Salifert is about to come out with a new iodine kit (using a yellow color instead of a pink color). The Salifert iodine test kit detects iodide, iodate, and molecular iodine. I fell into that trap years ago in dosing iodate to my tank, and a significant concentration built up before I specifically tested for it. Consequently, this kit may substantially underestimate the total amount of iodine present. There is also the concern that supplemental iodide, and those forms of iodine coming in with marine foods, may end up partially as iodate. I would also not advise using this kit if you are adding an iodine supplement that contains considerable amounts of iodate, molecular iodine (that may break down into products that include iodate and iodide)59, or organic iodine forms. So if your tank water matches normal seawater in quantity and speciation of iodine, then it will look artificially low (say, about 0.01 or 0.02 ppm). A potential drawback to this kit is that it doesn’t detect iodate. It is unlikely that there will be much I2 in an aquarium as it quickly breaks down into other products59.
The Seachem iodine kit detects only iodide (I-) and molecular iodine (I2). I’d like to hold off on detailed comments about how well they work until I’ve had additional time to study them, but so far my experience has been rather less successful that with simpler kits (alkalinity, calcium, etc.). Unfortunately, the use and interpretation of these kits is tedious and complicated.
Of the commercially available kits, the Seachem and Salifert iodine kits are the most popular in the US. Unfortunately, those differences make comparisons of the different methods almost impossible, and also complicate the interpretation of the data from any single one of them. Even confining the list to those that most aquarists are likely to encounter, there are still at least three fundamentally different ways, and those three all detect different subsets of the total iodine species in water. There are many ways to measure iodine in seawater. You may be interested in Randy's article on Iodine as well:
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