Chemicals for Fire Shrimps and Hermit Crab

[the81ghost]

Hi everyone.
I have 2 fire shrimps and 1 hermit crab in my aquarium along with a maroon clownfish and a damsel. I talked to a person from Bulk Reef Supply he said
I don't need to dose calcium buffer system for my shrimp and hermit crab.
Because he said the water changes would do the trick. He couldn't tell me
much about Iodide. However I'm dosing 1mg Iodide weekly(Bottle says 5mg for 50 gal every week). What do you guys think about this?
And shall I continue dosing Iodide? Would that mess up my KH (alk) since I don't dose alk? Thanks very much.

[TL1000RSquid]

I dose Iodide a couple times a week, I guess BRS is correct about the calcium assuming your doing weekly changes and have no corals that are consuming it? I have corals and macro's so I dose it as well. When I had a FOWLR I wasn't dosing any iodide and lost 2 shrimp to bad molts haven't had that problem since I been using it. Don't think it should screw with the KH, try a before test then test again an hour or two after you dose.

[the81ghost]

Thanks TL1000RSquid,
I don't have corals or anything like those.
I'm still worried about the PH and KH so maybe going to do
1mg weekly. I dont want to lose my shrimps. My hermit crab survived in my tank for 2 years without dosing Iodide. It has black and white legs. Not a small one. My salt is Instant Ocean salt mix.
Any other opinions from other people?
Thanks.

[disc1]

You don't need to dose iodine for the shrimps and crabs. They require a small amount of it, but should be getting that from their food. Water changes should keep up with the rest.

[the81ghost]

Thanks Disc1.
I'm going to check the ingridients of the food I use.
Complicated issue. Some says dose it some says don't.

[disc1]

Thanks Disc1.
I'm going to check the ingridients of the food I use.
Complicated issue. Some says dose it some says don't.

Iodine probably isn't listed in the ingredients. It's just in there as part of all the other things the food is made of.

[the81ghost]

Iodine probably isn't listed in the ingredients. It's just in there as part of all the other things the food is made of.

Yea it isn't listed. I'm using Spectrum marine formula pellets. And Hikari pellets for small marine fish. I'm feeding once a day a small amount. Maroon clownfish eating most of the food. My shrimps each are getting maximum 3 pellets before my maroon eats everything. I don't know that is enough or not. Size of the pellets are 1mm. I decided to dose 1mg of Iodide every 2 weeks for my 20 gal. Recommended dose was 5mg for 50 gal every week. It's way below that so I shouldn't be at risk of overdosing I guess. But if any others have ideas please share. Thank you.

[blanden.adam]

As a rule, never dose anything you don't test for. For the vast majority of tanks, trace elements like iodine and strontium will be taken care of sufficiently by water changes and a bit by feeding.

The thing about dosing without testing is you have no idea if your tank is actually using enough of the chemical to merit dosing, and you have no idea if you are dosing the right amount to keep the level in your tank within an appropriate range, so you really can and usually do end up doing more harm than good if the level gets too high (a particular concern with chemicals like iodine, but also a concern with most chemicals you would dose). Even if you aren't doing damage, you are at least wasting money. If you must dose iodine, get an iodine test kit. However, I would recommend not.

In answer to your question about iodine and alkalinity, it will not effect it at all. Iodine doesn't act as an acid or a base under aquarium conditions, so it won't interfere with the bicarb balance.

[the81ghost]

Thank you blanden.adam.

[the81ghost]

The majority of the reviews I found online suggest not to use iodide for shrimp since they get what they need from water changes, unless you have tons of shrimp in one tank:)
But I'm still scared to lose them from molting issues since they are hard to find and expensive. And of course losing them is not good for the wild population since we steal them from nature. I don't know mines were human bred I will ask them next time I go shopping where I bought them. I'm planning to reproduce them in my tank.

[a.browning]

You can do more harm than good by dosing iodine in your system. It is unnecessary. Keep up on the regular water changes, and don't worry about all the extra additives.

[bertoni]

The reason shrimp molt when iodine is added is that iodine is toxic, and they sequester toxins in their shells to remove them from their systems. So adding iodine to induce molting is not a plus.

[the81ghost]

Thanks to you all one by one.
I'm not gonna dose anything then.
Food and water changes do the trick I see.
No more dosing for me thanks again. :fun2: