Help with iodine results on ICP Analysis

[Brit’s Fish]

My questions are two fold -
I sent out two ICP tests and got back some weird results for iodine. My 150g system that is doing great showed iodine at 927.213 ppb which cannot be true as everything in that tank is still alive. My little 4.8 g Deskmate that has mostly zoas and mushrooms is showing 2.121 ppb iodine. Besides the fact that I use the same water for both tanks, I know that zoas use a lot of iodine. So can I trust these results?
My LFS mentioned they used ICP Analysis and also got a crazy high iodine result so now I don’t know what to think.

The second question is that in my 4.8g Deskmate, some of the zoas look as good as ever but a few are visibly struggling. Losing color, some have melted (but even the ones that have melted, only half melted and the rest look great?), some are stretching even though they’re at the top of the tank. My Purple Monsters are a prime example of the kind of stretching - they’re going in all directions, not just up towards the light. (Pics attached)
I also got a little lax on testing all major elements and realized that my Alk had dipped down to 6.1 last week. I’m dosing Brightwell Alkalin8.3 to catch up with that. I do 1g water changes every two weeks. I have an AI Prime 16HD on this tank about 12” above the water and have attached lighting schedule.
Parameters:
Salinity 1.026
Temp 77.6
NO3 6.6 (was consistently at ~11 for the last several months until I did two 1g WC in the same week to lower PO4)
PO4 0.33 (was closer to 0.5 for a few months)
Mag 1470
Cal 480
Alk 6.8 (up from 6.1 last week)

Should I dose iodine? I have Brightwell Iodion on hand but I don’t know how much to safely dose, especially if I’m not sure about my ICP results.
Any other ideas on why my zoas are being so weird? I don’t think I have any pests like zoa eating nudis (I have had them before and don’t see any signs of them in this tank). I have not switched salts (using TMP) & the only other thing I’ve done is add a bag of ChemiPure Blue Nano two weeks ago.

 

[Tavero]

My questions are two fold -
I sent out two ICP tests and got back some weird results for iodine. My 150g system that is doing great showed iodine at 927.213 ppb which cannot be true as everything in that tank is still alive. My little 4.8 g Deskmate that has mostly zoas and mushrooms is showing 2.121 ppb iodine. Besides the fact that I use the same water for both tanks, I know that zoas use a lot of iodine. So can I trust these results?
My LFS mentioned they used ICP Analysis and also got a crazy high iodine result so now I don’t know what to think.

The second question is that in my 4.8g Deskmate, some of the zoas look as good as ever but a few are visibly struggling. Losing color, some have melted (but even the ones that have melted, only half melted and the rest look great?), some are stretching even though they’re at the top of the tank. My Purple Monsters are a prime example of the kind of stretching - they’re going in all directions, not just up towards the light. (Pics attached)
I also got a little lax on testing all major elements and realized that my Alk had dipped down to 6.1 last week. I’m dosing Brightwell Alkalin8.3 to catch up with that. I do 1g water changes every two weeks. I have an AI Prime 16HD on this tank about 12” above the water and have attached lighting schedule.
Parameters:
Salinity 1.026
Temp 77.6
NO3 6.6 (was consistently at ~11 for the last several months until I did two 1g WC in the same week to lower PO4)
PO4 0.33 (was closer to 0.5 for a few months)
Mag 1470
Cal 480
Alk 6.8 (up from 6.1 last week)

Should I dose iodine? I have Brightwell Iodion on hand but I don’t know how much to safely dose, especially if I’m not sure about my ICP results.
Any other ideas on why my zoas are being so weird? I don’t think I have any pests like zoa eating nudis (I have had them before and don’t see any signs of them in this tank). I have not switched salts (using TMP) & the only other thing I’ve done is add a bag of ChemiPure Blue Nano two weeks ago.

Which company have you used for that ICP?

Where did you get that information that zoas use a lot of iodine? This is mentioned all the time but without any evidence.
When it come to the the dreaded zoa melting syndrome, I'm in a year long experiment with other members on reef2reef and the most probable cause seems to be a lack of fluoride. Fluctuations in salinity and phosphate depletion are also possibilities but easier to fix.

 

[EricR]

Are you saying that you're not intentionally dosing any form of iodine into the tank where ICP showed 900+ ppb?

As for the "should I dose" for zoas in the other tank, some people swear by it but didn't seem to do any good for me:
- all zoas did well for 1 year but then all had been looking sad for close to a year
- ICP showed low iodine at 0.012 mg/L (so 12 ppb) so I started dosing Seachem Reef Iodide
- after 6 months of iodide dosing, never saw any improvement and next ICP showed 0.526 mg/L (526 ppb) iodine so I stopped

...just one sample though

 

[Brit’s Fish]

Which company have you used for that ICP?

Where did you get that information that zoas use a lot of iodine? This is mentioned all the time but without any evidence.
When it come to the the dreaded zoa melting syndrome, I'm in a year long experiment with other members on reef2reef and the most probable cause seems to be a lack of fluoride. Fluctuations in salinity and phosphate depletion are also possibilities but easier to fix.

The company used is ICP Analysis and I guess I have been told by several different people, including two of my LFSs that zoas use and require iodine. I suppose I don’t have any true proof of that.
My salinity stays really stable in this tank and other than lowering phosphate recently, there hasn’t been much change. Maybe I should have let them stay at 0.5. I had realized a month ago that my Salifert PO4 test kit expired and I went back to my Hanna checker which gave me more accurate results than what I thought I had for PO4.

