Electric Flame Scallop

[Inno]

I hope you found that last post interesting? Anyways, Flame Scallops are gorgeous and will probably look for a suitable place to park it's shell within a week or two. I had a scallop for 2 years (had to move) and it did just fine with no addditions of phyto whatsoever. However, I did use regular tap water, which I believe provided the replenishing aspect of what it needed to grow and flourish. The tank did not have an abundance of algae either, but I instead tried to keep just enough for my algae eaters (not an easy task when playing with algae breakouts, it's like playing with fire lmao). I have helped others keep scallops in the same manner and they have always done quite well...gotta love them!

[manny]

That water system doesn't look too expenive to build Gary. I don't know if I'd have enough room though in my apartment. Maybe my laundry room? If you do set one up let me know. I might try it also.

[Instar]

Inno, no contest there. Iodine does do that. And no contest with the strontium either. Adding it is a waste of time.
However, iodine is necessary as a trace, not as a load or in too high an amount. The federal government has mandated iodine in your salt for decades to prevent deficiencies. This is well known amoung my generation. And, its well known amoung people who raise shrimp and shelfish. Shrimp do not molt when fed. They do molt when the appropriate amount of iodine is in solution. If you go from 0.0 to 0.2, or 0.2 to 0.4 you will see it happen. Same thing with a water change. If its not necessary, then why is it measurable in all freshly mixed sea water mixes? It gets used, thats why it ends up 0. Its also a great oxidizer. If you run long enough at 0.0 iodine in solution in your tank water, things will die and your fish will live on because they get it bonded with their food. That kind is not soluable and not usable to all the reefs animals. Notice "despite the long answer" he completely avoids the iodine part. I don't have nor have I seen any iodine soaked or saturated foods. That would be like a death wish. Perhaps he had too much in one tank. Iodine test kits are notoriously poor at proper recovery. The bottom line is that a trace of soluable iodine is necessary.

You may not have to add phyto if you grow enough naturally. They are filter feeders and in tanks that don't produce enough, you do have to add. What is their actual life span when phyto is used as a supliment vs not using any?

You use tap water? I just killed a bunch of stuff trying that. What part of the country do you live in?

[manny]

Well, I thought it was dying for about two weeks cause it wouldn't open it's shell. It would only poke its tentacles out a little bit. I kept feeding it like crazy though. I finally decided to move it from it's spot, which was between a couple of rocks, even though the article said not to mess with it. It opened right up after that and looked kinda puny. I think it had jammed itself between the rocks and couldn't get loose :shock: It's doin better though now after a TON of feeding.

[Inno]

Inno, no contest there. Iodine does do that. And no contest with the strontium either. Adding it is a waste of time.
However, iodine is necessary as a trace, not as a load or in too high an amount. The federal government has mandated iodine in your salt for decades to prevent deficiencies. This is well known amoung my generation. And, its well known amoung people who raise shrimp and shelfish. Shrimp do not molt when fed. They do molt when the appropriate amount of iodine is in solution. If you go from 0.0 to 0.2, or 0.2 to 0.4 you will see it happen. Same thing with a water change. If its not necessary, then why is it measurable in all freshly mixed sea water mixes? It gets used, thats why it ends up 0. Its also a great oxidizer. If you run long enough at 0.0 iodine in solution in your tank water, things will die and your fish will live on because they get it bonded with their food. That kind is not soluable and not usable to all the reefs animals. Notice "despite the long answer" he completely avoids the iodine part. I don't have nor have I seen any iodine soaked or saturated foods. That would be like a death wish. Perhaps he had too much in one tank. Iodine test kits are notoriously poor at proper recovery. The bottom line is that a trace of soluable iodine is necessary.

You may not have to add phyto if you grow enough naturally. They are filter feeders and in tanks that don't produce enough, you do have to add. What is their actual life span when phyto is used as a supliment vs not using any?

You use tap water? I just killed a bunch of stuff trying that. What part of the country do you live in?

Hey Instar The post doesn't necessarily state that Iodine is not present, but that it is not necessary to add in excess per manufacturer's directions.

I used to live in Cali (1.5yrs ago) and all I ever used for my reef and my customers was tap. There was never an algae problem (unless I created one on purpose) and everything grew just fine. I personally think the algae problems due to tap water have been exagerated...I've seen a bandwagon effect since then, but then again all products succumb to the bandwagon soon or later and eventually forgotten XD

[Instar]

Tap water is very different from place to place, thats for sure. And unless you have a complete water compliance test set, there is no way for you to know what heavy metals and insecticides you are getting in the tap water. The water here has cyclomethohexane in it and copper. Enough to do damage to reef animals. Maybe you live in a certain locality where you can get away with cutting the RO corner, but, recommending it to others is not safe for them or any delicate, sensitive things they may choose to keep. Recently there was a post on here about someone trying Austin tap water and having all kinds of serious troubles.

As far as iodine goes, I like the population explosion in my refugium cultures when I add just a very small amount of iodine. Less than the manufacturers recommendations too. Other people like the xenia response and the mushroom response with a trace of iodine. But then its possible that most authors don't have the true concept of what a trace is? I've decided what I'm going to do, as have you. I don't follow the hype article recommendations, especially when people say ridiculous things that I know are not true. There is a list of them that ranges from peeing in your tank to feed it, to the idea that hermits are dangerous to the environment, adding phosphate for some crazy reason, and that iodine is not necessary. We know all that is false from a very long history of scientific studies and good experiments that were conducted over years, not a couple months as is the trend in this hobby. I do agree with your statement that it is not necessary to add iodine in excess of the recommendations. Doing that (in excess) is a death sentence to the tank or parts of the system for sure. And its easy to be in excess of a trace amount if a person is not careful, thats for sure. When it comes to traces, if there is one that is used up that a reef keeper is trying to keep stable, then it is far better to under dose for that one than to over dose even a little.

[Inno]

I agree whole-heartedly on the tap issue, which is why I always suggest aquarists get a reading from their local water supplier and take the issue from there on I did not recommend just tap in this thread, I simpy relayed my experiences with it.