Iodine/Iodide for softies

[nishant3789]

How true is this analogy: Calcium and Carbonate is to hard corals as Iodine is to soft corals. I honestly dont know how exactly iodine gets used in soft corals, only that they need it for growth. can anyone enlighten me?

 

[triggerhappy8]

I am wondering the same thing. The Seachem guy last night alluded to this and got me curious.

 

[triga22]

I asked Brian Baker and he said that iodide is great for soft tanks. Im taking his word and buying some soon.

 

[flyingarmy]

I have to agree with Brian Baker. I used to dose Iodine, along with others suppliments and then I went with a 2 part solution that contained a lesser amount of iodine and my softies could tell the difference. Even the Xenia slowed in growth(amazingly). After last nights meeting I am back to dosing Iodine!

 

[prissy_tang]

Phil @ Poseindon's told me not to use Iodine anymore. He recommended VitaChem vitatmins insteead.

 

[budsreef]

If you dose Iodide, do you measure what level you already are at? I'd be very leary of dosing something I'm not measuring. I assume there is a test kit for Iodide?

 

[wbholwell]

I believe Purple Up has iodide in it- you could use that as a calcium supplement instead.

 

[cameron]

According Randy Holmes-Farley, iodine/iodide is not in anyway been proven to be of use in aquaria for corals or inverts. Here is some of the reference material...

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/mar2003/chem.htm">[B]<span style="color: #810081;">Iodine</span>[/B]</a>
I do not presently dose iodine to my aquarium, and do not recommend that others necessarily do so either. Iodine dosing is much more complicated than dosing other ions due to its substantial number of different naturally existing forms, the number of different forms that aquarists actually dose, the fact that all of these forms can interconvert in reef aquaria, and the fact that the available test kits detect only a subset of the total forms present. This complexity, coupled with the fact that no commonly kept reef aquarium species are known to require significant iodine, suggests that dosing is unnecessary and problematic.
[B]For these reasons, I advise aquarists to NOT try to maintain a specific iodine concentration using supplementation and test kits. [/B]
Iodine in the ocean exists in a [IMG]http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/mar2003/chem.htm"><span style="color: #810081;">wide variety of forms</span></a>, both organic and inorganic, and the iodine cycles between these various compounds are very complex and are still an area of active research. The nature of inorganic iodine in the oceans has been generally known for decades. The two predominate forms are iodate (IO<span style="font-size: 1-1px;">3-</span>) and iodide (I<span style="font-size: 1-1px;">-</span>). Together these two iodine species usually add up to about 0.06 ppm total iodine, but the reported values vary by a factor of about two. In surface seawater, iodate usually dominates, with typical values in the range of 0.04 to 0.06 ppm iodine. Likewise, iodide is usually present at lower concentrations, typically 0.01 to 0.02 ppm iodine.[/QUOTE]

[IMG]http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rhf/index.php">http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rhf/index.php</a>

 

[ouling]

Here we go with the Iodine and iodide... If you want to help the microecnomy of the aquatic industry then by all means buy it and dose it as they instruct you to! But if you have over 40lbs of softcoral in your tank and feel that it is absolutely necessary then please dose the trace element that already have iodine in it so you don't OD it!!!!

If you do any kind of water change that is near 20% a month and have less than 1lb of softcoral per 5 gallons of water then forget about I2 from now on.

Why you think they dip corals in that stuff? Because it kills almost everything!

I have a molecular weight > Iron X 2
I'm very sure it also cause heavy metal poison.

Iodine is a halogen and will bond with almost anything, ionic or covalent. Because it forms a strong electrolite it becomes a free floating ion when say potassium iodide hits water. Iodine can form many many different kind of molecules that can kill living things in your aquarium if the amount is high enough.

If it's gets with a metal then you get a metal halide (stuff in your metal halide lights) like mercury iodide, if it's bonds with a gas then you get something funnier. (don't want to explain anymore)

Also Iodide is a very strong oxidizing reagent, works much better than bleach.
Not to sound mean by the way there
It's just that these iodine thing keeps coming up.

