Don't use iodine daily

bitis316 · #1 11/01/2006, 10:33 PM

Using Iodine is not what you should be adding daily....I use several additives with iodine already in it, but i only dose with direct lugols..1 drop per 100 gallons every 10 days for my palm palm xenias......C-balance, Essential Ellements, Coral Vite, and some home made stuff....is really all you need for any coral....jw

Nano Nana · #2 11/02/2006, 07:14 AM

I know someone who was dosing iodine in a nano and it really messed things up!! I think water changes with a good salt mix are always the best.

RicksReefs · #3 11/02/2006, 08:08 AM

throw the rest of that stuff away too. all you really need is a decent two part and water changes.

RokleM · #4 11/02/2006, 08:27 AM

It's amazing what people dose, and probably never check the levels... I don't actively dose anything I can't or don't check.

bitis316 · #5 11/02/2006, 10:48 AM

i do the same thing and have for years....I am not telling anyone else to do it, but it works really well for me......I prop over 60 species.......But yes water changes are critical....Thats why it rains....

FLricordia · #6 11/04/2006, 09:48 PM

Think it must have to do with the individual system, the # of corals, soft vs hard and the brand and amoutn used. i have used Kent's Iodide for years and years, dosed daily and have only had good results, so it obviously can't be a fact-your statement, and untill we know exactly what we are talking about or can prove that things are bad for all reef systems we might need to indicate that for the reef system we are refering to is ONE system and can't apply to ALL systems. Sorry, but it tees me when I hear statements like thsi and they just are not true except maybe for that particular system. Just because your system isn't taking it correctly, or so you have determined, or overdosed, you shouldn't lead others to believe it is a bad thing to use.
This reef gets kent's iodide daily and has from the beginning.

and my nano gets it daily and the polyps and shrooms are reproducing to the point I have to cull them and the rics are growing super fast. Polyps are always open. Iodide.

RicksReefs · #7 11/05/2006, 08:30 AM

and I have 22 tanks at home aquaculturing corals and another 50 or so at the shop full of corals that have never received additional iodine supplementation and never will. I tell all my customers to cut any iodine makers instructions to at least 1/4 the dose listed if they want to use it.

yes, your correct in that your referring to one system and if it works for you, cool. however, iodine is found in just about everything from new water to food to calcium supplements and with no good way to test it, it's easy to overdose with disasterous results.

oh, and it's Pom Pom Xenia..

bitis316 · #8 11/05/2006, 06:09 PM

well pom pom's for you rick...I wasn't trying to tell everyone...I just said me..No need to get you panties in a ruffle over this iodine situation...You keep doing what your doing, and I will to. By the way my family owns a whole damn coral prop facily in the keys, and has for over 20 years.....Good luck 2 ya mate!!!!!!!

cwegescheide · #9 11/05/2006, 07:36 PM

I dose about 20 drops of Iodine in my 100gallon 1x/week and have for the last 3 or 4 months. I have noticed an increase in the amount of coraline growing in my tank. I admit I don't regularly test for it either.

EricM · #10 11/05/2006, 07:38 PM

Perhaps we could learn a little bit about whether to dose iodine or not if those people telling the stories could test their aquariums for iodine and tell us what their levels are.........

