon Kit, do you measure your iodine level ( if so what test kit ) before embarking on the iodine regime ?

[honkit]

3 hours ago, cedricang said:

Hon Kit, do you measure your iodine level ( if so what test kit ) before embarking on the iodine regime ?

I tested with a Salifert test kit and it recorded undetectable readings prior to my first dose.  After 5 days of dosing, it went up to 0.01 and remained at that level.  However, salifert's instructions stated that iodine supplements which release iodine on a time released basis (such as the supplement I use) may not be detectable by the test kit or even inaccurate results.  Hence, I just went commando and use my own observation to assess and dose until the stn stopped and growth resumed.

[hansolo]

Any ill effects due to overdose? Interesting to hear how you would control for that

[honkit]

7 minutes ago, hansolo said:

Any ill effects due to overdose? Interesting to hear how you would control for that

Absolutely no ill effects whatsoever.  Which is why I swear by it.  It's all been positive.  As for control mechanisms, now that the sps corals which has STN  are rebounding, there is no need to do heavy dosing anymore.   I have reduced my dosing to a maintenance dosing regime of 3 times per week with 5 ml each time. 

[honkit]

7 minutes ago, hansolo said:

Any ill effects due to overdose? Interesting to hear how you would control for that

Absolutely no ill effects whatsoever.  Which is why I swear by it.  It's all been positive.  As for control mechanisms, now that the sps corals which has STN  are rebounding, there is no need to do heavy dosing anymore.   I have reduced my dosing to a maintenance dosing regime of 3 times per week with 5 ml each time. 

[cedricang]

40 minutes ago, honkit said:

I tested with a Salifert test kit and it recorded undetectable readings prior to my first dose.  After 5 days of dosing, it went up to 0.01 and remained at that level.  However, salifert's instructions stated that iodine supplements which release iodine on a time released basis (such as the supplement I use) may not be detectable by the test kit or even inaccurate results.  Hence, I just went commando and use my own observation to assess and dose until the stn stopped and growth resumed.

Interesting observation you got there HK. I have done testing before without any supplement , also using salifert but I do record some level of iodine ( at the low side though ).

Ok. Perhaps I should re-test my iodine level and see what level I got before starting the regime. Will try to update here.

Thanks

[christan1959]

The literature I've come across warn of iodine poisoning. So thanks for all the input guys but I'll proceed cautiously... first by feeding nori (which my fish love anyway), and observing for changes...

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[honkit]

16 hours ago, cedricang said:

Interesting observation you got there HK. I have done testing before without any supplement , also using salifert but I do record some level of iodine ( at the low side though ).

Ok. Perhaps I should re-test my iodine level and see what level I got before starting the regime. Will try to update here.

Thanks

From what I know, dosing lugol's solution might be better when it comes to test kit detection although it's pretty powerful stuff and is less forgiving.  Which is the reason why I opted for standard iodine instead of lugol's.

[cedricang]

10 hours ago, christan1959 said:

The literature I've come across warn of iodine poisoning. So thanks for all the input guys but I'll proceed cautiously... first by feeding nori (which my fish love anyway), and observing for changes...

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Chris raised a very valid point. 

Many a time I notice fellow reefers are drawn into frantic action when a certain topic is discussed and prefer to take note of the benefit rather then be cautious on the side effect of over-dosing.  Hence please take a more caution approach towards such targeted trace element dosing and better to do more readings on the potential side effects before doing any form of dosing. Avoid over-dosing at all cost as the consequences can be devastating and irreversible.

If I remember, one of the side effect of idoine over dosing is the elevated iodinelevel  would reduce the SPS ability to neutrify the toxidity from excess oxygen that gets into the organism, causing "oxygen poisoning".

So please be cautious folks.

[JMW]

Read somewhere before that over dosing can also result in molting issues for inverts such as shrimp/crabs.. so yeah let's dose with caution & observe our reef