Treating with Vitamin C

[twodaend]

funkyman,

Is this what you are talking about?

1/4 tsp=1112 mg.

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
Dose 2x/day.

Thus for a 20g tank to maintain 10ppm I would dose 757 mg VC. Am I reading that correctly and how would I know how much ppm to maintain?

 

[funkyman]

Yup. I'll have to post a pic later. I just went to use my camera and it seems that my teenage son has obsconded with it.

 

[Jeff]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14236526#post14236526 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Genetics
Any specific reason I might not see results? If you look at the literature for fish they were finding increased resistance to disease at 30mg/kg weight. If I have a 3-4gram fish, I need only 0.10ppm. But that's assuming it is being absorbed from the water, which I haven't found any literature saying that it would be. There are plenty of people that state they see effects at 2ppm with VC. Why does it have to be 30ppm? The fact people are seeing benefits at 2ppm means that they could be over dosing. Besides, looking at DOC concentrations of a reef ecosystem you rarely find concentrations over 1ppm unless you want coral bleaching. DOCs are rather complex but I'm interested in seeing if there are effects that don't mess with total DOC concentrations greatly.

I must have misunderstood your intent here. This 103 page thread is about dosing sodium ascorbate in specific amounts to achieve positive results in corals and water quality. I didnt know you were dosing merely for fish health. Pufferpunk has taken old information about vitamin c, refined it, tested it, and reported it to reefers such as myself and others to use in their reefs to benefit corals, nitrate reduction, and improve water quality. Your post is not the first one with a comparison of natural reefs and home aquariums but we have stated in the past that the comparison isnt fair since a very small amount of our maintenance/dosing is natural. The concentration of anything we use can not be compared to natural sea. We work around mother nature to achieve the best possible results. This is true for any dosing, especially vitamin c since it isnt naturally "dosed" to the oceans. Regarding the higher end (30ppm) dosing, it isnt for everybody. I dose around 6-7 ppm and have had great results for over a year with coral coloration/spread, nitrate/phosphate reduction and general health of my little reef.
Again, sorry about the confusion. I thaught you were talking about dosing 0.05 ppm for the same reason as the rest of us. Let us know how that dose works out for you regarding your fish.

 

[r-balljunkie]

has anyone noticed more extensions on SPS, with VC usage?
(and before anyone asks, i have been reading for 4+ hours!!!!)

just looking for a bit of confirmation.

c

 

[funkyman]

 

[Genetics]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14237818#post14237818 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by r-balljunkie
has anyone noticed more extensions on SPS, with VC usage?
(and before anyone asks, i have been reading for 4+ hours!!!!)

just looking for a bit of confirmation.

c

Yes it's possible. But it wouldn't be a direct effect of the VC.

 

[Pufferpunk]

How do you know this? I find all the improvements in my system is directly connected with my VC dosing. Larger leathers with polyps never seen before, much better coloration in all my soft corals & LPS, polyp extention in my SPS & growth in them as never before & fantastic coloration & growth/alrger polyps in zoanthids, where I never expected most of them to make it past the frag stage.

In addition to much better skimmer function & nitrate reduction.

 

[Genetics]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14238727#post14238727 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Pufferpunk
How do you know this? I find all the improvements in my system is directly connected with my VC dosing. Larger leathers with polyps never seen before, much better coloration in all my soft corals & LPS, polyp extention in my SPS & growth in them as never before & fantastic coloration & growth/alrger polyps in zoanthids, where I never expected most of them to make it past the frag stage.

In addition to much better skimmer function & nitrate reduction.

Good question. VC acts as a carbon source for bacteria. They reduce nitrate and phosphates. This leads to improvement in polyp extension, coloration, and water clarity. Plus, ascorbic acid was found to help deter bacterial infections in fish. As for the zoos, it may provide extra stimulation for collagen production or potentially fight out bacterial/viral infections. Maybe it has some ability to stimulate polyp extension directly but at this point I'm rather uncertain.

 

[Jeff]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14238790#post14238790 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Genetics
Good question. VC acts as a carbon source for bacteria. They reduce nitrate and phosphates. This leads to improvement in polyp extension, coloration, and water clarity. Plus, ascorbic acid was found to help deter bacterial infections in fish. As for the zoos, it may provide extra stimulation for collagen production or potentially fight out bacterial/viral infections. Maybe it has some ability to stimulate polyp extension directly but at this point I'm rather uncertain.