Tallinu · #11 11/06/2006, 01:20 AM

I have started to dose a lugols solution once a week per the manufacturers instructions. I have a very healthy growth of soft corals and clams with xenia in a 125 gallon. My tap water is awesome for marine aquariums and I let it stand for 24 hours or more before using as top off. My only other additive is a little pickling lime once in a while to the top off. Cheaper than kalkwasser. Truth is, everyone is a bit different based on their local water chemistry, what they do to their water, and what their bio loads need are. You cannot sit here and make a claim or statement and expect it to be useful to anyone outside their specific locality, and their aquariums specific biological needs based on quantity and species. I myself am doing very well without a water change after 2.5 years. I have been very fortunate with my local water for top offs regarding mineral content. My local water is hard, 10.5, and has many minerals in it from the Rockies. I replace salt as needed and top off water every three days. I would not expect others to be anywhere near what I am doing unless they were local. If someone tests their Iodine, what are they going to tell you. Is there a chart that shows Iodine and corals specific needs that you can refer too? I've got a huge library of reef and coral books by all the greats. There are no charts, no great font of knowledge that refers to any of the trace elements in specific quantities based on any specific species. BECAUSE THEY DON"T KNOW! What value are you supposed to test for? How much of it do they use? Truth is we have no values for anything. We have some base generalities for some broad groups of corals and clams. Got alot of hard corals, sps and lps, and clams well you might want to keep your specific hardness and alkalinity on the up and up. But when it comes to specifics. Nobody has any figures you can nail. How could they? What size tank do you have? What species do you have and what are their specific god for saken requriements down to the milligrams per hour under a certain type of lighting? How big is your tank, and what is your water turnover? How many overall species do you have and how big is the biomass? You cannot give specifics and you cannot ask someone to test their levels of Iodine. What good is it going to do you to know? If I tell you I have a 125 gallon tank and I tested my Iodine level to be at a set number of milligrams would you be excited? Would that information be suddenly useful to you? I have a 125 gallon tank EricM and my tank is probably totally different from yours. My species and bioload and their needs are not the same as yours. I probably get all I need from my top off. But my Xenia seem to be benefitting from the additive. The more acidic your local water the more likely you will need to use some kind of supplement. If you use RO water, well you take most everything out you have to put some things back. But what? Think the salt does everything? Can you narrow down some specifics? Who has some? What chemistry with trace elements can you quantify? Ricksreef, your as bad as the guy who is putting the **** in as you who does nothing. You both don't know and your both probably doing just fine. The truth is the more you take out the more you have to think about putting something back in. There is a grain of truth to the hobby when someone says, Xenia needs Iodine and it's not just one or two people. Maybe your water has a good supply of Iodine... Did YOU check? Are your corals having trouble because they didn't get their weekly dose? Probably not because your dead set against it.

Once again. Water chemistry is a complicated affair based on many different things. Your corals requirements for their maximum health is largely unknown and there are no scientific specifics measured in any marine hobby literature giving specific uptakes on a given length of time.

Each and every person unless they are from the same locality is going to be different. Different local water and what they do with it. Different animals and their specific needs. Different sized aquariums and their bioload. Imagine a huge tank full of nothing but Xenia. You cannot jump on someone for their statements if they are doing well. You cannot project your experiences on someone else unless you both are sustaining aquariums under similar conditions and bioloads with different results. You without supplements, they with supplements, You the winner, they the loser.

You cannot offer your advice because you are doing well unless you KNOW what someone else is doing wrong given a specific situation most likely becuase YOU personally have done the same thing and learned from your mistake. I haven't changed my water for 2.5 years now. Do you think someone crying about that is going to stop me? It isn't stopping my corals or clams. Do I jump on people who change their water? NO. I don't use RO water for any reason. Do I jump on people who do? NO. Maybe their water is just that bad that they have too. They are succeeding aren't they? Do I jump on people who use additives? No. I started using Lugols over a month ago because my Xenia population is getting rather large. The truth is there are many ways to go about all the tasks necessary to achieve great success in this hobby. We do not need to point fingers at those who are succeeding in ways not attune to our own. And we definately need to help our brothers and sisters in need when they ask a given question, with facts that are available to us from learned personal experience, or that experience which was given to us by our fellow brethren.

Despite the drunken tone of this post I do not personally recommend or not recommend dosing with Iodine or any other trace element. This is a complicated question with many factors involved in the overall conditions that might lead to the necessity of using a product to bolster a certain element or two depending upon what and how many species you are trying to maintain in a given volume of water and how often and with what kind of water and volume you use as a replacement thereof. Chances are for many of you top off water will do just fine. If your doing well, don't change a thing. With or without additives. Read up on and know every species of coral you are maintaining to best of your ability and make changes accordingly. As your corals grow and spread, they will require more food. More trace elements. More care. There is more potential knowledge in this forum than in most of the books that can be aquired. Many of the people here are experts in their field and they don't know it. Ask questions. Listen to all sides. As you gain in experience you will be able to relate and know when someone is giving information that matters.

Tallinu

bitis316 · #12 11/06/2006, 09:20 PM

After reading this reply from Tallinu, I would like to retract my thread..I should not have said don't use it daily...Do what's best for you....I was stating that if your RO water is like it should be...You should not need to add iodine daily....And you right, this forum does have more info, from more people..Than any book could tell you...But the bottom line is...No matter how many books you have read..Until you get some saltcreep on your shoulders....You should,t really give any advice......I have almost finished vet school..Does that mean i could do any surgery...Hell no...But my hands have been salty since I was in diapers....I was just trying to give out some freindly advice..If I upset anyone...I apolagize..This should be a learning forum..Not a arguring forum....Thank you..Jason..

RicksReefs · #13 11/06/2006, 09:58 PM

my panties never get in a bunch, i travel commando style...

tallinu, your entitled to your opinion too. what that is, I'm not quite sure. I lost track after chapter two...

have a nice day...

bitis316 · #14 11/06/2006, 10:33 PM

dude, people are trying to learn here.....Does this really make you feel better to act like this....If so then go ahead.....We'll create a new forum just for you to complain on.....