 

[Brit’s Fish]

Are you saying that you're not intentionally dosing any form of iodine into the tank where ICP showed 900+ ppb?

As for the "should I dose" for zoas in the other tank, some people swear by it but didn't seem to do any good for me:
- all zoas did well for 1 year but then all had been looking sad for close to a year
- ICP showed low iodine at 0.012 mg/L (so 12 ppb) so I started dosing Seachem Reef Iodide
- after 6 months of iodide dosing, never saw any improvement and next ICP showed 0.526 mg/L (526 ppb) iodine so I stopped

...just one sample though

Yes, I am not intentionally dosing any iodine in the tank that had the high reading. I have read that iodine can be tricky to test for but I don’t know what to rely on at this point.
Good to know what your results were when dosing iodide! Thank you for that!

 

[Brit’s Fish]

The company used is ICP Analysis and I guess I have been told by several different people, including two of my LFSs that zoas use and require iodine. I suppose I don’t have any true proof of that.
My salinity stays really stable in this tank and other than lowering phosphate recently, there hasn’t been much change. Maybe I should have let them stay at 0.5. I had realized a month ago that my Salifert PO4 test kit expired and I went back to my Hanna checker which gave me more accurate results than what I thought I had for PO4.

Now I remember your reply to my post a month or so ago when I shared my little zoa tank! I was definitely wrong on my PO4 readings then. That was when I was using my Salifert kit that i didn’t realize expired and then went back to my Hanna checker after doing some water changes to get my PO4 down a bit. PO4 was reading much differently on salifert and then on my Hanna checker. I had my LFS check their Hanna checker against mine. I do still have hair algae in the back of the tank that I pull out every so often which maybe messes with my readings from time to time?

 

[Pod_01]

When it come to the the dreaded zoa melting syndrome, I'm in a year long experiment with other members on reef2reef and the most probable cause seems to be a lack of fluoride.

Not trying to hijack the discussion but is there more to this? I am all ears, I love Zoas but the melting behaviour is driving me insane.

 

[Tavero]

Yes, I am not intentionally dosing any iodine in the tank that had the high reading. I have read that iodine can be tricky to test for but I don’t know what to rely on at this point.
Good to know what your results were when dosing iodide! Thank you for that!

You should probably use a different company for ICP measurements. ICP analysis has proven to be unreliable and giving off significantly higher results for iodine than is present.

HOBBY GRADE TEST KITS CAN OUTPERFORM ICP MEASUREMENTS…REALLY??

INTRODUCTION BACKGROUND In May of 2022 we (@Dan_P, @taricha and I) posted an article that looked at the quality of the data reported by ICP-OES measurements from several vendors. Our goal was to help bring some clarity to the community to help evaluate and interpret the results of an ICP test...

www.reef2reef.com

I had several water samples tested by ati and fauna marine and never had such fantastic iodine levels.

Not trying to hijack the discussion but is there more to this? I am all ears, I love Zoas but the melting behaviour is driving me insane.

Mystery Zoa melt, my search for a cure (follow my journey).

Given the crazy amount of information out there, along with endless accounts of experienced reefers who out of nowhere begin to struggle keeping zoanthids long term. I wanted to make a dedicated post where I document all of my attempts at solving my miserable and dying zoanthid collection...

www.reef2reef.com

This is the tread in question. I don't recommend reading it because it's terribly messy. Because of that I want to summarize everything into a pdf.
While the effect of iodine on zoanthids was questionable, a lot of reefers have seen improvements by dosing fluoride. I'm not telling you to start dosing it without knowing the present concentration, but if you do, please report back with your results so I have an additional sample point for the summary.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

It’s a fine experiment to dose iodine when it is low and see if it helps anything, but I would not assume it is necessarily going to show a change.

 

[Brit’s Fish]

You should probably use a different company for ICP measurements. ICP analysis has proven to be unreliable and giving off significantly higher results for iodine than is present.

HOBBY GRADE TEST KITS CAN OUTPERFORM ICP MEASUREMENTS…REALLY??

INTRODUCTION BACKGROUND In May of 2022 we (@Dan_P, @taricha and I) posted an article that looked at the quality of the data reported by ICP-OES measurements from several vendors. Our goal was to help bring some clarity to the community to help evaluate and interpret the results of an ICP test...

www.reef2reef.com

I had several water samples tested by ati and fauna marine and never had such fantastic iodine levels.

Mystery Zoa melt, my search for a cure (follow my journey).

Given the crazy amount of information out there, along with endless accounts of experienced reefers who out of nowhere begin to struggle keeping zoanthids long term. I wanted to make a dedicated post where I document all of my attempts at solving my miserable and dying zoanthid collection...

www.reef2reef.com

This is the tread in question. I don't recommend reading it because it's terribly messy. Because of that I want to summarize everything into a pdf.
While the effect of iodine on zoanthids was questionable, a lot of reefers have seen improvements by dosing fluoride. I'm not telling you to start dosing it without knowing the present concentration, but if you do, please report back with your results so I have an additional sample point for the summary.

Thank you so much! I actually have read through most of that thread already… you and OP had some really interesting results with all the different things you tried. I will certainly let you know if I ever end up dosing Fluoride but I’m ordering an ATI test before I do anything at all.
Thanks again for your input!