I Began Dosing Vitamin C Two Days Ago, Results so Far...

[HowardW]

I began dosing vitamin C a couple days ago in 2 of my smaller tanks, one tank is a 20g primarily zoos and florida ricordeas and the other a 26g with florida live rock, gorgonians, etc.

I'm using a fully buffered powdered form with no additives and it just contains 3240 mg of vit C as calcium ascorbate and 360 mg of calcium as calcium ascorbate per tsp. and has a neutral pH of 7.0

I wanted to achieve somewhere around 5PPM or less twice daily to start and see how that went, so I dosed about 1/10 tsp in both tanks morning and evening and removed the carbon from both tanks filtration.

I've been mixing the powder in a cup of tank water and slowly pouring it in a low flow area of the tanks. After the first dose I noticed my large cinnamon zoo clusters closed up and turned a bit pale, and some of the ricordeas also puckered and looked pinched......hmmm. They have continued to do this each time I dose and then look normal again after a couple hrs. One of my large caribbean gorgonians in the other tank also hasn't looked as full and bushy the past couple days, and the corals and everything else pretty much no visible change so far. No real changes in pH or alk from dosing so far in either tank.

I'm not sure if I started with a bit too much or if my tanks just aren't initially responding to well to vitamin C overall, but after what I've read I was expecting better results. I may suspend dosing for now as it just seems to be irritating my tanks specimens for the most part so far.

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Thanks for the update. :)

[HowardW]

After reading that Albert Thiel article on vitamin C dosing and seeing some remarkable before and after pics of other peoples tanks here on RC dosing vitamin C, I was a bit disappointed in my initial results and the way my zoos, gorgs, and ricordeas reacted. In that article Thiel pretty much touted vitamin C as the best thing since sliced bread, but 2 of my tanks thought otherwise so far :-(

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

the thing to note is that he wrote that a long time ago, and folks just do not use it very widely. :)

[Pufferpunk]

If you go to the zoanthid forum, you will see a lot of us using it & many folks in Chicago are, after seeing the results in my tanks. I think it may be the direct dosing into your tank that could be causing the problem. I dose into my sump or under my skimmer cup in the smaller tanks with no skimmer. Also, we have tweaked the dosing from Thiel's article in the thread at the zoa forum.

[Billybeau1]

It's a good thing Boomers out of town. :lol:

[yrema]

^ :lol:

[Pufferpunk]

Who's Boomer?

[Billybeau1]

I'm sorry Puffer, its a private joke and I did not mean to hijack. :)

Boomer is one of our members that has more experience with this stuff than you and me put together.

If he were in town, I'm sure he would have plenty to add to your conversation about Vitamin C.

He actually knew Albert Thiel back in the day. Thats how long he's been around.

I expect him back soon. :) He's been on a well deserved vacation.

[Pufferpunk]

I've tried contacting Thiel countless times--always a dead end. When does Boomer get back?

BTW, nice to see someone with a lot of BW experience!

[Billybeau1]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12022765#post12022765 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Pufferpunk
I've tried contacting Thiel countless times--always a dead end. When does Boomer get back?

BTW, nice to see someone with a lot of BW experience!

No ones heard from Thiel in quite some time that I'm aware of.

It's too late for me to call Boomer tonight. I'll try tomorrow but he'll be back soon.

I loved my Brackish tanks and I miss them. :)

[HowardW]

I think I will resume the vitamin C dosing but cut my doses by 1/2 and see if the lower dosage will stop irritating my zoos and ricordeas.

Anyone know if I can simply make my own vitamin C dosing solution by mixing the buffered C powder with RO/DI water and storing it in the fridge, or will it quickly degrade that way?

[Pufferpunk]

I believe it starts degrading in water. There is someone doing a drip with theirs but I don't know how sucessful that was for him.

I am dosing sucessfully at around 13ppm (1tsp[~4400mg]/100g). I am having the exact same results as you but I had very sick, dying zoas to start with (lost $1000s of zoas in the past years to "melting"). All look great & some have come back where there were none. I had no idea it would boost my other corals so much!

I still keep 1 BW tank with F8 puffers, mollies & a dragon goby.

[TomRep]

Anyone dose Vitamin C and also use Prodibio? Any bad effects? Anyone info appreciated!
tom

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

ne know if I can simply make my own vitamin C dosing solution by mixing the buffered C powder with RO/DI water and storing it in the fridge, or will it quickly degrade that way?

It can degrade through bacterial action, or through O2 getting into it. Not sure how fast either is in any particular setting.

[jglackin]

I just got in some bulk ascorbic acid for dosing. I am considering adding it to my top off like kalk, rather than specific dosing. I would much rather come up with a way to automate than to have to rely on me adding two doses a day to my sump.

[DarthBaiter]

Is this different from adding Selcon to the tank?

[Pufferpunk]

Be sure to keep the bulk of the "bulk" in a cool, dry place, like the fridge. I believe as soon as you open the container, it starts to lose potency.

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Is this different from adding Selcon to the tank?

Selcon adds other things, but does add vitamin C. Whether the vitamin C effect is the same presumably depends on how much and in what way it is dosed. But it does relate to it. :)

[Pufferpunk]

I definately could not afford to dose Selcon at the leverl of C I am using Sodium ascorbate at. I do soak all foods in Selcon though.

[HowardW]

In doing a little searching I found that both Kent and Brightwell Aquatics make vitamin C supplements. I asked Kent about their Marine-C supplement potency and it contains 2 mg. per drop and is about $15.00 for an 8 oz. bottle, the Brightwell Aquatics product contains 1500 mg. per oz. and both products also contain buffers.

[viix]

I dont know anything about adding vitamin c so this might sound dumb. You are putting the suppliment in a low flow area. If the flow is low wouldn't it allow for areas of the tank to have concentrated vitamin c? Why not put it in a high flow where it would mix quickly with the water?

[Pufferpunk]

Yes, other supplimental VC products don't nearly supply the amounts we are dosing for the price.

I do put the VC in a high-flow area of my sump. I do not recommend dosing directly into a tank. On my tank w/o sump, I add under the HOB skimmer cup & it gets mixed & dispursed well.