Treating with Vitamin C

[Fishcrazy06]

Man the new dosing seems to be an awful lot! or is it just me? I stopped dosing as I was using the cheap pill vitamin C. One thing I did notice. My skimmer didn't go nuts it performed really good with dosing the Vitamin C in a pill form I was emptying my cup every day and a half compared to about every 3 and it was nasty stinky! Going to town tomorrow and there is a health store that sells the sodium ascorbate so I will be picking that up! Just a little concerned on the new dosing amounts is all!

Eric

 

[bbehring]

Would someone in the chemistry know (jdieck comes to mind!) put together a simplified dosing table, say for 20 gal on up on the standard size tank volumes? This might help everyone on the dosing side to make sure we are not over or under dosing.

 

[Jeff]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11771997#post11771997 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by bbehring
Would someone in the chemistry know (jdieck comes to mind!) put together a simplified dosing table, say for 20 gal on up on the standard size tank volumes? This might help everyone on the dosing side to make sure we are not over or under dosing.

It doesnt get much easier then this one from the previous page:


[desired ppm] x [system gallonage] x 3.785 = mg Vitamin C

So for every 100 gallons:

5 ppm ----- 1892 mg VC
10 ppm ---- 3785 mg VC
15 ppm ---- 5677 mg VC
20 ppm ---- 7570 mg VC
25 ppm ---- 9462 mg VC
30 ppm ---- 11355 mg VC

This is really easy to use. I have a 220 gallon tank so I just basicly double the amounts. You cound divide by the amount you need right? Using this guide I figured out I was underdosing.

 

[PaintGuru]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11771813#post11771813 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ebrabender
Man the new dosing seems to be an awful lot! or is it just me? I stopped dosing as I was using the cheap pill vitamin C. One thing I did notice. My skimmer didn't go nuts it performed really good with dosing the Vitamin C in a pill form I was emptying my cup every day and a half compared to about every 3 and it was nasty stinky! Going to town tomorrow and there is a health store that sells the sodium ascorbate so I will be picking that up! Just a little concerned on the new dosing amounts is all!

Eric

Yeah no way I go that high, just from a financial side of it. I could see spot dosing that high, but with people noticing improvements from less, I think I will stick to the lower doses.

 

[Jeff]

I noticed improvments from dosing somewhere around 2 ppm for the last 6 weeks.

 

[Vinnie71975]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11772096#post11772096 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Engine 7
It doesnt get much easier then this one from the previous page:


[desired ppm] x [system gallonage] x 3.785 = mg Vitamin C

So for every 100 gallons:

5 ppm ----- 1892 mg VC
10 ppm ---- 3785 mg VC
15 ppm ---- 5677 mg VC
20 ppm ---- 7570 mg VC
25 ppm ---- 9462 mg VC
30 ppm ---- 11355 mg VC

This is really easy to use. I have a 220 gallon tank so I just basicly double the amounts. You cound divide by the amount you need right? Using this guide I figured out I was underdosing.

Great guide thanks a bunch im gonna aim to work up to 20ppm and hang there for a couple weeks or so just to see if there is any improvement once i get my Powder that is i just hate what the pills did to my skimmer.

 

[Vinnie71975]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11771813#post11771813 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ebrabender
Man the new dosing seems to be an awful lot! or is it just me? I stopped dosing as I was using the cheap pill vitamin C. One thing I did notice. My skimmer didn't go nuts it performed really good with dosing the Vitamin C in a pill form I was emptying my cup every day and a half compared to about every 3 and it was nasty stinky! Going to town tomorrow and there is a health store that sells the sodium ascorbate so I will be picking that up! Just a little concerned on the new dosing amounts is all!

Eric

Man your luck the pills made my skimmer fill the cup every 5 mins and let me tell ya it wasn't skim mate it was just tank water, and when i dialed it back i got no foam talk about a hassle! I ordered Pure Powder off line 21 bucks for 2 lbs shipped.

 

[sellout007]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11771671#post11771671 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Pufferpunk
I figure at 1tsp (4500mg), 2x/day, I haven't been dosing much at all, so I've just upped it to 2tsb & will go to a tbsp by the end of the week. That will be 13,350 2x/day or around 35ppm.

Looks like I'm gonna have to get more VC! I have some new polyps I just got that had been closed for a week. Very disappointed... One of them were some AoG I got for free. Today I see a little, bright orange face peaking out! The other were Spiderman zoas that I thought I had lost completely. Today I see some blue.

Not to derail the thread, but don't you think there is an underlying problem in your tank if most of your zoas don't open up? Then again, maybe it's I just get the impression that all of them are not doing well since thats all we are talking about. haha

Are you happy with the results? I assume yes, so are you upping your dosage simply because you want to see better results? Do you think you will?

I am curious to see at what point the amount of VC we put in starts to become usless. Or I guess the saturation point? *shrug* Anyone get what I am saying?

 

[Pufferpunk]

Sellout, Look on page 31. There is a good guess as to what may be happening with my tank & many other's. I've been thinking this theory to be true for a while now.

 

[sellout007]

I didn't see anything on pg. 31. I read a few pages back that you think its because of your soft corals are releasing chemicals and causing problems with the zoas. But wouldn't that cause problems with other corals and not just zoas? And wouldn't carbon/purigen take that out?

Have you tried to find out if it is a specific coral? Start removing them from your tank?

 

[RoyalEnchntrss]

Ohhhhk so I jumped onboard and finally ordered the Calcium Ascorbate that ya'll are getting so I'll start using that instead of the pills when it gets here in about a week... The Pills have really been helping my sick zoos though so I'm excited to see what the powder will do!

