Do you dose iodine?

Iodine has been attributed to creating perfect bars and also bringing on the black in ocellaris clownfish. I've never seen any real data on this though. What is everyone's experience with iodine? Do you use it, what does it do for you, how much do you dose?

Someone asked me about that last weekend and I didn't have an answer other than that I'm not dosing it. Matt said he does though.

http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage
"Making captive breeding easier."

For those that dose iodine, how much do you dose and when?

Matt who? Carberry, Wittenrich, Pedersen, or other?

Pedersen.

Yes, Matt Pedersen. I was with him last weekend and just think of him as "Matt" but there are a bunch of Matts out there, I should have been more specific. lol

http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage
"Making captive breeding easier."

Thanks, I'll ask him what he does.

Please post what he replies Kathy, I'm interested to know too. 

Matt Pedersen said, with permission to post:
 I don't know that it does anything.  I just  dose it to my tanks because it's
 one of the testable items that  anytime I test it (except right after  it's
 dosed), the levels are  generally close to zero. That means it's getting used up
 and used a  lot (because I see this in any tank with life).  So I  generally
 just dose at the "base level maintenance dose" that most  brands recommend.

Ah, I finally found the page in Hoff's book that talks about iodine:
page 135.  with a graph that shows a faster metamorphosis with higher, really normal, levels of iodine.
 
That's Conditioning, Spawning, and Rearing Fish with Emphasis on Marine Clownfish by Frank Hoff

 
I disagree, there are any number of reasons the iodine(?) that is dosed is not detectable. And it may have to do with something using the iodine or it could have change form or reacted with something in the tank or air and become depleted.  My point is just because we add it to our tanks and can only briefly detect it with test kits does not mean its being used by some form of life in our tank.  That said I add it to my reef system which has 3 breeding pairs of clownfish.
 
Also my knowledge of chemistry is limited

MattP's reply makes sense, although Will's (wdt) reply make a certain amount of sense too.  Iodine (all types) in NSW is about 0.06 ppm.  My limited knowledge of iodine test kits (I haven't checked them out too much) suggests that many (most?) test kits have an accuracy of 0.03 ppm or worse.  Which means it is rather easy to overdose the tank in comparison to NSW values.  Does that matter?  I have no idea, although I do know that many elements that are in NSW in such low numbers are often toxic or at least detrimental when they are elevated.
 
My conclusion is that there is likely no harm in attempting to dose it.  I would definitely look into which brand of test kit is more reliable than others.  If no results are seen (like MattP), I probably wouldn't keep using it.  Although a trial to see if it helps with your misbarring, Kathy, could prove to be beneficial!

Found this posted by Randy Holmes-Farley 
 
Bacterial contribution to iodine volatilization in the environment. Amachi, S.; Kasahara, M.; Fujii, T.; Muramatsu, Y. Department of Bioresources Chemistry, Chiba University, Matsudo-shi, Chiba, Japan. JAERI-Conf (2003), 2003-010(Proceedings of the International Symposium, Transport of Radionuclides in Biosphere: Protection and Assessment, 2002), 264-271. 
Abstract

The roles of microorganisms in iodine volatilization from the environment were studied. More than 100 bacterial strains were isolated from various environments such as soils, seawater and marine sediments, and were examd. their capacities for volatilizing iodine. Approx. 40% of these bacteria showed significant capacities for volatilizing iodine. Gas chromatog. detns. revealed that the chem. species of gaseous iodine is Me iodide (MeI). Phylogenetic anal. based on 16S ribosomal DNA showed that these iodine-volatilizing bacteria are widely distributed through the bacterial domain. The iodide-methylating reaction was mediated by an enzyme protein with S-adenosyl-L-methionine (SAM) as the Me donor. The authors then estd. bacterial contribution to iodine volatilization from soils. Iodine in soils was volatilized mainly as MeI. MeI emission was enhanced in the presence of glucose or yeast ext., but was inhibited by autoclaving of soils. Little MeI was produced under anaerobic conditions. Also, the addn. of streptomycin and tetracycline, antibiotics which inhibit bacterial growth, strongly inhibited MeI emission, while a fungal inhibitor cycloheximide caused little effect. Probably iodine in soils is volatilized as MeI mainly by the action of aerobic soil bacteria. Similar expt. was carried out by using sea water samples. The emission of iodine from sea waters occurred biol., and bacterial (and also, other microbial) contribution was confirmed. Probably iodine is methylated and volatilized into the atm. as a result of bacterial activities. Since bacteria are so abundant and widespread in the environments, they may significantly contribute to global iodine volatilization. If 129I would be released from nuclear facilities, weapons testing or ground storage of nuclear wastes, the pathway of volatilization by bacteria should be considered in the assessment of its environmental migration.

Maybe adding food high in iodine would produce the desired result?

WDT...what you suggest is not in conflict with the observations I cited as a reason for dosing.  Used up is used up, gone is gone.  Doesn't matter if it's fish or corals or something else.  If you dose, and you then test, and you get a reading, and then latter it is gone, and you does and it comes back, then obviously what you are dosing, and what you are testing for, is fluctuating.
 
Afterall, case in point, if bacteria are "venting it into the atmosphere" then it's certainly not in the tank water any longer.
 
For all we know it could be soaked up by our carbon, removed by our skimmers, and bound into our live rock.  It doesn't really matter where it goes IF the point is that we assume it needs to be present in the water in the form we dose and test for, at a certain level.  Case in point again - Akalinity gets used up, and it's not always by our corals putting down skeletal growth.  Doesn't mean we discount dosing and testing for it.
 
An important side note that did not come up in this conversation is that we're actually dosing with Iodide.

Exactly.  Does it aid in metamorphosis? Hoff says it does. Does it aid in bar formation or black formation in the case of Darwins? Could be. I'm trying to determine that.
 
UV is supposed to inactivate Iodine.  I can't live without UV, so, after all these years, I may have to start dosing...

TDO increases black coloration from what I've seen since I started using it.
If UV is just going to inactivate iodine, why dose it? Unless the it happens slowly...

http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage
"Making captive breeding easier."

Bet me to the punch.  IMO the best time to get it into them is in the larval stage... via your rotifers and other feeds.

RGComplete with iodine?

http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage
"Making captive breeding easier."

Perhaps... we're working on amino acid right now.  We have to prove it can be delivered in the manor we want, so it means running trials and sending them off to be tested.

SWEET Gresh.  

I added 3 drops of Sera iodine and half gallon of Tet to rotifers that were feed to newly hatched clownfish after 8 hours of enrichment. Just by observation it appeared to increase survival at settlement.
 
On another batch I added half gallon of tet and 1 drop of sera iodine directly to a large batch and within hours I had 100% mortality. I might have missed something, but I seem to have it down to a science without using direct iodine and live algae. 
 
1st batch was Percs
 
2nd batch were Maroons

I dose w Lugols solution.  I think it helps, but I've never done a side by side comparison.  My theory is in the wild they eat a lot of crustaceans that are full of iodine and you don't see a lot of misbars coming out of the ocean. Most of the foods we use are fish meal based without much iodine.  But I'm sure there are a few other contributing factors.    
Miles