Iodine!

[Andyden71]

Is it iodine? That can help with coral and things like pulsating zenias crow if not what's the best think to use as I've got polyps grown on a piece of live rock but its growning very slow

 

[Breakthecycle2]

Yes, I was dosing one drop about every day of Lugol's Iodine. The corals seemed to respond well, but was making the shrimp molt way to often. I stopped dosing about once a day and do it maybe once a week.

 

[Andyden71]

The way my shrimps going my purple tip nem will be havn it as it keeps trying to get the food out of its tentacles when I hand feed it. So the iodine will that help polyps grow and pulsating xenias but won't harm the nem if dosed once a week

 

[melosu58]

You get all the iodine you need by doing PWC`s. IMO dosing is not needed.

 

[54seaweed]

my corals thrive I dose 1 drop in all 4 corners of tank once every 2 weeks
along with weekly water changes

 

[Holygral]

no need if you are doing wc, and you should never dose anything that you are not test for, how do you know if it is building up in your tank if your not testing

 

[Gregcoyote]

I bought a Hanna iodine tester and it showed I had twice the level of iodine natural seawater has. I dosed iodine occasionally because I thought it helped. Stopped 6 months ago and no negative change, but iodine runs normal now. I use reef crystals and my guess is it has plenty of iodine in it.

 

[Holygral]

I bought a Hanna iodine tester and it showed I had twice the level of iodine natural seawater has. I dosed iodine occasionally because I thought it helped. Stopped 6 months ago and no negative change, but iodine runs normal now. I use reef crystals and my guess is it has plenty of iodine in it.

Thats my point, without testing it can build up and wipe out a tank, a big risk when it isnt even needed, and I have a tank fuil of xenia's, keep it simple and keep out of trouble,

 

[Gregcoyote]

Thats my point, without testing it can build up and wipe out a tank, a big risk when it isnt even needed, and I have a tank fuil of xenia's, keep it simple and keep out of trouble,

There is a natural desire to find that magic additive that will convert your reef into one of those picture postcard ones over night. I certainly had it. Because one coral doesn't do as well as you would want doesn't necessarily mean you are low on some element. More often it is much more basic than that.

 

[Holygral]

There is a natural desire to find that magic additive that will convert your reef into one of those picture postcard ones over night. I certainly had it. Because one coral doesn't do as well as you would want doesn't necessarily mean you are low on some element. More often it is much more basic than that.

There is one, it's called water changes

 

[jeffaquarius]

So I notice most of the problems encountered can be corrected with a keyword of PWC lol

 

[mr_X]

Yep. Don't dose anything you don't have a test kit for and aren't sure you need. It's a bad idea.

 

[Andyden71]

Ok no iodine until I test for it thanks guys

 

[Andyden71]

My water should be ok then as I do a 5g water change every week

 

[Andyden71]

Does anyone use the salfest iodine test kit if so is it any good ?

 

[Pisces3473]

I've heard that Iodine really only enhances color. I use Aqua Vitro 'Fuel' as an additive for my corals, my hammer and heliofungia have exploded since I started using it. All my corals like it, but those two have really shown growth.

 

[jeffaquarius]

Does anyone use the salfest iodine test kit if so is it any good ?

Salifert has more accuracy but most reefers don't have to worry about iodine since salt mix has all the elements that will replenish with a pwc.