Yes it's possible. But it wouldn't be a direct effect of the VC.

Thats not all it does. I really hate to come across as rude Genetics, but if you are going to answer peoples questions in this thread, you should probably read the entire thread, dose at the recommended dosages for awhile, and only answer questions if you are certain.

 

[Genetics]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14239269#post14239269 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Jeff
Thats not all it does. I really hate to come across as rude Genetics, but if you are going to answer peoples questions in this thread, you should probably read the entire thread, dose at the recommended dosages for awhile, and only answer questions if you are certain.

:thumbsup:

 

[The REeFFers]

my ph has dropped even more *** ..... it was at 8.3 a week ago then after 2 days of dosing it dropped to 8.0 and now its at 7.8 im only doesing 1/4 tsp x2 in my 28 gallon. Should i just stop ??

 

[Pufferpunk]

All you guys worrying about your pH dropping--is it affecting your cxorals at all? I haven't tested the pH in my frag tank, where I dose 100ppm into but I'll tell you what--I've got about $300-400 worth of frags in there & they all look fantastic!

BTW, just tested the pH in that tank & it remains 8.3 & I do not add anything to that tank except VC--no extra dosing.

Tested my DT, just for good measure--8.3.

 

[twodaend]

How do you guys figure out what ppm to maintain? I have the dosage chart and read the article posted early in the thread. It gave an example of a 90 gallon tank.

90 x 30ppm = 2700 mg (30ppm was the desired concentration)

However how do you determine if you need to maintain 5ppm, 30ppm or somewhere in the middle? I have a 20L with a HOB fuge and I have about 18 total gallons of water. Nothing is wrong in my tank so I'm looking to dose to get better growth and color.

 

[Pufferpunk]

I suggest 5-10ppm for the purposes you are dosing, 30-100ppm for extreme loss/disease of corals/fish. You'll have to experiment a bit after reaching your desired dosages. I find ~23ppm easiest & most productive to dose in my DT (100g), since I have issues keeping zoas from melting without VC. I dose at a higher concentration on my frag tank, since I am always adding newly fragged corals to that one & I dose only 1x/day in my softie tank, just for nitrate control.

 

[The REeFFers]

ya my zoas look good but once i start putting fish in my tank i cant have a ph of 7.8 that will stress them out. am i adding to much to fast ? what would cause my ph to drop . 5 in a week

 

[twodaend]

So to maintain a 10ppm of VC in a 20 gallon tank according to the article I would need to dose 200mg 2x/day. With that, if my math is correct, that would be about 1/5 of the chart here stating 1/4 = 1112mg. I'm not sure what 1/5 of 1/4 is, but I don't think they have a measuring spoon that small. :crazy1:

 

[Pufferpunk]

Try taking one of those Salifert test kit spoons & see how many of those fill a 1/4 tsp & go from there.

 

[Genetics]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14242290#post14242290 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by twodaend
How do you guys figure out what ppm to maintain? I have the dosage chart and read the article posted early in the thread. It gave an example of a 90 gallon tank.

90 x 30ppm = 2700 mg (30ppm was the desired concentration)

PPM (parts per million) is figured out by using the metric system, not the english system. For a 90 gallon tank you will need to convert it to liters and from there you can figure out the milligrams needed. After that, then you need to convert it back to english measurements (tsp, or tblsp). So for 90gallons x 3.8L/gallon x 30mg/liter (which is ppm) = 10,260mg :eek1:

Normal sodium ascorbic acid is roughly 4400mg per tsp. So you will need 2 1/3 tsp in a 90g to obtain a 30ppm dose (10.260/4400). And then do this twice a day as say the instructions. Alright, I'll go back to the shadows....

 

[twodaend]

Genetics,

Thanks for the calculations. However, I was just wondering how do you determine the amount of ppm you should be aiming for. I think Pufferpunk answered by saying 5-10ppm for growth and 30-100ppm to help with problematic issues. I'll be shooting for about 200mg 2x/day in my 20 gallon tank which should but me close to 10ppm.

I got 200mg by looking at the chart in the thread for a 100 gallon tank. My tank is 1/5th of that so I took 1/5th of the 1112 mg that 1/4th tsp will give and I got ~ 200mg. Wew, this is a lot of math. :spin2:

 

[Pufferpunk]

Yeah, I HATE math!