Treating with Vitamin C

[jrlafrance]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13320501#post13320501 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Pufferpunk
Like I said, in my 15g Mantis tank, I use roughly ~1/8tsp.

So what do you dose in your bigger tank puffy (in terms of tsp or tbs)?

 

[Pufferpunk]

I use 1/2 tsp 1x/day in my 40g & 2 tsp at night, 1 tsp morning in my 100g.

 

[b16drag]

Started dosing for the last 1-2 weeks...

Initial impressions:

Positive
- SPS's are less brown and the blues are MUCH brighter (even the harder ones that I've had issues keeping colors on in the past)
- Zoas seem to like it but too early to tell
- Skimmer is skimming out nice brown junk
- Water clarity is slightly better

Some bad
- 1 SPS's have turned slightly "bleached" out looking... this one was green and smack dab out in the open with tons of light on it. <SHRUG>
- One of my green echino became just slightly lighter
- Slightly slimy residual on powerheads, etc.
- Dosing twice a day!

I did not have any issues with pH or alkalinity. My pH is chronically low @ 7.8-8 so it didn't budge it too much. Alk has also been doing okay as well. Hanging out in the 10's right now.

SPS, LPS, and Zoas are doing well besides those mentioned above. They initially closed up mildly and had decreased polyp extension on the first day, but thats all over now...

Overall, I've been pleasantly surprised by the positives of using Vitamin C. I'll continue to dose until I see any negative aspects. I'm in the 15ppm range and planning to bring it down a bit or keep it there.

Just for reference, I started dosing at the 5ppm x 3-4 days, then went up to 10 x 3 days and now 15ppm.

I may end up trying Beta-Gluten and Vit B12 at some point in time as well...

Thanks Puffy!

 

[b16drag]

I forgot to ask...

I'm assuming that the "slimy" stuff is probably from growth of some bacteria etc, and may decrease as time goes on, but for those dosing, how long did it take for it to decrease or does it NOT decrease?

 

[buckeyegirl]

Are you using tablets or powder? i started with tablets while I ordered the powder and had a lot of slime, which I think was from the coating on the tablets.

 

[buckeyegirl]

Need advice!

I started dosing 2 weeks ago, starting with tablets and now am using the soduim ascorbate powder from i-herb. I've been raising the ppm gradually and am up to about 23 ppm(5000 mg in 62 gallons)

ph - 8.2
alk - 11 tested with Elos
Ca - 400 tested with Elos
salinity - 1.025

I asked earlier about everything closing up more at night...now my zoas and shrooms close up completely every night, and this morning my blue zoas which have always looked good have not opened. Some other orange zoas are closing up more also. My Sinularia and Xenia look different, but not bad (both are shorter and fatter, less stretching out). Any thoughts???? I'm considering stopping the VC to see what happens.

Not everything looks worse....these look minutely better:

several new polyps

before:

now:

new polyp in middle left

 

[b16drag]

I've only used the powder form and am getting the slime. You might just want to make sure nothing else is bother those zoas... Might want to just blow them with the turkey baster... But not sure why they are closed up

 

[Pufferpunk]

Most of my zoas do close up at night--like they're sleeping/resting. Do you have hermit crabs in there? They are always making mine close up. Are they stayig closed all day? I am not seeing the same thing with mine & am dosing quite high, daily.

 

[buckeyegirl]

Only the blue ones in the top picture are staying closed all day. It just started happening 2 days ago. It is discouraging - before I started treating with VC my tank looked great except for a few melting zoas, now it's a mess. The water is cloudy, I have slime all over the place, my Zenia and Sinularia are shrinking, and some zoas look worse

 

[Pufferpunk]

All i can think is your alk is a bit high. What is your Mag? Precipitate in the water is normal if you have raised the VC too quickly. The extra slime is the feeding bacteria eating up nitrate--your skimmer should be going nuts too. That should subside, just keep cleaning it. My leathers are much larger with the VC, xenias look fine. And you know about my zoas, LPS & SPS. Not sure why you're having such problems.

 

[chinoxl3]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13424584#post13424584 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by buckeyegirl
...I've been raising the ppm gradually and am up to about 23 ppm(5000 mg in 62 gallons)...

I have been dosing for a few months and I have never went over 10ppm. I have 100 gallons and my tank looks great. This should be a range to shoot for if you only want to make your corals look good. I would slowly cut back to 5-10ppm and see how your corals react.

I would also recommend a water change just in case.

 

[Jeff]

I couldnt agree more. There seems to be a common thread when it comes to slime and corals reacting abnormally. Too much of a good thing leads to problems. It happened to me at the begining. It is very important to start very slowly and build up the dose to the desired level over a long period of time. I have never gone above 10 ppm and have never had a problem except once when I spilled some extra vitamin c powder in the sump. I had brown slime and angry corals for a week.

 

[howesholder]

edit.

 

[buckeyegirl]

oops, I answered while my boyfriend was logged in

Thanks for the advice, I will def. cut back on the VC. I did a 12 gallon water change yesterday that cleared up the water a lot too.

 

[IridescentLily]

.....up....

 

[b16drag]

My blue zoas are looking better than ever... I haven't seen them this nice since I've bought them.

Unfortunately once I got to about 15ppm, my tank clouded up on Thursday and this past weekend, one of my purple birdsnest started STN'ing. Unclear exactly why this happened but I know my dKH started creeping up on me went from 7->10->12 in a few days so that may have been the cause. Regardless, the zoas are looking awesome and the other SPS's are also doing very well.

I'm back down to about 5-10ppm and things are doing very well.

 

[Pufferpunk]

SPS are really sensitive to changes in alk like that.

 

[b16drag]

Yea I know... Unfortunately there was nothing I could do about it as I was out of town and came home to a dKH of 12.

It's fine. I've fragged it and the frags seem to be doing fair.

 

[b16drag]

Puffy, remind me when dosing Vitamin C... Are many of you guys running phosphate reactors? I have mine on hold but curious to know the consensus.... I'd figure it would defeat the point of dosing especially if its binding onto the Vitamin C the instant its in the sump...

Thoughts?

 

[Pufferpunk]

I don't run one, so someone else will have to answer this. Folks have been saying it's fine to leave skimmer on & carbon in but I always dose in the end of my sump after those.