How do you use iodine?

jimmypencil · Jun 15, 2023

How much and how often do you guys dose iodine (also what product)? What’s your daily consumption from the tank? What test kits do you recommend?

I have salifert kit and haven’t had any luck (test water stayed clear and read zero a couple days after dosing iodine) I haven’t dosed since the. because I’ve heard mixed things about the kit and I don’t want to over dose

A few months ago my sps corals - mainly montis - were pale/bleaching and all tests were good so I got an icp test with ATI. I realized I was low in iodine. I did 4 drops of brightwell iodine to raise it from 18 ppb to 50 ppb. then growth and color has exploded almost over night. Corals that we’re dying started growing rapidly. I got another icp test 3 weeks later and iodine dropped back down to 20 ppb. I’m guessing I should do a drop or two a week? It’s a 50 gallon tank sps dominant (but mainly frags/small colonies)

I’m not saying iodine is the only thing responsible for such sudden success, it’s probably from raising nitrate to 20 and phosphate to .08-.1 (I had n at 5 and phos at .03-.05 before) or maybe raising potassium and magnesium? I changed too many things at the same time to know but I want to keep all levels close to what they were when everything started doing really good.

taricha · Jun 16, 2023

most people who choose to dose can see that their iodine is low, and is brought closer to recommended target levels with dosing, but usually they see no noticeable tank changes with iodine addition.
glad it's looking good for you. I "dose" by water changes with a salt that has 0.1-0.2 ppm Iodine.

taricha · Jun 16, 2023

a precise iodine test method is written up here
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/an-accurate-and-precise-method-for-measuring-iodine.962654/

Reefahholic · Jun 16, 2023

IMO iodine is best dosed off ICP (test kits are hard to perform, read, or get accurate results). You need to know the exact potency of your product. Avoid just dosing blindly or using a product that is not recommended by that ICP company. Each company recommends different products that vary in strength. Otherwise you risk overdosing the tank. It doesn’t take much with most products, and Iodine is used very rapidly especially in a SPS tank. For example, I dose about 10.5 mL a month. Roughly 7 drops daily and that keeps me between 60-95 ug/L which is my target. Each tank is completely different.

Best of luck!

jimmypencil · Jun 16, 2023

taricha said:
most people who choose to dose can see that their iodine is low, and is brought closer to recommended target levels with dosing, but usually they see no noticeable tank changes with iodine addition.
glad it's looking good for you. I "dose" by water changes with a salt that has 0.1-0.2 ppm Iodine.

gotcha, I use Red Sea blue bucket which unfortunately doesn’t have any iodine.

jimmypencil · Jun 16, 2023

Reefahholic said:
IMO iodine is best dosed off ICP (test kits are hard to perform, read, or get accurate results). You need to know the exact potency of your product. Avoid just dosing blindly or using a product that is not recommended by that ICP company. Each company recommends different products that vary in strength. Otherwise you risk overdosing the tank. It doesn’t take much with most products, and Iodine is used very rapidly especially in a SPS tank. For example, I dose about 10.5 mL a month. Roughly 7 drops daily and that keeps me between 60-95 ug/L which is my target. Each tank is completely different.

Best of luck!

Thanks for response. Yea I think I decided that the easiest route is a icp test every month or 2. But if iodine gets depleted so rapidly then I’m not sure how I could find a accurate way to test and dose it without a reliable home test kit.

Reefahholic · Jun 17, 2023

jimmypencil said:
Thanks for response. Yea I think I decided that the easiest route is a icp test every month or 2. But if iodine gets depleted so rapidly then I’m not sure how I could find a accurate way to test and dose it without a reliable home test kit.

It’s a bit difficult one for sure, but keep in mind that many other trace elements also become depleted quickly depending on the system. I keep almost 100% SPS. Many of these trace elements need to be dosed daily “if” you want to keep them at target levels especially if you’re not doing water changes which I avoid. If you’re doing water changes make sure to do enough volume so that the salt is adding back the depleted traces, and make sure the trace elements you’re trying to add back are actually in the salt you’re using in the first place. Not all salt brands are equal. For this reason, I find it easier and more precise to send monthly ICP-MS to fine tune target levels of many elements even down to 0.26 - 1.0 ug/L. For me it’s not only easier, but cheaper to “not test” with home test kits such as Iodine, Potassium, etc. Plus, you don’t have to maintain those test kits anymore. Elements like Zinc and Nickel deplete pretty rapidly as well in my system so I also dose those daily along with many others, and dial them all in on ICP-MS every 2-4 weeks. Usually monthly now as the system is getting more stable at 16 months. Not everybody’s cup of tea, but I enjoy knowing that the system isn’t lacking much if any at all.

Seansea · Jun 17, 2023

I have the same issue. dang salifert iodine test kit just looks clear after all tests. Even tho i have been dosing isol8 mt and AFR for 2 months. The problem is i know my algae scrubber is raking iodine, iron, manganese and molybelum. Im gonna keep doing the test kit until i see some color on test kit. I believe the test kit is still telling me that my iodine is low and by looking at my zoas amd clove polyps i believe it to be true.

peterhos · Aug 14, 2023

jimmypencil said:
How much and how often do you guys dose iodine (also what product)? What’s your daily consumption from the tank? What test kits do you recommend?

I have salifert kit and haven’t had any luck (test water stayed clear and read zero a couple days after dosing iodine) I haven’t dosed since the. because I’ve heard mixed things about the kit and I don’t want to over dose

A few months ago my sps corals - mainly montis - were pale/bleaching and all tests were good so I got an icp test with ATI. I realized I was low in iodine. I did 4 drops of brightwell iodine to raise it from 18 ppb to 50 ppb. then growth and color has exploded almost over night. Corals that we’re dying started growing rapidly. I got another icp test 3 weeks later and iodine dropped back down to 20 ppb. I’m guessing I should do a drop or two a week? It’s a 50 gallon tank sps dominant (but mainly frags/small colonies)

I’m not saying iodine is the only thing responsible for such sudden success, it’s probably from raising nitrate to 20 and phosphate to .08-.1 (I had n at 5 and phos at .03-.05 before) or maybe raising potassium and magnesium? I changed too many things at the same time to know but I want to keep all levels close to what they were when everything started doing really good.

Hi There Sorry to be late at seeing this. Recently I sent off a Reef zlements ICP test. It told me to increase iodine from 34 to 60 mg/l (I think these were the units). The test also gave the dosage of their product. My LFS does not sell that iodine, but if you go on the Triton reef/supplement calculator page, you can enter your tank size, your target number, and the calculator will show you how much of the Triton product to dose. So, last night I gave the first dose of 0.15 ml (first of 8 per month as I change water 8 times per month). I may be going mad, but I think may zoa’s looked bigger brighter and better even as we went to bed. Hope this helps.