Q: why is it that the I- is bioavailable and the IO3- isnt?

<EricEE> I didn't do the chemical assays of the water. The evidence leans to I- being bioavailable because it's the only one depleted significantly over time. The IO3- tends to accumulate within a closed system, leading to the logical conclusion that I- is used, where IO3- is not.

Q: What is WMC?

<EricEE> Western Marine Conference. Rick Martin (who is lounging around here under the name rickmar) ran it this year.

Q: What corals are most accepting of iodine baths for disinfection, and what concentration and immersion durations for these baths are recommended?

<EricEE> I believe Steve Tyree came up with the whole Iodine Dip, or at least made it popular. You want to use water from your tank and you want to add enough iodine to be able to use at as an antibacterial agent. From what I've read from different sources, 2 ppm seems to be enough, so without doing the math, if you took a teaspoon of lugol's solution and put it in a gallon of water, you'd probably have a nice dip. Maybe half a teaspoon. Everyone recommends different amounts. For what it's worth, you might have to use half the bottle of a commercial preparation to do this.

Q: What about ClI, is this a concern in a reef tank, and if so why?

<EricEE> Since Chlorine and Iodine are both halogens and have that overwhelming urge to bond to other halogens, it's possible that you could form some ClI. This doesn't seem to happen in our tanks, the reaction rates favor the iodine reacting with other compounds.

Q: The test kits seem to give a somewhat unclear results(refering to Sea chem)is it advisable to add the iodine while observing iodine responsive corals such as zenia,to determine how much you should add?

<EricEE> Actually, the two test kits measure different things. One measures I- concentration, the other measures iodine concentration (all forms). SeaChem designs it's test kits to be used with it's own brand of supplements, which all make heavy use of EDTA. As far as adding Iodine without a test kit, it's not recommended, especially if you're using Lugol's or a KI or NaI solution. If you're using a commercial preparation (Coralife, Kent, Thiel, WMR, etc....) you can probably get away with it, since there's not a whole lot of iodine in there to begin with.

Q: Followup question regarding dips: Are soft or hard corals as a category more likely to respond positively to this treatment? Can an aquarist make any assumptions as to what animal phylum should get the dip vis-a-vis those that shouldn't without trial and *ouch* error?

<EricEE> Most people that are "dipping" are doing it to SPS and LPS corals. I haven't heard of soft corals being dipped. The reason for the dip seems to be the dreaded RTN, which can literally dissolve your corals. Basically, you recieve the coral and dip it before you put it into your tank. The idea being is that the iodine will kill the dangerous bacteria on the coral and not harm the coral.

Q: Could an iodine dip be used to treat infected fish, eg skin infection/abrasions

<EricEE> I don't think an iodine dip is a great idea for a fish. My reasoning behind this is that the iodine is going to remove part or all of the fish's slime coating. Slime coat is the fish's biggest defense against disease. There are a few "dip" type medications on the market, none of them contain iodine to my knowledge.

Q: What is EDTA and why should I be concerned weather or not its in my supplements?

<EricEE> EDTA is used as a binder. If you use supplements that use EDTA such as SeaChem's, you need to use certain test kits because the binder will affect the test results. EDTA stands for ethylene diamine tetracetic acid Chemically, it has the ability to basically hold together several compounds and keep them stable in solution. Whether or not it's a "BAD THING" has been debated for a while. Most people that are running successful reef tanks have gotten away from chelated products like Seachem's line. The EDTA is simply one more unknown that you're introducing to your tank.

Q: What is RTN?

<EricEE> RTN stands for Rapid Tissue Necrosis. Depending on who you get your information from, it either affects stony corals or it affects all corals. Anyways, it's a bad disease, and has the capability of wiping out a tank very quickly. Iodine seems to do a good job of killing it.

Q: What are the specific benefits of diiferent calc additives? Can Bi-Onic dosing reach a harmful level?

<EricEE> I'm not sure what this has to do with Iodine, but here goes. You've got several calcium additives you can use. Calcium chloride, kalkwasser, a calcium reactor, or one of the new supplements B-Ionic or C-Balance. Calcium chloride provides no buffering capacity, so the last 3 are the only real 3 to consider, in my opinion. You can use CaCl2 for a quick "calcium boost" but to use it constantly is silly, there are better ways to do it. Kalkwaser is Ca(OH)2, you prepare a saturated solution of it and dose it into your tank slowly. Calcium Reactors use CaCO3 (aragonite) and inject CO2 to drop the pH and dissolve the aragonite. This raises Ca++ levels as well as CO3- levels, so you get calcium and buffer. B-Ionic and C-Balance are new. Basically, they're a mix of various salts Ca, Mg, Sr, etc..... which will provide with calcium levels as well as buffering capacity. ou can reach a harmful level of dosing just about anything, B-Ionic included. If you raise your calcium level too high, you'll have difficulty maintaining adequete alkalinity levels and vice versa. This is why we have test kits.

Q: You say ethylene is the first ingridient in EDTA,in my expieriance with glycols,ethylene glycol is not used in a food processing facilit as its not a food grade substance,propalene glycol is used in its place.any comments on this

<EricEE> EDTA is a very commonly used chelating agent. I'm not sure there's an equivalent that uses propylene glycol. Ethylene Glycol is not used in food processing because it's poisonous. We use it to make anti-freeze for cars. Basically, you're asking me to tell you why the SeaChem chemists picked EDTA as a chelating agent, and I have absolutely no clue. Hang on a second, that was silly. There's no ethylene glycol in EDTA to begin with. It's not a glycol, it's an amine.

<DBW> The ethylene is used as the basic back bone of the molecule. On each end of that is the two amines ....then off each of the amines is two acetic acid groups, giving a total of 4, the tetra. Overall molecule looks like two Ys joined at the base