Treating with Vitamin C

[PaintGuru]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11762657#post11762657 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Puffalicious
I found 100% buffered pure vitamin C. It is the ascorbic acid, not the sodium ascorbate. Will this still lower the PH or is it safe to use?

Well it must be buffered with something I presume, whether it is Na, Ca, or Mg.

 

[Puffalicious]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11762690#post11762690 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by PaintGuru
Well it must be buffered with something I presume, whether it is Na, Ca, or Mg.

I think with Mg, I forgot....

 

[baloutang]

I started doing the prophylatic VitaC dosage. I'm dosing my 150 with apprx. 1000mg 2 x day and it's been going on for about a week. All my corals (SPS, Zoos, LPS) have awesome extensions and look phenomenal.
Has anyone had issues with their mushrooms when dosing? My blue mushrooms look a bit pinched and not as open today.
My tank params are good

Ph 8.3
Calc 475
dKH 10
N03 = 0
P04 =0

Can't test for magnesium as I don't have a test kit for that, but only my shrooms seem to be suffering. Let me know if anyone else is experiencing anything similar to that and if I need to back off on dosage to only 1x/day.

 

[Pufferpunk]

I have not noticed any adverse affects to any of my corals (I run a very mixed tank) including the shrooms.

montanabay, Finally, someone that is thinking along the same lines as myself! I tried this thread at Marine Depot & got shut down by all of them, including Eric Bornman. They kept telling me zoas are considered weedy pests in their tanks & I need to find out the source of why mine keep melting. 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?!

 

[Vinnie71975]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11765191#post11765191 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Pufferpunk
I have not noticed any adverse affects to any of my corals (I run a very mixed tank) including the shrooms.

montanabay, Finally, someone that is thinking along the same lines as myself! I tried this thread at Marine Depot & got shut down by all of them, including Eric Bornman. They kept telling me zoas are considered weedy pests in their tanks & I need to find out the source of why mine keep melting. 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?!

Now im not speaking from personal experience as im just starting in reef keeping but i think the problem May possiblely be that SPS and LPS prefer Much More Pristine water with target feeding Where as Zoa's tend to prefer a more Nutrient rich water(when i say this i mean Phyto,and Zoo plankton not nitrate and nitrite) And when people tend toward a Mixed reef they tend to keep the water by the conditions of the most costly coral which depending in type is normally the SPS/LPS stuff so in essences the water is "too Pure" for Zoas. this is of course just speculation on my part based on some stuff i have read.

 

[Pufferpunk]

Nope, not true in my case. Zoas/paly are the kings in my tank & everyone else just tags along for the ride. That's why I was so pleasantly surprised when I started seeing polyps on SPS that rarely had them out & the fantastic growth on my LPS. Not that I abuse them or anything, just don't make the tank "special" for them. Don't get me wrong--everyone that eats, gets fed the same slurry.

 

[chef.lewis]

Curious thread... I will keep track of this one too...
It sounds logical that VC could be of some help in a closed biosphere situation.
I would think small doses rather than some of the 'Mega' doses I have seen in the thread, but I'm not a biochemist or a doctor of anything.
I have actually used garlic in mine for immune response issues and it has worked for me on more than one occasion.
Interesting thread.

 

[Puffalicious]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11762690#post11762690 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by PaintGuru
Well it must be buffered with something I presume, whether it is Na, Ca, or Mg.

I found out today and it's buffered with Calcium, so it's Calcium Ascorbate... is that safe to use?

 

[Caleb Kruse]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11752277#post11752277 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jdieck
Caleb, great experiment. It is really strange that during your reasearch you did not seem to have found Thiel's article about the application of the vitamin.
Good Work. It is really sad the little help you got from established pet stores but I am sure if you had contacted some aquarists in your area you could have got more help.
In any case good work and congratulations!

Thanks, I found this article http://www.athiel.com/lib/vitc496.html I don't know if thats the right article but I had it at the end of my lab-write up.

 

[Pufferpunk]

This one is a bit more thorough/updated:
http://www.livingreefs.com/forums/saltwater-aquarium-articles/590-use-vitamin-c.html

Puffalicious, Yes, Calcium ascorbate is just what your looking for. Be sure to read the article above to figure out dosage.

jdieck, Since the dosage in Thiel's article is in ppm, can you write up an easy to understand dosage chart for us that is in mg/gal?

 

[driftin]

The formula is towards the end of the article in your link ---

[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

 

[Jeff]

Jeni, how much are you dosing now on your 90? I think I have been underdosing. I have been using around 2000mg twice a day on the 220.

 

[Pufferpunk]

Yup, you have. I think I'm gonna have to get way more C! I've only been dosing 1tsp, 2x/day, which is about 4500mg each time. Plus, I am still running the Purigen so who knows how much that's removing... Good thing I've estimated a 100g system for me, way easier to calculate.

Love your new sig!

 

[Jeff]

Even though i am underdosing, i have seen some great improvements. Any suggestions as to a good dose for me to end up at?
Tomarrow is surgery day...

 

[Abominable Reef]

OK, I'm game. Here are some polyps of mine that are hurting:

you can see some of them are still open in the upper right, but the majority are not. Also, near the bottom center are some closed up RPE's.

I added 4000mg Calcium ascorbate to my 100gallon system this morning for the first time, so we'll see, Does that dose sound about right?

 

[Pufferpunk]

AR, I'd start with 5ppm & work your way up. What VC are you using?

 

[sellout007]

I wonder if there is a max of vitamin C that is useful in the tank? At X amount of C it starts to be come usless?

What ppm are you dosing at now puffer? 5ppm was enough to rid my fish of ICH (at least visually) and they all look spectacular, I would be interested to see if you see even more of an improvement if you are going to increase your PPM dosage.

 

[bbehring]

Ok PP so I thought it was sodium ascorbate I was to buy, now it's calcium ascorbate? What's the difference? On i-herb.com both indicate as buffered. I'd like to not have to add buffer on my end after I dose.

 

[sellout007]

Both are buffered, and both are acceptable. Pick one and go with it. O)

 

[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.