Iodine

[alexwolf]

When do you add iodine to your tanks? I have some xenia, and someone told me to add iodine. Where do you get it, and how much to add?

[Tim Marvin]

Don't mess with it. Just do your routine water changes. I use a few drops in my water change water. a few drops in 40 gallons.

[matt]

I totally agree about not adding it. Who told you to add it, someone who's selling iodine? hehe

You could get an expensive, lab grade iodine test, I suppose, to make sure you're not exceeding NSW levels. But, as Tim said, doing water changes easily replenishes all your trace elements.

[Andrew]

I'd have to agree with the others - just add buffer and Ca only.
My shrimps molt their carapaces without any additional iodine than exists in the salt mix, and Xenias' are doing wonderfull as well. I make small, frequent water changes weekly (10-15%) to replace trace elemens, and avoid adding anything in the way of additional chemicals.

andrew

[Texreefer]

the only additives that i have consistantly used in my tanks are calcium and buffer. the other stuff in the right amounts didn't seem to hurt anything.. but didn't seem to help anything either.

[1salt]

What cal and buffer do you guys use???

[Texreefer]

before i went to a calcium reactor i used turbo calcium and i made my own buffer out of baking soda and baking powder

[Richard]

I have a number of customers who swear by daily iodine additions. I tried it on my tank and things looked great for about a week and then I had a big hair algae bloom so I quit using it. If you do use it get the Salifert iodine test kit, it's the only decent one that I know of.

As far as Ca goes I would recommend you use balanced supplement such as kalkwasser, two part additive (Tech CB, B-Ionic, C-Balance etc.). Alot of customers seem to like Kents Liquid Reactor as well but it clouds your water for a couple of hours after you use it. The upside to Liquid Reactor is that it takes care of Ca and Alk. I would stay away from calcium chloride (i.e. liquid calcium, turbo calcium) unless you plan on doing frequent water changes.

I just use Seachem's marine buffer for ph/alk but you shouldn't have to use it to much if you stick with a balanced Ca supplement. I've used about half a jar in the past year on my 140 gallon tank.