Zoanthid care and Sympodium care

Tony Buck · Feb 21, 2012

I'm a new saltwater junkie and I have recently purchased some green zoanthids and indonesian green sympodium, do I have to put iodine in the water and if so how? Also, are there any other trace elements that I need to use. I currently just have Phoslock, carbon, and super buffer is all I use now, any suggestions?

Steven R · Feb 21, 2012

I would be careful with iodine it is really easy to OD the system so make sure you test I use a Salifert test to monitor my levels but if you are doing routine water changes (weekly) this should fulfill both your iodine and trace element both major and minor needs if using a good salt mix. What kind of lights are you running and how strong is our water in terms of salt 1.023 or 1.026?

kodiak · Feb 21, 2012

I second that, I have had zoas and sympodium for almost a year and have never added any iodine supplements. Water changes are key.

A. grandis · Feb 23, 2012

Well, I do like to dose some iodine here and there. It helps the zoas and soft corals to thrive.
You can use potassium iodide and respect the instructions of the products.
Two of the best products in the market are: Brightwell's Iodion and Seachem's Reef Iodide.
I use Seachem's.

Grandis.

Tony Buck · Feb 28, 2012

What about kalkwasser mixed with vinegar is this ok? How often should I do this?

tj51 · Feb 28, 2012

I'm not the zoa experts of some (a lot), but I supplement iodine (I test with the Red Sea Pro) and if it shows under .06, I'll drop in a drop of loguls. I also have my zoas/corals on a feed routine. Every couple of days I take a cube of cyclopeze, oyster eggs, and baby brine and blend it with some RO water until it's pretty much just a cloud. I add it to the tank, leave the pumps going for 6 - 10 seconds to disperse it and then shut all flow off. The tiny particles seem to float down to the zoas and other softies and LPS. After about 10 minutes I turn the flow back on and let the skirts and feelers snag some. So far so good, and nitrates are under 3 ppm so it's not upsetting the balance of my tank. I prefer this to target feeding as when I "blow" out the food a lot of times the force no matter how softly I try, shuts the zoas.

A. grandis · Feb 29, 2012

Tony Buck said:
What about kalkwasser mixed with vinegar is this ok? How often should I do this?

The use of kalkwasser, like everything else in any system, needs to be according to the needs of that system.
I never used kalk with vinegar because I never needed. I don't keep SPS corals, so there is no need for a significative amount of kalk (Ca++) daily.
Please search for the vinegar+kalk use, to be able to understand that part.
Yep, that's fine and many people do that due to their evaporation rates.

Good luck.

Grandis.