RicksReefs · #15 11/06/2006, 11:34 PM

dewd, I know. that's why I'm teaching people they don't need additives.
act like what, exactly? where have I complained anywhere in this thread? methinks it's your panties that are bunched up, not mine.
oh, and thank you for your permission to continue to be me.

do I get to name my new forum?..

JDrex · #16 11/07/2006, 02:34 PM

the only time i ever use iodine in my aquarium is when i am fragging my corals. the iodine generally helps the corals heal up their wounds faster and better.

Paul B · #17 11/07/2006, 03:05 PM

I have been dosing Lugols about a drop a week in my 100 gallon reef for about twenty years. I don't know if it does anything and I doubt it does. I only use it because I got a quart of it twenty years ago and I really don't just want to throw it out. If it ever runs out (I doubt it) I will stop using it. Sometimes I forget for a few months anyway. I don't test for it, or anything else for that matter.
Have a great day.
Paul

bitis316 · #18 11/07/2006, 04:31 PM

Rick,, No more..You do you thing with you store or what ever...And i will keep learning and take over my family prop facility....Good luck man......

tinyreef · #19 11/07/2006, 04:40 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by JDrex
the only time i ever use iodine in my aquarium is when i am fragging my corals. the iodine generally helps the corals heal up their wounds faster and better.

ditto for me.

but frankly, i don't really know for sure if it really does act as an antiseptic/healing agent but i will it/thinks it to be.

probably like paul, it was just something i picked up to do (in reefing) years back. not anything regular but more if something "doesn't look quite right". i'm probably still only halfway on my 3rd 4-oz. bottle in x-amount of years.

actually, i think the rubber bulb disintegrated on the 2nd bottle from the iodine fumes. lugol's is potent stuff! use with caution (or don't use at all).

EricM · #20 11/07/2006, 10:37 PM

Tallinu - Thanks for rambling on and giving another great example of the type of information that does not do anyone any good. As a matter of fact, your post is a prime example of the useless rubbish that one must sort through in an attempt to use good science to advance the hobby.

GobyJohnKenobi · #21 11/07/2006, 11:35 PM

Paul, what did that quart of Lugols set you back 20 years ago?
Did you buy it at Sam's Club? Was there a Sam's Club back then? LOL

Just a little comic relief. This thread has been an interesting read.
It's your tank. Do whatever works for ya.

goda · #22 11/08/2006, 12:33 AM

bitis its fine to do iodine daily. if you adjust the ammount to match the coral intake.. in fact id recomend diluting hte lugals you dose every day and add 1/10th of it every day
this way you keep a constant level instead of having it yoyo

same with ca and alk additives
instead of 500 then 450 then 400 then 500 again you have 500 then 490 then 500 ppm ( or what ever )

and why are you dosing everything when allyou need is c balance.. or since it looks liek mostly softies... essential elements iodine and a rare does of c balance..

what is you CA and alk at. i have a feeling it is falling out of solution and not being utilized

Paul B · #23 11/08/2006, 06:05 AM

Quote:

Paul, what did that quart of Lugols set you back 20 years ago?

I don't remember but I know I split the cost with a LFS. I got it in a drug store. I don't even know what Sams Club is. I think it was about $20.00 and I still have more than half of it left.
Paul

RicksReefs · #24 11/08/2006, 07:39 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by goda
bitis its fine to do iodine daily. if you adjust the ammount to match the coral intake..

and how do you do this? do you know how much corals use or if corals even need it? how do you test it? what's the overdose amount? etc. etc. iodine is a halogen just like chlorine and burns at to high a dosage just like chlorine.
after spending a few years dosing it and many more not dosing it, I'll stick to not dosing. I've seen absolutely no difference and my xenia is still a weed and my caps grow a 1/2"+ a month.

YMMV if you don't do any water changes for two and a half years...

bitis316 · #25 11/08/2006, 05:56 PM

I don;t dose daily with iodine....Once every 7-10-14 or when ever i feel like I add a couple drops of lugols....It's not that big of a deal....I don't even test my levels.....My stuff just stays right...I have been doing the same thing for so long, and learning from my family...I'll stick with what works for me....It's aparently good enough for 60 species or so to replicate.....And good enough for my family to continue making a living....It's work for me....Probably not for everyone..I just no my systems... I know by looking when one of my tanks needs something...Thanks for all the imput though..Good luck to everyone in the future.....Keep it up to save the reefs..........