 

[ouling]

For Everyones Information:

To pull of a perfect murder with the chemical you use for your fish tank.

Give the luckless fella 1 tsp of Potassium Iodide every day for 30 days.

Light metal poison is almost impossible to test for because it is so similar to whats already in your blood. Just tell them they had alot of iodized salt to explain the iodine content, but the potassium is too hard to be tested and no one suspects it.

 

[cameron]

I read that if you are going to use a Io* supplement, Iodide is the one to use. Apparently it is easier test for before it gets sucked up and being potassium based doesn't become toxic as readily as iodine.

 

[ouling]

Once Iodide hits the water it will break the bond it has with potassium (strong electrolite, or salts breaks completely in water, just like NaCl), some will stay but most will just go to someone who is more attractive. The common bond iodide want to stick to is Sodium. You get sodium iodide instead of potassium iodide in water because sodium is more electro negative than potassium because of a smaller atomic structure, thus having a stronger effective nuclear charge due to a smaller screen constant.

Why not just add table salt if you think you must dose it? it's just sodium iodide and sodium cloride.

 

[cameron]

ouling;56128 wrote: Why not just add table salt if you think you must dose it? it's just sodium iodide and sodium cloride.

As I stated earlier, I am of the opinion that it is relatively useless to dose the stuff and there is no proof that io* does anything useful at all in a tank.

Table salt is iodized via potassium iodide so you could use it since sodium chloride isn't going to hurt anything. In effect, you would be using potassium iodide (or iodate depending on where you buy the stuff)... you could also save yourself some money and buy potassium iodide and skip the extra compounds that aren't helping you with table salt. Again doesn't change the fact that iodide isn't as lethal as iodine. Iodide is actually pretty hard to OD on compared to Iodine.

 

[cameron]

ouling;56057 wrote: Light metal poison is almost impossible to test for because it is so similar to whats already in your blood. Just tell them they had alot of iodized salt to explain the iodine content, but the potassium is too hard to be tested and no one suspects it.

I am interested in reading more on this. I can find adverse effects of Potassium Iodide, but can't find references lethal levels.

 

[dannybradley]

ouling;56057 wrote: For Everyones Information:

To pull of a perfect murder with the chemical you use for your fish tank.

Give the luckless fella 1 tsp of Potassium Iodide every day for 30 days.

Light metal poison is almost impossible to test for because it is so similar to whats already in your blood. Just tell them they had alot of iodized salt to explain the iodine content, but the potassium is too hard to be tested and no one suspects it.

I prefer the icicle as the perfect murder weapon. After you use it, it leaves no trace.

Anyway, here's what I think I know about Iodine, iodide, and iodate. This is really just repeating what I've learned over the years, and so should be taken with a bucket of salt. This is by far the most complex and confusing of all the supplements. If I am wrong on any of this, or if someone has additional information, give me a hand with this.

Corals use iodide, not iodine and iodate, At 8.3 iodine and iodate change into iodide.

Iodide - a salt of hydriotic acid consisting of two elements, one of which is iodine. What you find used in supplements is Potassium iodide. I *think* once it hits the tank it drops the potassium and becomes Sodium iodide, although this whole process may still work with potassium iodide. I don't know, I'm still researching this. Anyway, we'll assume NaI, it will at least get the idea across.

Iodide helps rid a coral of excess Oxygen produced by overactive zooxanthellae by converting sodium iodide (NaI) to sodium iodate (NaIO3). NaIO3 is then expelled and it converts back to NaI. Don't ask me that process yet. Potassium iodate is KIO3, so it may work like that too. You can see how that ties in with the Randy Holmes-Farley quote.

Iodide aids corals shifting light conditions. How? I have no clue yet. It may have something to do with the last paragraph.

Iodide is used in the production of soft tissue. How? Again, I have no clue. The only thing that has made any sense so far is the Iodide/Iodate cycling.