Treating with Vitamin C

[madadi]

i think its more trouble then its worth to try to match it. you do a lot of water changes so you will be fine. as long as alk and cal are stable. and i bet you will be able to more easily keep the pH higher where you had it before.

if you really want to match as close as possible you would have to do a grams per mole calculation of each so you can determine the right amounts to get a 1:1 ration. thats the easy part because it doesn't take in consideration impurities which is why i said its more trouble then its worth and difficult to do. if you really want i can put some numbers together and have someone else double check them on here so you can determine if your at least close to a good ratio.

i think if you will continue to do what you been doing, including the very good water change schedule you maintain, you will be ok. i been thinking to get a tiny scale so i can measure grams because its hard to get the same amount each time with a powder. they have some cool digital ones on ebay

 

[PaintGuru]

Yeah this may be the cheapest source I found for buffered Vit C.

http://www.iherb.com/ProductDetails.aspx?c=1&pid=-7152293197697039798&at=0

 

[madadi]

ya that one is it, i got a smaller container.
just vitamin C and sodium no fillers at all.

 

[Pufferpunk]

Thanks, I just ordered 3 bottles!

 

[sellout007]

Im curious as to why it says to stop using the Vitamin C for a few months?

 

[madadi]

i would think since people see results quick, but the long term consequences to water chemistry are still unknown, its better to play it safe. i wouldn't hesitate to use it longterm but i might lower the dose for a few month and then use full strength periodically.

 

[Pufferpunk]

Same here. Now that I've got some buffer, I'm upping the dose.

 

[NirvanaFan]

Well, I decided to try dosing C. I've got a 75g tank with a 29g sump that has about 25g of water in it. There is about 85 pounds of rock in the main tank.

I've got a mixed reef. I have a couple acro frags, a pink birdsnest, a hydnopora, and a couple different monti caps. For LPS, there is a platygyra, a frogspawn, and a hammer. I have a bunch of softies. These include pulsing xenia, neon green star polyps, leather, colt, kenya tree, and various mushrooms. I have 2 colonies of zoas and 3 frags. I also have a green bubble tip anemone. I also have a deresa clam. It is probably 3.5 inches from tip to tip

The radioactive dragon eyes frag has 3 large, 1 medium, and 2 small polyps.
I have 2 red with cream center zoa frags. The larger frag has 7 large, 4 medium, and 2 small polyps. The smaller frag has 4 large, 4 medium, and 2 small polyps.

I don't really have any problems in my tank. The zoas stay open, there is good polyp extension in all of the corals, except for the leather. It stays closed most of the time. It does appear to be growing slowly though.

I am really looking for faster growth from the frags of zoas. Over the past couple weeks they have been growing, but I'm always looking for ways to increase growth rate.

The softies in my tank grow like crazy, and I've actually just gotten into collecting zoas. My xenia and green star polyps need to be fragged quite often.

Now for the dosing part. I obtained pure ascorbic acid from a health food store. I started dosing 1/8 teaspoon (625mg) this morning. The plan is to dose at about 8:30AM and about 8:30PM. Does this sound like a good starting dose? The plan is to up the dosage to 1/4 teaspoon (1250 mg) twice a day in a week.

I took about 50 pictures of my tank this morning, so I should have enough before pictures. I'll post them in a month or so when I post some after pictures. Sooooo.... lets see some extraordinary growth and color

 

[Pufferpunk]

Great documenting, thanks! I'm looking forward to the results. The only thing I would have done differently, is to buy buffered powder instead. It took about 3 months but I am finally noticing a dip in pH & have had to add a buffer. As the article states, adding sodium bicarbonate for my alk wasn't enough. It dropped from 8, to 8.0 in my main reef tank & in my softie/LPS/predator tank (few smaller puffers, etc. in there), it dropped down to 7.8. Adding buffer now, so I can treat one of the puffers for Crypt. He's holding his own in there.

 

[Trotter]

Looking good Puffer! Thanks for the info.

 

[Pufferpunk]

LOL, getting those posts up, huh?

 

[NirvanaFan]

The buffered C is sodium ascorbate, calcium ascorbate, or some mineral with the C right?

I recently had an appendectomy so I plan on taking the C myself too. Which buffered kind do you think is best? I'll get a buffered kind next time.

 

[geoxman]

Does anyone have a 5-10gallon acrylic nano with PC light that they are not using? I was at my LFS earlier and they had a colony of zoanthids that were infected with the zoapox. They are holding it for me until Monday. I can pay for actual shipping to me to conduct this experiment with C on pox and return it to you when finished.

I took down my QT with light quite a while back because I really dont have much room in the main. I have a 10 gl fish QT but it has no light. If someone also has a PC for the experiment I could pay for shipping to and from STL MO. good luck

 

[sellout007]

Does it have to be acrylic? A 10g glass tank is only like $10. Would be easier finding just a light then an entire setup.

 

[madadi]

the buffered kind is easier on your stomach if you have stomach upsets from the low acidity of the regular vitamin C. if you are on a low sodium diet due to heart or high blood pressure, then go easy on the sodium ascorbate. personaly i would take the magnesium ascorbate because we already have so much sodium in our diets. extra sodium in your diet just makes you retain more water.

 

[geoxman]

I also posted local for the light as I also have a 10gl fish QT. The nano with the extra filtration would be nice though.

 

[Pufferpunk]

I'm looking forward to the results you get on this one Phil! You think they'll have trouble holding the diseased colony? Are they gonna sell it if you don't PU by Monday?

 

[driftin]

My zoas look good and seem to be spreading quickly, but I'm going to give this a try to see the impact it has on other corals etc in the tank.

Does anybody know the shelf life of the sodium ascorbate powder? Using the formula in that article I only need to dose on the order of 400 mg... even dosing twice a day, the 16-ounce bottle will last me well over a year.

 

[tmcchicago]

Using buffered C makes sense. I noticed that there are various forms of buffered C available. The discussion here has focused on Sodium Ascorbate. Has anyone used or considred Calcium Ascorbate. 5000 mg of Calcium Ascorbate contains 4490 mg of Vitamin C and 510 mg of Calcium. Since most of us are trying to add Calcium anyhow, it seems like Calcium Ascorbate would make sense.

 

[killingseed]

found that one intresting.

http://www.iherb.com/ProductDetails.aspx?c=1&pid=474&at=0