Treating with Vitamin C

[Jeff]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15508203#post15508203 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by sammie
So if I get this correct on a system with about 200 gal of water I'l need to add 2 tsp of the Iherb product twice per day to achieve 20-25 PPM?

Roughly, yes. What is the reason you are adding that much? Are you having problems with corals? The reason I ask is that I have about the same amount of water and used to dose 1 tsp for improved growth and color and now dose 1/2 tsp with the same results. I now dose for 3 weeks or so and then take 3 weeks off, then back to dosing.

 

[OCEAN SIZE]

Hey Pufferpunk - cool self photo in your avatar.
"You're so punk!" - from Ghostworld

When I get up and running I'm thinking of turning off my return pump and dosing when I feed to get the corals when they're in intake mode. Should I dose a volume appropriate to just the display then, since I'm not planning to keep anything needing VitC in my sump, etc?

For everyone doing this, can you please post more images of your tank changes (good, bad, + ugly).

Please? Thanks! Great thread - 5 stars as always.

 

[Jeff]

We have been dosing in a high flow area of the tank to distribute it better. You are feeding the live bacteria in the tank more then the corals in my opinion. Start low/slow...

 

[sammie]

Right now I'm dosing about 1 tsp per 200 gal once per day but I'm having problems with coral growth. When I do a 20% water change the growth picks up for about a week and then goes stagnet. My nitrates are <2.5, phos is not measureable, I run rhophos, carbon and a monster skimmer. Have loads of live rock and the tank has been set up for about 5 years. Alk is 7.0 and Ca is 450 and ph is 8.2

I was just sondering if an increase in dosing vit C would help coral growth.

 

[Jeff]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15512268#post15512268 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by sammie
Right now I'm dosing about 1 tsp per 200 gal once per day but I'm having problems with coral growth. When I do a 20% water change the growth picks up for about a week and then goes stagnet. My nitrates are <2.5, phos is not measureable, I run rhophos, carbon and a monster skimmer. Have loads of live rock and the tank has been set up for about 5 years. Alk is 7.0 and Ca is 450 and ph is 8.2

I was just sondering if an increase in dosing vit C would help coral growth.

Sammie, if you are having coral growth problems between water changes and see a marked growth after water changes, you have a problem with a key element that you are missing in my opinion. By saying that you see more coral growth for a week after doing water changes and then it slows down tells me that you are not doing water changes every week which is fine in some situations but it seems clear to me that you need to do water changes more often to get the growth that you are looking for, at least for awhile until things balance out. We have found, in most cases, that one of the things that VC does is improve growth so it may benefit you to increase your dose. If nothing else, your nutrients will go down which may be your problem.
Hope this helps.

 

[Tank2379]

How many PPM would I have to dose for a 72G?

 

[Jeff]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15533817#post15533817 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Tank2379
How many PPM would I have to dose for a 72G?

Hey Frankie. Shoot for around 10 ppm for now since we talked about it yesterday.
Use this product:
http://www.iherb.com/ProductDetails.aspx?pid=10178&at=0

To figure out how much to use, decide if you want to simply improve coral growth, spread, and color. If so, then you should dose around 5 ppm twice daily (down to 2-3 ppm works also). If you are having problems with coral or fish health, dose up to around 30 ppm twice daily.

Calculate the total net number of gallons in your tank (minus rocks, sand, etc). Enter that number here ______.

You will now need to do a little math. The amounts below are for 100 gallons of water so if you have 50 net gallons, cut the amounts shown below in half etc.

Dosing amounts using Iherb product:
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

After you have figured out how much you want to dose at each dosing, enter that number here _____. This is your dose to be used twice a day.



Notes:
*Be sure your pH and alk are within normal reef limits before starting. Adjust if needed. Monitor weekly.
*Shoot for a ppm of around 5 or lower 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. Puffy checks this thread daily.
* The instructions in this guide and throughout this thread are based on using pure Sodium Ascorbate, not vitamin c pills and other non-buffered forms of vitamin c.

Be sure to take some "before" pics!

 

[Tank2379]

Sweet Thanks Jeff...

 

[dodwyer]

I have been dosing vitamin C for about 4 weeks now in my 28g Nano. I was doing some pump maintenance and I found the return hose nearly clogged solid with an thick orange color substance. The same substance was also caked on the inside of the pump as well.

Anyone else having this issue? What are you doing about it??

Thanks

 

[Jeff]

It sounds like a sponge which VC seems to really grow.

 

[Pufferpunk]

Could be where your nitrate waste is winding up being collected.

 

[Tank2379]

Ok I'm retarded. So I am going to be dosing 5PPM twice dailey my math is not as crisp as it use to be. How many Teaspoon or Tablespoons or Cups is that?

 

[Pufferpunk]

Cups? Oh no!!! I assume this is your 72g? Is there a sump/fuge? What do you think is your total water volume?

 

[Tank2379]

I would say about 80G I have a 10 Gallon sump with only about 8 gallons of water in it.

 

[Jeff]

A little less then half a teaspoon twice a day Frankie.

 

[Tank2379]

Thanks again guys. I have a bottle on order so I hope all goes well... I will post before and after photos.

 

[Pufferpunk]

Don't forget the $5 off coupon code for I-herb: LUL789

 

[Tank2379]

I already ordered a Bottle

 

[HotHotHot]

Hi All,

I jumped on this bandwagon on Saturday and am impressed so far with the results.

My blue tangs and yellow tang look brighter and healthier in general. No negative effects so far with SPS, maybe better PE. Skimming is definitely "improved."

I have a couple of questions...

Would it be beneficial to split the dosing into 3 doses instead of 2, or is spiking the concentration part of the goal?

What concentration would you recommend to try and reverse HLLE? I think Thiel said 50ppm would help, but I don't want to overdo it with SPS.

TIA
Ed

 

[Pufferpunk]

I reversed it in a purple tang I bought with the disease. My LFS knows I dose VC & said it would be a good idea if I took the fish. I have been dosing around 25ppm for several years but just recently lowered the dose.

It takes 8 hours for the VC to be totally disappated in the system, so you could certainly split dosing up into 8 hr doses but you'd still want to dose the same amount each time, to keep those levels.