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GeeOh
05-16-2005, 11:10 PM
I know everyone who uses B-Ionic swears by it, but I know a lot of stuff also needs stromium and iodine and other trace elements.

Any recommendations as to the brand to use for iodine and strontium? As for Iodine, would medical grade iodine suffice? I was gonna buy some Betadine and use that. Or would it be too easy to overdose that way?

Trace elements....how to tell if you got 'em or need 'em? BTW I use Scripps hoping that Scripps has sufficient trace elements

GoTakuF1
05-17-2005, 06:12 AM
Here are some good articles on those two elements in the reef aquaria:

Strontium (http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/nov2003/chem.htm)

Iodine (http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/mar2003/chem.htm)

Iodine 2 (http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/april2003/chem.htm)

After reading those articles closely, a good test kit will help you dose if you chose to.

Good luck!
Minh

MrKrispy
05-17-2005, 08:50 AM
how big is your tank? If you do regular water changes it is highly doubtful you actually need to dose either of these.

With trace elements, you can't really test for them in a practical way. They are 'trace' which means "hard to detect". That, and there are dozens of trace elements so you would spend hundreds of dollars in test kits. You can buy seachem supplements for trace elements if you are worried. Personally I skip the strontium and iodine.

pk-sd
05-17-2005, 09:15 AM
As MrKrispy said you probably do not need to dose anything extra, specially if you are using Scripps water.


I occasionally add Kent iodine to my tank since I have lots of mushrooms and Xenia. But I dose very little as over-dosing can be BAD.

Reefkeeper
05-17-2005, 12:14 PM
I happen to disagree with those of you who think you dont need to add the trace elements. The iodine and strontium are highly important in the marine tanks, helping your inverts molt as well as for the health of your corals.

I personally use Kent Tech-I for Iodine (which has 3 different tyes of Iodine and typically last longer than standard Iodine and is metabolized better) and the Kent Strontium, although the last time I used it it didnt include the second additive it does now.

I am going to try the SeaChem Reef Complete, which supposedly has Iodine and Strontium already in it at the "appropriate" levels for the reef aquarium.

Another factor is your source for the salt water. Those who use standard salts (Instant Ocean for example) will have more need to add trace then those who use enhanced mixes (Reef Krystals, Red Sea Salts, etc.) Those people who use the Scripps water should theoretically have the trace elements...but I will point out you are taking a COLD water sample and using it for a temperate aquarium. Different temperature waters will have different saturation rates, as well as a different components.

Dannyboy
05-17-2005, 02:00 PM
So reefkeeper what do you keep your iodine and strontium levels at? How often do you test for those anyway? I have never tested for them since I dont add any, but have been curious what benefits they would serve. Have you noticed any difference in overall coral health and growth when you dose, as opposed to when you dont? I used to dose Strontium but never really noticed a difference except it would burn out my xenia once in a while.

MrKrispy
05-17-2005, 02:13 PM
i don't usually consider strontium and iodine as trace elements, as they are in larger, easily detectable concentrations. Strontium is the 5th highest ingredient in saltwater (of the ions that is) hardly making it trace. Secondly, most people don't test for iodine nor strontium, a second argument for not dosing it. (a 3rd being that the tests aren't all together accurate).
4th reason is most people don't have the time nor patience to properly add these elements to a tank, especially larger ones.
I put the disclaimer in about tank size and water changes, as even salt mixes have enough of both elements to keep sofites and inverts more than happy, assuming you do water changes (not everyone does).

Lastly, reef chemistry "experts" rarely endorse the need to add these two elements, or even trace element supplements. So it isn't just my opinion, heh heh.

shmitr
05-17-2005, 06:16 PM
I've cut out dosing everything but Kent Tech-I and Iron. I had tried cutting the tech-I out as well but noticed that my inverts molting became irrlegular so I'm back to using it. Also, I have Mangroves and notice a BIG difference in their health when dosing iron.

Reefkeeper
05-17-2005, 06:32 PM
Originally posted by Dannyboy
So reefkeeper what do you keep your iodine and strontium levels at? How often do you test for those anyway? I have never tested for them since I dont add any, but have been curious what benefits they would serve. Have you noticed any difference in overall coral health and growth when you dose, as opposed to when you dont? I used to dose Strontium but never really noticed a difference except it would burn out my xenia once in a while.

Honestly, I never truly tested my levels. I generally just follow the dosing as described on the bottle. I also tend to err on the side of caution and will space out the dosing a little more than they say.

As for observable benefits, I would have to say that yes, I did notice a difference between before I started using the additives and after. My soft corals all seemed to be more resillient and grew faster than before I started the additives. If memory serves my anenomes also seemed to benefit as well as increased moltings in my shrimps/crabs.

I should clarify that its been a while since I first started using the stuff. I think it was the late 80's early 90's when I first started. In fact, I think it was originally corallife additives that I was using, but dont hold me to that. From that point on, with one exception, I have always made sure to use the additives. So for me to describe the difference between using it and not using it, is difficult. Even after my forced hiatus from the hobby, its one of this things I made sure to start doing right after I started adding corals to the tank. Since I started using it only a few days after adding the corals though, it would be unfair for me to use this latest instance as my example. (Given the fact that it takes a few days for them to get fully set and thus the huge difference in appearance before starting to add the supplements could just be a coincidence.)