Treating with Vitamin C

[jdieck]

For those looking for a source either of these seem to be more in line with what we need. More like in the form of food aditive rather than vitamin pills.
Note that this came out on a search and I am not familiar with the vendor nor with the product itself although I had considered the vendor as potential source of food grade calcium chloride.

Remember to keep keep the powder tightly closed away from moisture, heat and air.

http://www.bulkfoods.com/search_res...xtsearchParamVen=ALL&txtFromSearch=fromSearch

http://www.bulkfoods.com/search_res...tFromSearch=fromSearch&txtsearchParamTxt=4704

 

[Pufferpunk]

jdieck, Thanks for all your help! Are you dosing with VC too?

The 2nd link isn't buffered, am I correct? I still don't understand about the buffering.

 

[quiksilver]

jdieck, you are my hero! :thumbsup: That was amazing.

 

[flyyyguy]

Ill add this in relevance to what jdieck just said about it possibly not being the vitamin itself at all.......but breaking stuff down and allowing us to skim out what we normally cant.......

granted i am only on the second day but this is interesting to me just the same....

I never usually have cyano issues BUT....i just did a major reaquascape that involved some serious drilling, rocks out for extended periods of time and some associated death. Back behind my spraybars I DID have some pretty good cyano going on. No big deal, just the nature of what i just put my rock through and the flow behind my spraybars. I noticed that at the end of the day today, when the cyano should have been at its worst, it was nearly GONE.

very interesting I think. thanks for the explaining jdieck. carrying on

 

[jdieck]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11728860#post11728860 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Pufferpunk
jdieck, Thanks for all your help! Are you dosing with VC too?

The 2nd link isn't buffered, am I correct? I still don't understand about the buffering.

The first one is calcium ascorbate ("buffered") and the second one is the acid form.

I am not dosing vitamin C per se but I have always added a fair amount of Vitachem (which contains a good ratio of vitamin C) to the daily nori that I feed my tangs.
I really have an issue with zoos and palys.
I have been trying to get rid of them for the last 6 months and any rock that I had with them is now confined to the fuge but they grow everywere and no matter how many times I pull them out they keep on comming back in the main tank. It seems that their resiliance is inversely proportional to their atractiveness. The less atractive they are the more they reproduce and expand!

 

[jdieck]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11728861#post11728861 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by quiksilver
jdieck, you are my hero! :thumbsup: That was amazing.

Thanks, just note that anything more than what I have posted will be just speculation or mere cooincidental anecdotal references :lol:
In other words. There is very little known about this thing even for humans!

 

[NirvanaFan]

Thanks for the information jdieck. Once I can actually test for calcium again I'll try getting some buffered vitamin C. Hopefully a couple big water changes over the course of a couple weeks will help me out.

 

[mnestroy]

How about a recap?

I started this experiment at the very start of this tread, now it seems things have changed.

I see people have now switched away from the Vit C pills sold at Walgreen's? Why?? I though people had great success?

What is the stuff people are using now?

 

[Jeff]

With the addition of Jose's information this thread is really going to help people improve their reefs. Thanks Puffy and Jose

 

[Jeff]

I am using the Iherb Sodium Ascorbate and was wonderinging if you guys think that there will be a way to mix it with r/o water to make dosing easier? In other words, Can I mix 10,000 mg with 16 ounces of water, do the math and then be able to dose a small amount of the liquid twice daily. It would make things even easier.

 

[driftin]

It seems Thiel updated the article to correct the ppm calculation. This link was provided elsewhere in this thread:

http://www.livingreefs.com/forums/saltwater-aquarium-articles/590-use-vitamin-c.html

Vitamin C

Updated on May 13, 2000

Since I first wrote an article on Vitamin C, a few years ago, many more facts have come to light.
...snip...
Multiply that gallonage by the concentration you need to achieve and multiply that number by 3.785 to give you the number of liters you are dealing with or treating. Parts per million and milligrams per liter are the same amounts expressed differently. To achieve the correct result thought we need to convert from gallons to liters, hence the multiplication by 3.785.
...snip...
Albert J. Thiel

 

[jdieck]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11729676#post11729676 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by driftin
It seems Thiel updated the article to correct the ppm calculation. This link was provided elsewhere in this thread:

http://www.livingreefs.com/forums/saltwater-aquarium-articles/590-use-vitamin-c.html

Ooops!! It seams he corrected the mistake but he way it is restated it mans that those of you using the original guidelines need to use almost FOUR TIMES more vitamin than what you have been using.

I would suggest that if you are already obtaining good results and are not really treating any specific ailment or infection there will be no need to increase the dose beyond what you are already using and keep it as it considering it a prophylactic level.

