QUICK QUESTION

[mattheyn]

I AM HAVING A LITTLE BIT OF A PROBLEM WITH MY SARCOPHYTON TOADSTOOL. ABOUT THREE DAYS AGO I DOSED MY TANK PRETTY HEAVILY WITH PHYTOPLEX, STRONTIUM, AND IODINE. I THINK THAT I WENT A LITTLE OVERBOARD (TANKS ARE SOOO DELICATE), ANYWAY I NOTICED THAT I BURNT THE TIP OF MY POM-POM COLONIES. THEY ARE LOOKING BETTER NOW BUT MY TOADSTOOL STILL HASN'T RE-OPENED. ALL STATS ON MY TANK ARE NORMAL OR AT LEAST BACK TO WHERE THEY WERE WHEN THE TOADSTOOL'S PINS (POLYPS) WERE ALL OUT. WHEN I LOOK AT IT CLOSELY IT HAS SOMEWHAT OF A GLOSSY APPEARANCE. IT STILL HAS THE BASIC UPRIGHT POSITIONING BUT ITS PINS JUST WON'T POP OUT. MY SKIMMER IS WORKING OVER-TIME AND ALL OTHER INHABITANTS ARE DOING GREAT. ANY IDEAS?? I NEED HELP :?

[R.Allard]

sounds like you O.D.. your iodine. how big is your tank and did you use lougohls or tech-I(kent)?
also did you test for iodine before you dosed it??if so what did it come out at??
Unless you have allot of Xenia and i mean allot i wouldnt dose iodine especially if your doing regular water changes..
The first thing i would do would be to do a 25% water change and then leave the tank alone fore atleast a month. that means just change out your filter pads and add top off water . thats it! this is only my opinion but sometime we try to make things better in our tanks when there is nothing wrong to begin with. your tank will tell you if there is something wrong with it and remember ...nothing good happens fast in an aquarium only bad things happen fast.
as far as the leather and pom poms go the damage is already done.
now you just have to wait and see if they will come through it.
be patient im sure things will work out fine and remember the
only remedy for a mistake is time.

Robert

[mattheyn]

I DON'T HAVE AN IODINE TEST KIT. I AM JUST DOSING ACCORDING TO THE DIRECTIONS ON THE BACK OF THE BOTTLE. THE TANK IS 55G. WILL HEAVY SKIMMING REMOVE ANY IODINE??? I JUST ADDED A SKIMMER A FEW DAYS AGO. DO I NEED TO WORRY ABOUT IT SKIMMING OFF SUPPLEMENTS? OR WILL IT DO ONLY WHAT THE TITLE SAYS "SKIM PROTEIN?"

[matt]

Matt;

NO NEED TO YELL! We can hear you with lower case letters. :-D

Here's my advice, others may differ:

Step 1: After doing a big water change, run some carbon in a canister under some pressure and put a polyfilter in your tank drain. This will remove most of the stuff that's hurting your livestock.

Step 2: Throw strontium and iodine supplements in trash. Dispose of trash responsibly.

Step 3: Don't buy anymore "supplements", more accurately, toxins. You can easily accumulate way more than NSW levels of these and other metals just by feeding your fish and using most commercial salt mixes. The only thing you need to add to your tank is calcium and carbonate, easily done with kalkwasser or a 2 part balanced calcium additive.

Step 4. Your skimmer will remove some toxic metals ("supplements") but you should hardly worry about it; in fact, you should be happy. Analysis of skimmer sludge shows that it contains a significant amount of lead, mercury, phosphates, etc. This is a good thing.

Step 5: Read some articles by Eric Borneman and Ron Shimek on the topic of "trace elements". You'll quickly find that there is absolutely no evidence whatsover that marine animals need this gunk in the water to thrive. You'll also find that in 99% of aquariums, we already have way more than NSW levels, at least unpolluted NSW. I guess you can't blame the aquarium companies for trying; they got to make a living too!

Good luck

Matt

[mattheyn]

WHY IS IT THAT ONLY THE TOADSTOOL WAS REALLY AFFECTED? IT SEEMS TO ME THAT IF I OD'D ON IODINE OTHER CORALS WOULD ALSO BE AFFECTED. i DID THE WATER CHANGE ON MY LUNCH BREAK SO WE'LL JUST CROSS OUR FINGERS AND WAIT. BY-THE-WAY WHAT DO YOU FEED YOUR TANK?? MY MOST RECENT VENTURE IS CYCLOP-EEZE AND MY STANDARD BRINE SHRIMP. WHAT ABOUT SOME PHYTOPLEX? IS IT REALLY NECESSARY? :roll:

[Tim Marvin]

Use Matts advice, and avoid additives. Especially iodine, it is very toxic and kills germs, bacteria and ALOT more. The glossy look will go away after it sheds. They look a little glossy right before shedding off the irritated skin. Sounds like it will recover just fine.

[Instar]

This sounds like a Shimek advice rerun here. You don't need strontium, but, you do need a trace of iodine in the system. A TRACE, not an overload. You may get a trace of iodine with some foods, not with all of them. People having trouble keeping shrimp alive for a long term period must think this thru. The molt can not happen or be achieved with proper shell replacement if there is too much or too little. That also applies to metals. Too much is an inhibitor. Just to give you what a trace amount is, if you take 1 small drop of lugols iodine and put that one small drop in 100 gallons of salt water, that is a trace amount. That will more than supply a heavily stocked mature reef tank. A newer, less stocked tank needs much less and probably will get enough with regular water changes. By regular, that means at least 10% once a month.

[mattheyn]

Matt talked about using a polyfilter at the drain. Please explain. My system is set up with a 2" bulk-head with 2 90 degree arms, one that turns up towards the water's surface inside the tank and one that turns down and connects to my tubing that drain into my refugium below the main tank. It drains first into a small overflow box. So where do I put the polyfilter (what is a polyfilter?). I also don't have a canister filter so where is the next best place to run carbon? Can I put it in a media bag then put it directly into the overflow box?