So I've been testing my water weekly, but I've always had difficulty with my iodine tests. I had been using a Seachem Iodine and Iodide test, but I found it to be quite variable, such as i could test back to back specimens from the tank and get quite different results - frequently the results were clear ( 0 iodine). I finally decided to purchase a different test kit and purchased a Salifert Iodine kit. The Salifert tests always came up 0!!
I didn't believe the results really are zero since my shrimp all seem to molt regularly and seem quite healthy (low iodine is supposed to hamper their ability to molt properly from what i've read).
Today I got the bright idea to just simpy test the fresh salt water mix rather than the tank water. I use
Instant Ocean Reef Crystals which i would find very hard to believe contains no iodine. Well it too tested 0 for me. Then I got an even brighter idea and put one drop of my iodine supplement (Kent marine, concentrated iodine) right into a test specimen and test that too. Yeah, you guessed it, it came up 0 with the
Salifert test. I didn't use the Seachem test on the fresh salt mix or iodine supplement as I'm just too frustrated now.
So now I'm at my wits end. I've read the instructions carefully and followed them closely according to both manufacturer's instructions and just can't make the iodine tests work properly. The Salifert kit does make some mention about particular types of iodine won't register with their test. What is everyone else doing? What test kit are you using? I'd be particularly interested in what test kit people are using while also using the Instant Ocean Reef Crystals. Does everyone have as much trouble consistently testing for iodine?
