How reliable are the instructions related to Red Sea's Trace Element program?

[DeputyDog95]

I've been dosing RS's Trace Colors for 4-5 months now. I had an ICP test done today and my Iodine levels are off the charts.

I'm using RS' blue bucket salt and RS's Alk, Ca, and Mg. Bi-weekly water changes.

I'm dosing the trace colors daily at 1/10th the daily Ca dosage, per the instructions. 16ml/day of Ca and 1.6ml/day of the Iodine.

Thoughts?
Is there a way to bring this back down fairly quickly?

Iodine

high

0.772 mg/L

0.050 - 0.090

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

That dosing scheme has issues since calcification and trace element usage may not even be correlated in some tanks, but I doubt the iodine is a tox problem and I’d just let it decline on its own. If it’s the only thing that’s was elevated, that may not be the source anyway.

Water changes and consumption are the only ways to bring it down, assuming it is present in the natural forms iodide and iodate.

 

[Lavey29]

I've been dosing RS's Trace Colors for 4-5 months now. I had an ICP test done today and my Iodine levels are off the charts.

I'm using RS' blue bucket salt and RS's Alk, Ca, and Mg. Bi-weekly water changes.

I'm dosing the trace colors daily at 1/10th the daily Ca dosage, per the instructions. 16ml/day of Ca and 1.6ml/day of the Iodine.

Thoughts?
Is there a way to bring this back down fairly quickly?

Iodine

high

0.772 mg/L

0.050 - 0.090

I dose red sea trace once a week based on their calcium ratio and my ICP had high iodine also. Not super bad but I'm cutting to half dose now.

 

[DeputyDog95]

That dosing scheme has issues since calcification and trace element usage may not even be correlated in some tanks, but I doubt the iodine is a tox problem and I’d just let it decline on its own. If it’s the only thing that’s was elevated, that may not be the source anyway.

Water changes and consumption are the only ways to bring it down, assuming it is present in the natural forms iodide and iodate.

Appreciate the info, Randy. I keep a pretty strict documented feeding regimen and have for a while. Previous ICP tests, including the one I did in February, were all spot on for Iodine. However, I had only been doing the RS Colors Iodine for a month or so at that point. Fast forward a few months later, I can only assume it's dosing the RS Iodine that is causing the spike.

So you wouldn't be over freaked out by a reading of 0.772 mg/L? Isn't it like >10x what it should be? This is the first time in my reefing experience I've ever had high iodine. It's usually the opposite problem, but this is the first time I've ever tried dosing it.

I dose red sea trace once a week based on their calcium ratio and my ICP had high iodine also. Not super bad but I'm cutting to half dose now.

How long had you been dosing it and how high did it get?

I emailed Red Sea yesterday to see what their thoughts were. Usually take a couple of days to hear back but I'll update this thread when I do.

 

[Lavey29]

Appreciate the info, Randy. I keep a pretty strict documented feeding regimen and have for a while. Previous ICP tests, including the one I did in February, were all spot on for Iodine. However, I had only been doing the RS Colors Iodine for a month or so at that point. Fast forward a few months later, I can only assume it's dosing the RS Iodine that is causing the spike.

So you wouldn't be over freaked out by a reading of 0.772 mg/L? Isn't it like >10x what it should be? This is the first time in my reefing experience I've ever had high iodine. It's usually the opposite problem, but this is the first time I've ever tried dosing it.





How long had you been dosing it and how high did it get?

I emailed Red Sea yesterday to see what their thoughts were. Usually take a couple of days to hear back but I'll update this thread when I do.

Maybe 1.5 months of dosing 12.5ml once a week. It was high but the ICP test did not recommend anything drastic to fix it. I'm going to cut the dose in half now.

 

[taricha]

Previous ICP tests, including the one I did in February, were all spot on for Iodine. However, I had only been doing the RS Colors Iodine for a month or so at that point. Fast forward a few months later, I can only assume it's dosing the RS Iodine that is causing the spike.

So you wouldn't be over freaked out by a reading of 0.772 mg/L? Isn't it like >10x what it should be? This is the first time in my reefing experience I've ever had high iodine. It's usually the opposite problem, but this is the first time I've ever tried dosing it.

A few thoughts and questions:
Who is doing the ICP testing? Iodine can be tricky.

What is your PO4 level? Iodine and Phosphorus have really tricky spectral interference. Triton will warn you if your P is at a modest level, that Iodine becomes inaccurate.
"Due to excessively high P/PO4 readings it has not been possible to accuratly test for Iodine"
(my PO4 was 0.11ppm in that sample)
Other ICP vendors may or may not give you that warning, but the issue is still there.

That reported Iodine level is high enough that a Red Sea iodine test kit ought to show out-of-range high.

 

[DeputyDog95]

FWIW, here's a copy of my most recent ICP test. I usually get one done every couple of months. I'm kind of disappointed in the RS Trace Colors program. Between the Iodine being sky high and a number of other elements included in the Iodine solution being non-detectable, it would appear that the "dose by Ca consumption" method is not a one size fits all.

My Fe looks good, but a lot of the other trace elements in the bottle are not detectable. I don't want to up the Iron to make those trace elements detectable, as I'll probably push the Fe too high. Especially considering aluminum is included in that bottle and that is already elevated. I guess just because they're not detectable doesn't mean they're not being introduced and used by the corals, but less is probably more when it comes to dosing. Especially for things you can't test yourself.

https://www.redseafish.com/coral-coloration-program/coral-colors-c-2/

For now, I'm going to just stop the Iodine and keep doing the Fe, K, and Bioactive Elements at the prescribed levels as they seem to be in range or low.

Appreciate all the info and any other comments/thoughts on this post or my ICP results would be welcome!

 

[DeputyDog95]

A few thoughts and questions:
Who is doing the ICP testing? Iodine can be tricky.

What is your PO4 level? Iodine and Phosphorus have really tricky spectral interference. Triton will warn you if your P is at a modest level, that Iodine becomes inaccurate.
"Due to excessively high P/PO4 readings it has not been possible to accuratly test for Iodine"
(my PO4 was 0.11ppm in that sample)
Other ICP vendors may or may not give you that warning, but the issue is still there.

That reported Iodine level is high enough that a Red Sea iodine test kit ought to show out-of-range high.

My P04 is .03ppm and my nitrates are 12ppm. So the nutrients seem to be reasonable for an SPS tank.

Reef Labs is doing the ICP testing. They are a local (to me) company. Which is quite convenient as I can drop off the sample and get the results, same day.

I did not order the RS Iodine kit as it looks miserable to use... But I did order the Salifert and Hanna Checkers on Amazon yesterday. They should be here tomorrow.

 

[DeputyDog95]

So I just realized that I could not screenshot the whole page of ICP results. Something about the way the website is laid out, it just wouldn't do it in one shot.

Here it is again, in 3 sections, labeled as Page 1, Page 2, and then Page 3. I couldn't re-order the attachments, so just read it from the bottom to the top to see it in the order as presented by their website.

 

[DeputyDog95]

Maybe 1.5 months of dosing 12.5ml once a week. It was high but the ICP test did not recommend anything drastic to fix it. I'm going to cut the dose in half now.

My Iodine looked good for the first month too, right in range. However, about 3 months later and now this. I would just stop dosing Iodine and only dose when deficient. I thought I was good to go with RS's instructions after testing at about the one month mark, but clearly it starts to compound when supplementation far exceeds the tank's demands.

 

[Lavey29]

My Iodine looked good for the first month too, right in range. However, about 3 months later and now this. I would just stop dosing Iodine and only dose when deficient. I thought I was good to go with RS's instructions after testing at about the one month mark, but clearly it starts to compound when supplementation far exceeds the tank's demands.

Unfortunately it's not something we can test easily like other things but luckily elevated levels do not really harm anything according to Randy. My iron was up a little too from the red sea dosing.

Now an interesting contrast is months back before I started the red sea dosing I was only dosing chaeto gro twice a week. My ICP was good for trace except my Iodine was low. Chaeto gro does not include Iodine in their trace elements list.

 

[taricha]

Unfortunately it's not something we can test easily like other things

Red Sea Iodine isn't that bad, really. Drops of A, Drops of B, Swirl and start timer. Check vs color card at the set time.
If it's off the charts high like OP's, the color will go to almost nothing. If it's zero, it'll stay pretty orange.

 

[DeputyDog95]

Just to follow up, I stopped dosing Iodine after that last ICP where the levels were wayyyy up there. That was back in late May if I'm not mistaken. I've had two more done this month.

Iodine is sitting right at around 0.06ppm with no additional supplementation. I just simply do water changes and that seems to be fine to keep the levels in range. My Red Sea test kits read the same. And agreed, the Iodine kit from Red Sea isn't bad. I think I was confusing it with their Iron test kit.

So I think it's safe to say if you are doing your maintenance and water changes, there does not seem to be a need to dose Iodine as Randy has already said.

FWIW, I took my Iodine doser offline and am using it for Mg instead now since I have an empty head. I just add a couple of ml per day to keep it at my target of 1350ppm.

 

[Lavey29]

Just to follow up, I stopped dosing Iodine after that last ICP where the levels were wayyyy up there. That was back in late May if I'm not mistaken. I've had two more done this month.

Iodine is sitting right at around 0.06ppm with no additional supplementation. I just simply do water changes and that seems to be fine to keep the levels in range. My Red Sea test kits read the same. And agreed, the Iodine kit from Red Sea isn't bad. I think I was confusing it with their Iron test kit.

So I think it's safe to say if you are doing your maintenance and water changes, there does not seem to be a need to dose Iodine as Randy has already said.

FWIW, I took my Iodine doser offline and am using it for Mg instead now since I have an empty head. I just add a couple of ml per day to keep it at my target of 1350ppm.

If you're doing weekly water changes you don't need to dose mag either.

 

[DeputyDog95]

If you're doing weekly water changes you don't need to dose mag either.

I do, unfortunately. Otherwise, I wouldn't be dosing it I use the Red Sea blue bucket and there's probably just not enough Mg in there. Even with routine water changes, I find I need to add about 250ml of Red Sea Liquid around every 3 weeks to stay at 1350ppm. The water changes just don't cut it. I typically was just adding it all at once and overshooting 1350 and then letting it come down naturally over a few weeks. I figure 2ml a day based on rough math should keep it right where I want it.

Bear in mind, the RS reef recipe for SPS in a 120g tank is targeting 1280 with the blue bucket and even their program is calling for around 6ml per day to keep that up. I think that's unnecessary to dose that much, but I do see regular significant dips in Mg with routine water changes and no dosing.

 

[Rmckoy]

I’m really confused .
If there was a need to dose anything the majority would be consumed ?
Always test and dose according to results

there are test kits for almost everything including iodine , potassium ,

bromide or manganese are ones I haven’t seen