For those of you that are looking for getting results or think you need to treat something specific and increase your dose, just be slow and be vigilant for any negative effects to continued dosage increase.

 

[sellout007]

I'm confused, he is still using the PPM in that quoted link. So how is that corrected?

I have approximately 60g of water, what should I be dosing? I am using 1/4 teaspoon twice a day. Which is about 1000mg 2x a day.


I think....

 

[jdieck]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11731116#post11731116 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by sellout007
I'm confused, he is still using the PPM in that quoted link. So how is that corrected?

There were two ways to interpret his original mistake.
a) He used ppm to incorrectly refer to mg/gallon (my assumption)
or
b) He multiplied ppm by the gallons instead by liters to get the dose rather than the liters.

in case (a) above you assume the concentration in ppm are mg per gallon and continue multiplying them by the gallons to get the dose but, in case (b) you assume the concentration is really ppm (mg per liter) and multiply it by the liters to get the concentration.
Correcting using (b) above results in a dose 3.8 timed higher than before because there are 3.8 times more liters than gallons in a tank.

He is now multiplying the concentration by the liters and not by the gallons so what Thiel is saying is that his previous calculations were leaving you far short in the dosification because as mentioned before this correction results in a dose that is 3.8 times higher than his previous calculations.

Before (original article):

30 ppm x 50 gallons = 1500 milligrams

Corrected (newer article):

50 gallons x 3.8 liters per gallon = 190 liters
30 ppm x 190 liters = 5,700 milligrams

 

[Pufferpunk]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11729494#post11729494 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by mnestroy
How about a recap?

I started this experiment at the very start of this tread, now it seems things have changed.

I see people have now switched away from the Vit C pills sold at Walgreen's? Why?? I though people had great success?

What is the stuff people are using now?

After using the Sam's Club Tablets for 3 months, I finally started seeing a drop in pH. So I switched to a buffered, more pure form of VC, in a powdered form of Sodium ascorbate, from www.i-herb.com. Just as easy to drop in a tsp of this, than 4 tabs.

 

[sellout007]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11731132#post11731132 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jdieck
There were two ways to interpret his original mistake.
a) He used ppm to incorrectly refer to mg/gallon (my assumption)
or
b) He multiplied ppm by the gallons instead by liters to get the dose rather than the liters.

in case (a) above you assume the concentration in ppm are mg per gallon and continue multiplying them by the gallons to get the dose but, in case (b) you assume the concentration is really ppm (mg per liter) and multiply it by the liters to get the concentration.
Correcting using (b) above results in a dose 3.8 timed higher than before because there are 3.8 times more liters than gallons in a tank.

He is now multiplying the concentration by the liters and not by the gallons so what Thiel is saying is that his previous calculations were leaving you far short in the dosification because as mentioned before this correction results in a dose that is 3.8 times higher than his previous calculations.

Before (original article):

30 ppm x 50 gallons = 1500 milligrams

Corrected (newer article):

50 gallons x 3.8 liters per gallon = 190 liters
30 ppm x 190 liters = 5,700 milligrams

Ahh I got ya, I didn't find it in the acticle when I skimmed over it again, now I see it.

So Ironically for 5ppm I equal out to about 1000mg 2x daily anyway. lol


60g x 3.8 = 228l
228 x 5ppm = 1140.


I get it now, thanks a lot for helping me get that.

 

[sellout007]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11731150#post11731150 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Pufferpunk
After using the Sam's Club Tablets for 3 months, I finally started seeing a drop in pH. So I switched to a buffered, more pure form of VC, in a powdered form of Sodium ascorbate, from www.i-herb.com. Just as easy to drop in a tsp of this, than 4 tabs.

Now according to what jdieck is saying, the buffered form that we bought from I-Herb is actually not going to help at all. We need to get food grade buffered form?

Correct jdieck? Or did I miss something?

 

[jdieck]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11731328#post11731328 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by sellout007
Now according to what jdieck is saying, the buffered form that we bought from I-Herb is actually not going to help at all. We need to get food grade buffered form?

Correct jdieck? Or did I miss something?

Pure vitamin C is pure vitamin C regardless of powder or pill form.
The acid compound will affect the PH and alkalinity, the others will not and the powder vs the pill might be easier to dissolve or handle, that is the only difference.

There is no real way for us to know which form or presentation is purer other than what they say on the label so, somehow you got to make your choice, close your eyes and jump in

 

[sellout007]

Wasn't refering to the pill or powder. I thought somewhere you said that the *buffered* form of either, really isn't that buffered and would still affect our PH?

I might have read it wrong.

 

[Pufferpunk]

So far, I'm very happy with the powder I bought from i-herb & the easiness of dosing.