Treating with Vitamin C

Status
Not open for further replies.
If your Birdsnest behaves like mine, its temporary. It was seriously PO'ed for 2 days. No polyp extension, almost looked white. I thought it was on its way out and considered stopping my dosing. But, day 3 had it looking better than ever.
 
Forgive me for asking this, Im sure it was answered 50 times by now in the last 100 pages but were exactly do you place the pill? In your skimmer so that it disolves slowly?
Thanks,
Kinerson
 
Here it is again:

Use this product:
http://www.iherb.com/ProductDetails...293197697039798
$5 0ff coupon code: LUL789

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.

Be sure your pH and alk are within normal reef limits before starting.
Shoot for a ppm of around 5 if only dosing for improved coral growth, coloration, and spread. Shoot for higher amounts up to 30 ppm if you are having melting zoas or closed zoas and look for the causes of your problems as you dose. Check for high nitrates, pests, zoa pox, predators, and unstable water conditions.
Dose low amounts and increase the amount slowly over the course of a few days to a couple weeks.
If you notice an algae bloom or increased skim on your glass then cut back by half until it disappears.
Watch your skimmer, it will start to skim more.
Dose the amount twice a day in a fast moving area of your sump or overflow. You may dilute the vitamin c in ro/di water for a minute then pour into my overflow. If adding to sump, try and add the vitamin c after filtration such as skimmers and reactors.
If you have a question, ask here. I checks this thread daily.

Be sure to take some "before" pics!
 
Last edited:
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14263902#post14263902 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by kinerson
Forgive me for asking this, Im sure it was answered 50 times by now in the last 100 pages but were exactly do you place the pill? In your skimmer so that it disolves slowly?
Thanks,
Kinerson
Just to be clear, the instructions that Puffy posted above are for the pure sodium ascorbate not a pill. You may have problems with ph or other if using the pill. The instructions are for dosing the Iherb product that has been tested.
 
Thanks Puffer

O.K. So the VC must be in a powder form (capsul).

So if you have a 100g tank full of live rock and a deep sand bed should you figure 100g of water volume or a more accurate amount of say 70g? Also, can or should this dosing be continued long term?

Thanks a bunch,
Kinerson
 
I have been dosing for 18 months now & will probably dose forever, after seeing the benefits. I also don't ever want to see melting zoas again!

Please stick with the link recommended above for the VC product.
 
Yes I do.

So if you have a 100g tank full of live rock and a deep sand bed should you figure 100g of water volume or a more accurate amount of say 70g?
 
Not that this is scientific at all, but after 1wk of dosing a total of 0.10ppm Vitamin C daily I have noticed my zoos that started to decline recently are now beginning to open again. Also, about 2 days ago I noticed my fish seemed more vibrant in coloration.
 
Also if your dealing with melting zoos and slowly get up to the recomended 30ppm, once the zoos stop melting and return to a healthy conditions, would you slowly drop down to and stay at 5ppm?

I also had a question about shelf life. How long can you keep an unopened bottle of this stuff before it looses it's potency?

Thanks
 
Last edited:
I am dosing at ~23ppm in the evening (2 tsp ina a 100g total water volume system) & 1/2 that in the mornings. I found when I dosed much less or stopped dosing all together, they started receding again.
 
So basically you're saying the tank or the zoos themselves are dependent on it to live?

Ever notice a significant drop or rise in any specific water parameter when you stop dosing?
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14264755#post14264755 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Skeptic_07
So basically you're saying the tank or the zoos themselves are dependent on it to live?

Ever notice a significant drop or rise in any specific water parameter when you stop dosing?
It's been my experience that if you have a problem and the vitamin c helps, then reducing or stopping dosing may bring you back to your origional state/problem.
I noticed a rise in nitrates and possibly phosphates when I stopped for a month. I feed really really heavy though and have a lot of big fish.
 
hey there,

this is my first post on this thread. Thanks for all the hard work and devotion.
I started dosing Vit C about 1 and a half weeks ago. I am using ascorbic acid from the Vitamin Shoppe, 1/4 tsp. is 1000 mg. I started dosing 1/4 tsp twice daily in a 90 gallon, then bumped it up to half a tsp. and now have been doing one tsp. twice daily. The 90 gallon is a mixed reef, mostly sps, some lps , stragler shrooms and a few zoanthids and palys that have survived the magical disappearing act .
I pulled all the zoanthids I could out of the tank and set up a 15 gallon. Along with a 12 gallon cube that holds RBTA and clowns I tried to save the zoanthids. Fresh water and iodine dips, inspection of each frag for pests, and cleaning of unwanted debri still left me puzzled. I probobly had around 20 small frags in the 12 gallon pod and another 20+ in the 15 gallon. They are all in the 15 gallon now.The zoanthids were holding but growth was not great and then the frags would receed and come back smaller.
So, my results have been.

On the 90 gallon, first thing I noticed was the smell of the skimmate changed. I am pulling twice the skimmate I was before dosing C. The foam has been "thicker" and the bubbles smaller and more condensed. The other noticeable difference is the filter sock. I used to change the filter sock every three days or sometimes longer if feeling lazy. The sock would be dark and filled with goodies. Now from dosing C the sock gets clogged after two days, and fills with water which lowers the level in the sump . I can either change the sock or add even more make-up water. Plus there is not as much gunk trapped in the sock, the sock almost looks clean.
Now on the 15 gallon I stared dosing twice daily. Using 3 small scoops with the salifert test kit spoon. I calcualted 5 salifert spoons is approx. 1/4 tsp. On this tank I am running a power head and a penguin hang on filter no skimmer. I would clean the filter weekly by banging it the sink and rinsing with water. Most of the carbon has been beaten out. A couple of days ago the tank was very cloudy, so I stopped dosing and did a water change. Today the water was low and the filter was producing many bubbles on the water surface. This happened because the filter was clogged and the water was rushing around the pad. When I cleaned the filter it was the same deal as the filter sock. No noticable solids, maybe a film of some sort clogging the fibers.
I am going to keep dosing on the 90 and looking for a used skimmer for the 15. I believe that the skimmer has much to do with the dosing of the C. I am going to go with a smaller dose in the 15 and see what happens
Have some RPE in the 15 gallon that were closed up and have what looks like zoa pox, today they were opening. Some of the other zoanthids in the 15 are doing much better allready, the difference before and after is noticeable.
The 90 gallon has a noticeable change too. Some of the zoanthids that i thought were doomed are more open and brighter. It has been a short time but I have high hopes that this could be the answer.
I am going to build a phosphate reactor and run some phosban, has anyone had problems running phoshate remover while dosing C.

thanks again
 
erc, what you have experienced sounds like a small bacterial bloom. It will clean out your water and deplete nitrates and phosphates. Do you have a test for phosphates? I bet in the next few days the reading for this will drop dramatically and you may not need to run phosphate media while dosing C.
 
I run a phosphate reactor along with doseing. And when i stopped (for a week) i noticed a nitrate increase. phosphates went up as well. started doseing again.....
 
Nice!!!
thanks Genetics,
I know I have phospates, and no test kit. Theres a large snail shell in the bottom of the tank with a huge hairy mushroom attached to the shell and the base rock. I cannot move or remove the shell,there's cyano growing on the inside nest to some pink palys that IO have been battleing for some time. l. It does seem that the cyano is letting up some..I'll keep dsoing the C and see if the cyano goes away before running phosphate media.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top