 

[LiveRock27]

I just read through all 32 pages and I am headed to the drug store tomorrow to pick up my bottle of sodium ascorbate. I have several new zoas that have been in my tank for a week now and haven't opened, so I will take pics before I start dosing tomorrow.

 

[Pufferpunk]

Everyone, Please take some "before" pics! I am going to be documenting this so the more pics & dosing info you post, the better I can document the progress of using vitamin C for our corals.

Sellout, this is what I'm talking about:
"We all start off with healthy tanks, keep adding corals, they keep growing but soon we might reach a "carrying" capacity of sorts in the tank. Natures way for corals to deal with this is chemical warfare. I think V-C's antioxidant properties are helping to neutralize these chemicals. "

My comment on that was:
"All along I had a strong feeling it is because of the mixed reef that I prefer to keep. There is no doubt going to be chemical warfare going on in there, despite the Purigen I use in my sump. I just don't know why the C makes everything all good in there?!"

If you're ever near O'hare, please stop by my house to see my tank. Then tell me to move out specific corals--that thing is packed!

 

[zeppelin]

Also, looking at some of the previous research that suggests vitamin C potency in water diminishes by about 50% in the first 4 hours, then levels off and diminishes based on outside influence(coral use, chemicals interacting with it, etc.) spreading the dosage out over the day seems the best. You will actually be running a lower dosage, and re-boosting that dosage periodically.

BTW, I switched to the fine crystal C-Ascorbate a couple weeks ago. Skimmer settled down a bit, but is still skimming better than it has in awhile. I think there is an added benefit here that helps the corals also. The vitamin C must be doing something to create the extra 'foam' in the skimmer that is increasing its efficiency. Not sure what that may be yet. In the pills, I'm sure it was the binding ingredient, but in the new form I am using there must be another reason.

Has anyone found any probe type system available out there that will monitor vitamin C in liquid? All this theorizing is great, but until we get some actual numbers showing initial concentration, and usage patterns, all we have is the 'my corals look better to me'. Which is a good thing, dont get me wrong, but we really need to get some factual evidence.

 

[sellout007]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11775698#post11775698 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Pufferpunk


If you're ever near O'hare, please stop by my house to see my tank. Then tell me to move out specific corals--that thing is packed!

Yeah thats the quote I was talking about, I guess we just have different posts per thread so the pages were off.

Aren't you curious to see if you can locate the problem?

 

[Vinnie71975]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11776650#post11776650 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by zeppelin
Also, looking at some of the previous research that suggests vitamin C potency in water diminishes by about 50% in the first 4 hours, then levels off and diminishes based on outside influence(coral use, chemicals interacting with it, etc.) spreading the dosage out over the day seems the best. You will actually be running a lower dosage, and re-boosting that dosage periodically.

BTW, I switched to the fine crystal C-Ascorbate a couple weeks ago. Skimmer settled down a bit, but is still skimming better than it has in awhile. I think there is an added benefit here that helps the corals also. The vitamin C must be doing something to create the extra 'foam' in the skimmer that is increasing its efficiency. Not sure what that may be yet. In the pills, I'm sure it was the binding ingredient, but in the new form I am using there must be another reason.

Has anyone found any probe type system available out there that will monitor vitamin C in liquid? All this theorizing is great, but until we get some actual numbers showing initial concentration, and usage patterns, all we have is the 'my corals look better to me'. Which is a good thing, dont get me wrong, but we really need to get some factual evidence.

I am fairly Sure that there isn't a test kit or probe made to test for Vitamin C yet, Take in that Dosing it in a SW tank is still fairly new. Im no chemist but i think it would be fairly hard (at least on a commercial basis) to make a test kit for Vitamin C but i could be wrong.

 

[Pufferpunk]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11777178#post11777178 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by sellout007
Aren't you curious to see if you can locate the problem?

Of course but I wouldn't even know where to start. This is waht Borneman was getting at too. He wouldn't even consider the C, until I pinpointed why my zoas were melting in my tank & his were growing like weeds. Untill I get more data from others as to how their tanks are stocked, I have nothing to compare against & I'm not about to go about tearing apart my tank. It's too perfectly situated. And what about the benefit of the VC to all my other corals & fish?

 

[sellout007]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11777392#post11777392 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Pufferpunk
Of course but I wouldn't even know where to start. This is waht Borneman was getting at too. He wouldn't even consider the C, until I pinpointed why my zoas were melting in my tank & his were growing like weeds. Untill I get more data from others as to how their tanks are stocked, I have nothing to compare against & I'm not about to go about tearing apart my tank. It's too perfectly situated. And what about the benefit of the VC to all my other corals & fish?

Well, he wants you to figure that out so you can see why/what the C is helping. If you can pinpoint it was "X" coral(s) that goes a LONG way to figuring out why the C is helping and what it is doing.

To be honest, you want to figure this out, its what you should do. It would also help you figure out what not to do (in terms of corals) for future use. I know your a huge advocate of making living conditions for your corals/fish perfect, so why skimp now? If you know/suspect something is hurting some of your corals why not try and find out the problem and fix it.

 

[Puffalicious]

I started dosing calcium ascorbate 2 days ago and I can already see a change with my Kenya Tree. It has been slumped over the last 2-3 weeks and yesterday when I looked at it, it was a little healthier. I can't wait to see great results from VC

 

[Pufferpunk]

I'm not sure what you would have me do--remove the offending corals? IMO, that would be the leathers, which are growing on the same large rocks the zoas are.