Treating with Vitamin C

[guinness0514]

Ok....all ears?

 

[Pufferpunk]

YGPM

 

[coralfragger101]

I started to dose with Vit C. Calc Ascorbic powder. I started out real slow using only 1/4 tsp morn and night for several days and then bumped it up to 1/2 tsp. This is for 70 gal of total water volume.

I now have the biggest cyano outbreak in the tank I have ever had. I stopped the C. (for now anyway)

 

[Pufferpunk]

VC should be lowering your phosphate, not raising it. I have never seen anyone complain about cyano outbreak from adding VC. I do occasionally get a little bit of cyano but I have dosed VC at pretty high levels, where there was no cyano at all.

 

[philipchan]

Wow....I wanna try this now
Any special brand Vitamin C I should buy?
Also I'm having a 20G tank with a 10G sump, how much should I put in?
Need Help here please !!!

 

[Pufferpunk]

Please scroll back a few pages for the answers to your Qs. The dosing chart is there.

 

[Atomikk]

Has anyone talked about how excess Vit C plays a role in sponge growth?

 

[Pufferpunk]

Not yet--do you know something we don't? Please do share!

 

[Atomikk]

One big thing that I observed while dosing Vit C (buffered)is that my sponge population has tripled in size, especially in my cryptic zones.

I am assuming that any excess Vit C is being used as a sugar (or carbon source). Thus starting the food chain.

 

[Genetics]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15432615#post15432615 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Atomikk
One big thing that I observed while dosing Vit C (buffered)is that my sponge population has tripled in size, especially in my cryptic zones.

I am assuming that any excess Vit C is being used as a sugar (or carbon source). Thus starting the food chain.

I had basketball sized sponges in my sump when I tore down my tank. I attributed it to vodka. So, I would say yes that the VC is helping your sponges grow.

 

[Atomikk]

That was my initial assumption. But now I am noticing the sheer size of my sponges: green, yellow, red, white.

Plus it keeps my moorish idol happy

 

[Pufferpunk]

I never connected that, thanks! I do have a lot of sponge growth everywhere.

 

[Atomikk]

Also, it helps if you have some prized angels that feel on sponges.

 

[Aquatic Hamster]

I have been dosing 3/4 tsp of VitC twice a day for about 3 months now in a 125 shallow reef. I do have to say that zoos are looking better now over time. The dosing seems to have created a nutrient poor condition that is good growing for my SPS. Softies look good but growth rate is slow in general.

Also through this whole process I have continued to run GFO and carbon reactors. After VC these reactors required maintenance several times a week as the water flow would get slower and slower. Since conditions seem to be so good in the tank right now I am going to suspend the use of GFO and Carbon to see if the conditions continue with just the VitC.

I have noticed some dulling of colors on SPS, I don't know if that can be blamed on VitC or not.

http://we.thesuttonsrock.com/aquarium

 

[Pufferpunk]

Hmmm... all my corals are more colorful, especially my LPS.

 

[guinness0514]

So I just started this tonight. I am nervous cause it seems hit and miss with different peoples tank. I added several frags to the tank today so we will see what happens. Here are the before pics:

Sorry pics are from my phone, but I will use it as well for the after shots too...

 

[Pufferpunk]

Thanks for posting pics!

 

[Aquatic Hamster]

I have been dosing 1 tsp twice a day for sometime now in a 125 gallon tank. What amounts are others using once on VC for a while?

 

[guinness0514]

2 day update

2 day update

So just an update after 2 days of dosing 5 ppm x times per day. I have noticed the frags have seemed to be responding. They have opened up and color is good. Not sure yet if this is in my head. I do have one colony that looks to be suffering from zoa pox and have not seen an improvement in them yet. I am at a very small dose so I do not expect to see drastic changes yet. I noticed a slight change in skimmate. I usually only get a dark wek skim, but this time there was a small amount of white foam which is different than normal. I will try to post updated pics this weekend, but not sure if the difference will be seen.

 

[Pufferpunk]

It's not in your head. I suggest for zoapox, youQT those & do a Furan dip (20-30 min every other day for a week) & get the VC
up to 50ppm in there.

I have been dosing VC for 2 years. Anywhere from 1-2 tsp 1-2x/day. Right now it's 1 tsp, 1x/day on a 100g system for maintance.