Treating with Vitamin C

[EnderG60]

Ok so I have decided to give VC a try. I have a 300g mixed reef Id like to see how it responds, as well as a 110 FOWLR tank that has some fish HLLE.

I ordered some of the VC powder from the site(and thanks for the coupon code) but I have a few questions.

The 300g is on a 480g system(rounded to 400g of water), tank has some closed zoas so I was going to start at 1tsp twice and day and ramp it up to 7tsp(target 30ppm) twice a day over a week.

The 110 is on a 160g system(100g of water), this tank is FO and has some fish with pretty bad HLLE. I was going to start at 1tsp twice and day and ramp it up to 4tsp(target 50ppm) twice a day over a week.

Now for a few questions.

On the reef system. Once the zoas show improvment, should I back the dosing down to ~5ppm? If so after how long?

On the fish only system. If the HLLE is healing, should I back down the dosage? Once its healed should I stop dosage all together? If I do not see any improvements in the HLLE, how long should I wait before stopping treatment?

Ive read that dosing will lower your ORP for an hour or so. Im curious how this might affect ozone dosing since its controled by ORP?

Lastly, has anyone looked into any of the liquid VC products that might allow VC to be adding with a dosing pump?

 

[NyReefNoob]

question, whats the differeance in the vit c you guys reccomend and the brightwell vit c and or any other companies vit c ?

 

[Pufferpunk]

I am dosing on a brand new tank. I don't see why you couldn't dose a BB.
You'd use up an entire bottle of Brightwell's VC in a week or 2, dosing at the levels recommended.

 

[AMAYEU]

Thanks puffer. Appreciate the response. Should get this up and running in a couple weeks. Will document.

 

[SBV]

I would like to ask how Vit C dosing in a dominated LPS tank would be? Mostly Frogspawns, hammers and torches. 120 gallon that has been set up for over 5 years. No problems but would like to see more PE and growth. No algae's that are a problem at this point. Would I still need to ramp up to 50ppm? Would it even be a waste of time?

Thanks, Michael D.

 

[Pufferpunk]

My LPS responded to dosing VC better than any of my other corals. Their colors became much brighter, they expanded more & grew much faster. Dosing at 5-10ppm should do the trick. Be sure to take some before pics!

 

[EnderG60]

Ok its been almost 3 weeks....

First day I noticed a few zoas opened up a bit larger, and the color of the fish was a bit nicer. After that I saw zero change in the tank aside from bacterial colonies all over the liverock.

I will not stop dosing the reef completely and use whats left of the bottle to try and help the FO tank with some HLLE problems.

All in all Im pretty unimpressed here.

 

[SBV]

Before pic...

 

[Pufferpunk]

Ender, How much are you dosing? How's your skimmer?

 

[EnderG60]

Started with 1tsp a day, upped to 4 tsp a day over a week. Skimmer was set to wet skim and did increase in production and funk. Nitrates dropped from 2 to 1(although I do run a sulphur reactor as well) No other changes were made. No increase in color of corals, no increase in growth. Fish looked better the next day color wise but that might just have been due to a larger feeding with the VC the day before, same with the minor increase in zoa size.

System info
300g tank (480g system)
Ph-8.1
Alk-3-4mg/l
Calc-420-480
Mag-1350-1450
Nitrite-0
Nitrate-1-2
Phos-undetectable
Salinity - 1.0125
Temp-80

 

[Pufferpunk]

How long have you been dosing?

 

[EnderG60]

tomorrow would be 3 weeks. Yesterday I stopped dosing.

 

[brannock_16]

Hello everyone,

I am about to start dosing and want to know which product to use. Should i use NutriColgoy buffered vitamin c powder with calcium, magnesium and potassium as ascorbate chelates in solution OR NutriCology Buffered vitamin c powder cassava root source with vit c as ascorbic acid, calcium as calcium carbonate, magnesium as magnesium carbonate and potassium as potassium carbonate? Other ingredients of both are cellulose.

Or there is also a now vitamin c crystals anioxidant protection. This us ascorbic acid 100% pure powder.. it contains no other ingredients besides the ascorbic acid.

Or should I chose neither and look for something else?
Thanks in advance for your help.

Robert.

 

[Pufferpunk]

I have done thorough research & haven't found a better/cheaper source for buffered VC than the I-Herb brand.

 

[brannock_16]

But will any of the above 3 mentioned products be effective and if so which would be the best? I have had some extremely bad luck ordering online (identity theft!) And would also like to promote the local economy.

 

[Pufferpunk]

I'm not familiar with any of them. You can see in the addy, if it is a secured site or not.

 

[Mordoff]

I want to start dosing VC for my 40 breeder but I was wondering how I should go about doing that? I'm sure the answer is somewhere in this thread but I dont have time to look through 33 pages to find it. So could someone help me?

 

[Pufferpunk]

Dosing Vitamin C Chart

Use this product:
http://www.iherb.com/ProductDetails.aspx?c=1&pid=-7152293197697039798
$5 0ff coupon code: LUL789 (always good for first purchase).
Keep refrigerated.

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. 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. No need to be exact--I usually round to the nearest 1/4 tsp.

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. Try for at least one dose being done during lights out, as VC absorbs better in the dark.


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 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.
*Do NOT dose at high levels (>10ppm), if you don’t have a skimmer! Especially on a nano tank.
* 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 check VC threads 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!

 

[ludnix]

I would start slowly and raise it up over a few weeks. I would try for 2-3ppm for the first few weeks and raise to 5ppm after that. You could start out at 5ppm and not have any trouble, but you're introducing a new nutrient to the water and I think it's a good idea to start slow.

2ppm would be 300mg with 5ppm at 750mg. The quantities are probably too small to use an volume based measuring utensils.

I have an online calculator for your dosing here if you want to see some quick calculations:
http://www.reefsome.com/articles/Vitamin-C-Dosing

 

[Mordoff]

Awesome thanks guys. Alright put in the order. Can't wait to start dosing.

Also had another question. Since it's powder, should I dissolve it in some freshwater before?