Low Iodide level ... what's the best solution?

Tim Olson · Oct 29, 2017

I've been noticing my Invertebrates getting very sluggish and decided to do a Salifert Iodide test. The
test revealed I have less than 0.01 ppm Iodide, since the solution was pretty much clear. After research, including Randy's articles on Iodine, it appears the cause is likely the large amount of algae in my refugium and display tank (mainly chaeto and green hair algae).

So, assuming I tested correctly and my algae is consuming the Iodine/Iodide, I was wondering what is the best course of action to bring my iodide levels back to normal?

My parameters from yesterday:

Nitrates - 0.0 (Lamotte)
Phosphates - 0.00 (Hanna)
Alkalinity - 149 ppm/8.33 dKH (Hanna)
Calcium - 435 (Salifert)
Magnesium - 1350 ppm (Salifert)
pH - 8.31
Iodide - way less that 0.01 (Salifert)

Other considerations:

Use GFO (BRS High Capacity) that I change frequently. Could this be a problem?
Dose Vinegar at 0.63 ml/gallon per day
Use a Skimmer
Currently dose Alkalinity, along with Kalkwasser, with the intention to gradually transition to BRS 2-part.

Thank you for any ideas on this, since I don't want to just dose Iodide, when there may be another underlying problem.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Oct 29, 2017

I personally do not think iodine supplementation is useful (I and others dosed it for years and then stopped and saw no effect). There's no scientifically known need for the typical organisms you keep.

That said, iodine dosing is an easy experiment to see if it is beneficial.

Some people get Lugols from a drug store, but that contains an unnatural and reactive form of iodine (I2) and I prefer dosing of an iodide salt, such as sodium iodide or potassium iodide. Many hobby iodine supplements would be fine.

Example:

https://www.amazon.com/Potassium-Io...&qid=1509291215&sr=8-1&keywords=sodium+iodide

Tim Olson · Oct 29, 2017

Thank you Randy ... I'll try the experiment to see if it helps my inverts, mainly my Hermit Crabs and Peppermint Shrimps. It will be easy to notice changes in activity level as I gradually raise the Iodine level. BTW, I already have some Seachem Reef Iodide (which is "stabilized" potassium iodide according to the bottle), that I got a couple of years ago but never used. It sounds like that should be OK.

I sure hope it will help, since I've been having trouble determining what made them go from thriving a few weeks ago (right after acclimation), to barely moving now. I probably should pose the question in the Inverts forum.

All the best!

Randy Holmes-Farley · Oct 29, 2017

Excessive magnesium sometimes makes inverts sluggish.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Oct 29, 2017

The Seachem iodine should be OK. Some may convert to iodate over time, but that's OK. It's the main form found in seawater anyway.

Tim Olson · Oct 29, 2017

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
Excessive magnesium sometimes makes inverts sluggish.

I'm really glad you mentioned that, since recently I increased magnesium to over 1,400 and I thought I killed them all. I didn't know that could hurt them. So now I'm not dosing magnesium anymore. FYI, I was dosing Mg, since I'd heard it might help with algae control. Looking back on it was a bad decision.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Oct 29, 2017

People treating for bryopsis with a magnesium additive often find snails become lethargic.

Scorpius · Oct 29, 2017

I saw absolutely no difference in dosing iodine and not dosing so I stopped dosing altogether. lol

Tim Olson · Oct 30, 2017

Scorpius said:
I saw absolutely no difference in dosing iodine and not dosing so I stopped dosing altogether. lol

Thanks! That seems to be the case for most people, from what I've heard. I'm hopeful it will help in my system, though, since Iodide is essentially 0.00, even though the salt is 0.06 ppm. So, I started my test 2 days ago and am slowly going to ramp up to 0.06ppm and see what happens. Frankly I'll be shocked it actually helps ... we'll see.

Tim Olson · Oct 30, 2017

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
The Seachem iodine should be OK. Some may convert to iodate over time, but that's OK. It's the main form found in seawater anyway.

