HELP----melting xenia!!!!

[balogh03]

i know that melting xenia happens alot becuase of not enough iodine, but i put lots of it in. my pom-pom xenia are doing great and spreading everywhere so i decided to get the normal pulsatings and after two days they are almost gone! everything in my tank reads perfect and i add C balance every day and then every other day i put in extra iodine and calcium. i am running three 150watt MH with four 65watt attanic PC. i just dont know what to do and need some information so that i can atleast get some more later.

gus
by the way, if you wanted to see the tank it was the 240gal above tank sump.

 

[KRMNAL1]

Are you running enough light for a tank that size ??

 

[Ed Hahn]

temperature melts Xenia too

 

[Fishead77]

ahhhh I'm melting D:

Sorry to hear that dude, mine melted also. I will follow along to see what's up with the melting xenia.

 

[balogh03]

what is the best tempurature? mine stays right at 80-82. how many watts per gallon do you need because my other xenias are fine and i do have some acro, monti, galexea, those need strong light as well.

thanks for the help

 

[tike]

80-82 is a little on the high side. I would SLOWLY drop it to 75-78. I have notice i get a die off of xenia when i raise the temperture over 80. I do it on purpose from time to time to keep them in check.

willie

 

[4251cpd]

In regards to temp: I've yet to see any problems, my tank is btn 80-82F daily. I wish it did melt them a bit.....

 

[4251cpd]

A before and after:

 

[plack]

My first guess would be your overdosing iodine you can kill things that way .

 

[balogh03]

i will back off on the iodine then, but wouldnt one thing effect all the other corals? i would hate to change it and then have everything else die, but i will try it anyway to see if i have any changes. what would the recomended amout be?

 

[4251cpd]

i will back off on the iodine then, but wouldnt one thing effect all the other corals? i would hate to change it and then have everything else die, but i will try it anyway to see if i have any changes. what would the recomended amout be?

Iodine is tricky. What kind of iodine are you using? How many gallons of water is in your tank, not capacity. Iodine is a powerful oxidant but too much will lead to A. nuisance algae outbreak B. more then A will poison your inhabitants. Every living thing uses iodine/iodide, in minute amounts. Iodine is a very unstable element in NSW. I will continue in depth when you answer my question. Thanks, Mike.

 

[balogh03]

the type of iodine i use is kent marine, and i have about 250gal of volume because the sumps equal about 60gals.

 

[balogh03]

another question is what should salinity and PH be at?
-PH 8.3
-salinity 1.025

 

[patmayo]

I would agree that you are poisoning your critters. There is no good way to measure iodine so there is no way to know how much you have in the tank. I would not add anything that you cannot test for. I only add calcium, alkalinity and magnesium. If you want to know the correct parameters for your tank go to this link.

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rhf/index.php

Xenia is very touchy for some tanks. It worked fine in my tank but grows more like a weed so I took it back to the LFS. I think you would do good to do some larger water changes to lower any chemicals that may be too high in your tank.

I hope some of this helps.

Regards,

Pat

 

[balogh03]

i am going to keep adding a little iodine because everything needs it. but thanks for the link and other info.

 

[Sherman]

Iodine is a touchy additive. There's an extremely fine line between too little (which I've never seen) and poisonous. Any salt mix should have plenty of iodine. In my opinion, iodine should never be dosed, though I feel that way about everything except Ca/Alk/Mag.

Stay current on water changes, and there shouldn't be any issues with iodine levels.

 

[Ed Hahn]

BaloghO3,
Do you have any tangs in your tank? If you are not monitoring your Iodine and Iodate. Here is a simple way to provide a little Iodine with use of Tangs and Rabbitfish. You can feed your fish Nori. Then they will extrude Iodine into the water.

 

[4251cpd]

i am going to keep adding a little iodine because everything needs it. but thanks for the link and other info.

Kent marine is a diluted form of potassium iodide. After reading some literature, I'll sum up the use of iodine in the reef tank: celluar activity on all levels (single celled organisms to complex organisms ie fish) are hard at work doing what cells do, living, growing, producing stuff that is vital to it's existence and it's specific function that it's DNA/RNA have them programmed to do. Iodine converts into two different forms in NSW, iodide (rather quickly) which is usuable by enzymes of living cells to oxidize. The correct levels will promote proper cell growth. An overdose will cause the oxidation to go too fast and will damage cells. The other end product is over time excess iodide will convert to iodate, an unusable form of iodine. This will become toxic over a period of time. But, it has been noted that vitamin C can revert iodate back to the usuable iodide. Another is a higher concentration of oxygen will either convert the iodate into iodide or prohibits the iodide from converting into iodate.

Therein lies our catch-22 as marine aquarists. How much is too much? If not enough, your inhabitants may not have optimal health because celluar function is inhibited. Too much, breakouts of algae, celluar death and tank crash. Look for a test that tests for total iodine. And if you decide to dose "iodine", dose a solution that is potassium iodide, and it is much preferred doing the smallest doses daily then larger doses weekly. You want your inhabitants to use up what they need, then overwhelming them.


Small daily water changes will keep the proper levels of all the elements that are needed, and are the safest, dummy proof way to ensure proper levels are kept.

 

[balogh03]

thank you all for the great information but i still have one more question, why is it just the xenia that get affected?

 

[4251cpd]

thank you all for the great information but i still have one more question, why is it just the xenia that get affected?

Not just xenids, but most soft corals seem to "perk up" with iodine supplements. It's not direct application but what these corals can draw from the water column. Most of these observations are done by people like you and I and this is disseminated through various mediums. I am going to make a somewhat blanket, uneducated, and nowhere near scientific statement about iodine and soft corals: Due to their "shorter" lifespans (as compared to reef building corals) these corals tend to "reproduce" much faster to continue the species. The iodide seems to quicken this process along thus ensuring the survival of the animal. I may be way off base here, but I have yet to see a scientific conclusion for this relationship. It has never been argued that iodine promotes the "pom pom" effect, but many will tell you it has caused their single frag to grow out like weeds. Of course, the scientific community are studying corals for medical purposes ,not what makes these animals tick.