Iodine; how much

[kidkaffen1]

I have a 55 gal aquarium that I am trying to turn in to a reef tank. I have a clown fish, blue yellow tail damsel, and a blue tang. Also one cleaner shrimp, one Blood shrimp, 3 scarlet crabs, and one bristle sea star.

I use kent marine Iodine and it say to put in 8 drops per day or 1 teaspoon per week. I was wondering if this was ok or do I need to do less. And also if I did do what the recommended and the tank does not need that much what will happen?

thanks for everyones help, this site is great

[theatrus]

I honestly wouldn't dose it all if you're doing water changes on any regular period.

[PelagicMagic]

Are you testing your iodine levels? You should not add any additive with out testing your water. I agree with theatrus too

[JamesJR]

I doubt you need to be adding that much.

[nmprisons]

pelagic is right, don't add anything to your tank you can't test for. too much iodine is just as bad as not enough,

[Shagsbeard]

Test first. If your iodine is low, consider trying a different salt before you start dosing. Trace elements are often included in reef salt. There's not much that relies heavily on iodine levels... arthropods (crabs and shrimp) need it for molting to occur, but too much is much worse than not enough.

[bertoni]

I agree that dosing iodine probably isn't helpful. There's no evidence that the reef animals we want to keep need it. Here's an article on the topic:

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/mar2003/chem.htm

[kidkaffen1]

Thanks again, maybe this is why my gravel has some green slime algae

[drummereef]

Agree with above posts about testing before you add anything to the tank. Some company should start marketing additives with a test kit in the same package. Dang, there goes another million. :)