Randy ... I'm getting confused over what I should be testing for, iodide, iodate or iodine? I've been using my Salifert I2 Profi Kit to test for iodide, which was reading almost zero for the tank water. Then this morning I decided to test some saltwater I had leftover from my water change last week and it was perfectly clear. Theoretically it should have tested about 0.06 ppm, according to the salt mix specs, or does iodide decay sitting in a sealed bucket?

I think I'm going to continue with my dosing regime, at least for now, since yesterday I noticed my inverts perking up a couple of hours after adding a small dose. Although, I assume it was just coincidence.

As always, any insights would be appreciated.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Oct 30, 2017

Tim Olson said:
Randy ... I'm getting confused over what I should be testing for, iodide, iodate or iodine? I've been using my Salifert I2 Profi Kit to test for iodide, which was reading almost zero for the tank water. Then this morning I decided to test some saltwater I had leftover from my water change last week and it was perfectly clear. Theoretically it should have tested about 0.06 ppm, according to the salt mix specs, or does iodide decay sitting in a sealed bucket?

I think I'm going to continue with my dosing regime, at least for now, since yesterday I noticed my inverts perking up a couple of hours after adding a small dose. Although, I assume it was just coincidence.

As always, any insights would be appreciated.

Normal seawater contains mostly iodate and some iodide. Many kits can detect both. I do not know what form they put in salt mixes, but I- can oxidize to iodate over time.

Tim Olson · Oct 30, 2017

The Aquavitro "salinity" salt mix says iodide is at about 0.06, per the picture below. I'll test for iodate and iodine also to see what they are. Although, I'm having second thoughts about the dosing, since over the past 4 days of dosing iodide, the hermit crabs and soft corals are overall doing much worse.

This is so frustrating ... I wish we had a magic recipe for all this stuff.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Oct 30, 2017

But they also say iodide is 0.06 ppm in seawater, and it definitely is not. I think that means iodine, but not necessarily what form it is.

They also say NSW has alkalinity of 3.5 meq/L, which is utterly untrue. lol

Tim Olson · Oct 30, 2017

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
But they also say iodide is 0.06 ppm in seawater, and it definitely is not. I think that means iodine, but not necessarily what form it is.

They also say NSW has alkalinity of 3.5 meq/L, which is utterly untrue. lol

hmmm ... looks like I'm going to have to do more digging and re-read your articles, since I don't quite understand this yet.

Thank you!

Randy Holmes-Farley · Oct 31, 2017

If you have specific questions, I'm happy to expand my discussion.

Tim Olson · Oct 31, 2017

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
If you have specific questions, I'm happy to expand my discussion.

Thank you!

I just re-read your two Iodine articles (http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2003/3/chemistry and http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2003/4/chemistry). They're great articles and they make a lot more sense this time, after our discussion in this thread.

It sure sounds like there are significant unknowns, with regard to Iodine in our reef tanks, especially with the different import and export methods of Iodine. So it sounds like testing may not be accurate enough to determine a dosing regimen. Also, if I test at all, it should be testing for Iodide and Iodate? I haven't done the Iodate test yet, but probably will do this morning.

Tim Olson · Oct 31, 2017

FYI, I just did the Salifert test for Iodate and it was virtually clear, meaning the concentration is <0.03 ppm. So I presume that I should proceed with Iodine dosing. Hopefully it won't do any harm.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Oct 31, 2017

I think it won't cause any harm to dose iodide.

Tim Olson · Oct 31, 2017

That's good news, since I've been noticing that about 1-2 hours after the dose they perk up. It likely is a coincidence, but I'll track their behavior over time to see. I'll also increase the dose gradually and spread it out throughout the day, to see what the optimal ml/day should be, based primarily on behavior. I will also test for iodide & iodate to hopefully develop a correlation with behavior, if there is one.

We'll see what happens.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Oct 31, 2017

FWIW, the Seachem iodine products is more complicated than many, and may have organic matter in it. It's not really clear what the product actually is, but that might explain an immediate response.

http://www.seachem.com/reef-iodide.php

"Unlike competing products, Reef Iodide™ is complexed to a stabilizing compound "