iodine dosing

[MrCurlyman]

Hello. I want to perk up my zoas and have been hearing about adding iodine to the tank my question is how much and how often? The direction on the bottle says 5ml per 100 gal of water once a week. I have a 31-gal tank so I'm thinking a little more than 1ml. my LFS said no more than 1 drop every 2 weeks, Who's right? I'm worried I'm going to kill everything in my tank. thank you

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

A measurement of the iodine already there would be most useful to determine a dose.

 

[reefingaz]

Don’t dose anything, that you don’t test levels for. I have seen too many people wipe out corals by doing iodine blindly thinking it was helping cause it was only “2 drops a week” or something.

 

[Nburg's Reef]

I drop per week would be adequate. There’s not a lot of evidence that iodine is directly used by coral, but i along with many others have seen mild zoa improvement with minor dosing… maybe it’s an indirect benefit? I do like 2 drops per week but forget most weeks. Every ICP test has shown low iodine for me so not too worried about over dosing, but I do notice when my Zoas will look a little off and I haven’t been adding, a few drops a week and they usually turn around.

 

[HudsonReefer2.0]

There’s a reason it comes w a dropper. Iodide is another way to get that element in the system.

 

[anthonygf]

I think it depends on the brand of iodine you use. I use Fluval Sea Iodine and it suggests 5ml per week. I dose 1 full dropper per day and my iodine test kit shows I am at the max or normal level to be safe, my ICP still shows I am low. So I don't know what to tell you, you may need to experiment.

But first you should get an Iodine test kit, the one I use in Red Sea iodine Pro and check your levels FIRST. My Duncans have been closed up for about a year and are just now starting to emerge, so maybe I will slowly reduce my dosing and test, to see what affect it will have on my corals. They have been doing fine except for my Duncans. So go slow.
Anthony

 

[MrCurlyman]

There’s a reason it comes w a dropper. Iodide is another way to get that element in the system.

this came with a cup not a dropper. fluval sea

 

[MrCurlyman]

I think it depends on the brand of iodine you use. I use Fluval Sea Iodine and it suggests 5ml per week. I dose 1 full dropper per day and my iodine test kit shows I am at the max or normal level to be safe, my ICP still shows I am low. So I don't know what to tell you, you may need to experiment.

But first you should get an Iodine test kit, the one I use in Red Sea iodine Pro and check your levels FIRST. My Duncans have been closed up for about a year and are just now starting to emerge, so maybe I will slowly reduce my dosing and test, to see what affect it will have on my corals. They have been doing fine except for my Duncans. So go slow.
Anthony

Thats the brand I'm using to

 

[anthonygf]

this came with a cup not a dropper. fluval sea

I never used the cup. I was using a syringe for the 5ml and eventually now an eye dropper. Was up to a full eye dropper per day now I am going to reduce that to half. And see what happens.

 

[anthonygf]

Thats the brand I'm using to

Well like I said a full dropper every day I thought would be too aggressive, but the tests tell a different story. Do you have an Iodine test kit?

 

[Frag_mad]

Don’t dose without knowing your level. My system uses a lot, and I can’t figure out why. But multiple ICP confirm it, my tank uses 0.5ml every other day

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Don’t dose without knowing your level. My system uses a lot, and I can’t figure out why. But multiple ICP confirm it, my tank uses 0.5ml every other day

The biggest user is often algae of all types.