Dosing a tank with Vitamin C?

[krazedkazoo]

How would one go about doing this? I read dosing a tank with vitamin C will help certain corals overcome disease.

Has anyone heard of/done this? Does anyone know proper mg per gallon?

Thanks in advance.

[GotSopranos?]

I personally dose Vitamin C twice a week and have noticed better colors and more polyp extension. I mostly collect Zoas/Palys. I use Brightwell Aquatics Vitamin C but ive heard of people crushing up tablets which I am afraid of doing lol I would rather just buy it already diluted to what my tank needs and not guess

[Antdizzle]

i dose as well and now that I think about it ive noticed an insane amoutn of polyp ext of late as well. I dose the brightwells as well

[RedAnt78]

I used to dose, but then got lazy I feel like it helped while I was doing it, I used the Vitamin C powder that this thread talks about.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...sing+vitamin+c

[Pufferpunk]

VITAMIN C DOSING CHART
Here are the directions:
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, also for better health/coloration of your fish. 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. Higher doses of as much as 100ppm (for about 2 weeks) for fish illness. 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 (white stringy stuff) or increased scum 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 then pour into overflow. If adding to sump, try and add the vitamin c after filtration such as skimmers and reactors. *Keep your Vitamin C bottle in the refrigerator. * If you have a question, ask here. I do my best to check these 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!

[jbird0420]

I'm going to start dosing my tank as well.
Can you buy the liquid form of VC from GNC or Vitamin shoppe??

Originally Posted by Pufferpunk

VITAMIN C DOSING CHART
Here are the directions:
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, also for better health/coloration of your fish. 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. Higher doses of as much as 100ppm (for about 2 weeks) for fish illness. 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 (white stringy stuff) or increased scum 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 then pour into overflow. If adding to sump, try and add the vitamin c after filtration such as skimmers and reactors. *Keep your Vitamin C bottle in the refrigerator. * If you have a question, ask here. I do my best to check these 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!

[somdinwong]

make sure you read up on this. alot of people wiped out there tanks because they werent using skimmers and tried this. did it for a while and had mediocre(sp?) results.

[jbird0420]

Is it best to purchase Brightwell VC?

[Pufferpunk]

As long is it pure & buffered. The link I gave you contains 1112mg pure ascorbic acid, per 1/4 tsp. All that is added is a sodium buffer, nothing else.

[jbird0420]

Got it! Thanks for the link and coupon!

Originally Posted by Pufferpunk

As long is it pure & buffered. The link I gave you contains 1112mg pure ascorbic acid, per 1/4 tsp. All that is added is a sodium buffer, nothing else.

[boring]

i find the brightwell VC works well, might be easier to dose than a power as well.

[Pufferpunk]

Look into how much of the Brightwell you are dosing, compared to the amounts I recommend. You'd be surprised how fast that bottle is gone. Nothing difficult about dropping a tsp of powder into my sump, 2x/day. Believe me, it's well worth the results!

[Gimplar]

Originally Posted by somdinwong

make sure you read up on this. alot of people wiped out there tanks because they werent using skimmers and tried this. did it for a while and had mediocre(sp?) results.

When i tried dosing vitamin C i did notice my zoanthids being much happier and i was running my skimmer and carbon and i didnt see any negative results, but of course no two tanks are the same.

[jbird0420]

That is one phat, gorgeous looking tank!!!

I'm looking to improve color and polyp extension. As well as an added VC boost to keep the fish healthy.

Originally Posted by Pufferpunk

Look into how much of the Brightwell you are dosing, compared to the amounts I recommend. You'd be surprised how fast that bottle is gone. Nothing difficult about dropping a tsp of powder into my sump, 2x/day. Believe me, it's well worth the results!

[Pufferpunk]

I have helped fish fight crypt & cured lateral line disease in a blue tang, with VC. It will also reduce your nitrate to 0. Be sure to test for that to see it work.

[funkman262]

Originally Posted by Pufferpunk

Look into how much of the Brightwell you are dosing, compared to the amounts I recommend. You'd be surprised how fast that bottle is gone. Nothing difficult about dropping a tsp of powder into my sump, 2x/day. Believe me, it's well worth the results!

The Brightwell would probably be fine for someone with a nano like me. I checked out the dosing instructions and a 500mL bottle ought to last me over 2 years...I just did some calculations and based on the results, the recommended dosage is about 0.38 mg/l of ascorbic acid per day. Seems pretty low. Somebody correct me if I'm wrong.



Also Pufferpunk, your recommended dosages don't consider the sodium in the mix so the concentrations would actually be less than stated. In order to get the correct concentrations of Vitamin C, here are the masses needed for a 100g tank:

5 ppm ----- 2120 mg Sodium Ascorbate
10 ppm ---- 4240 mg Sodium Ascorbate
15 ppm ---- 6359 mg Sodium Ascorbate
20 ppm ---- 8479 mg Sodium Ascorbate
25 ppm ---- 10599 mg Sodium Ascorbate
30 ppm ---- 12719 mg Sodium Ascorbate

[WarDaddy]

Vitamin C and Vodka ... make your tank a Screwdriver once a week????

[Pufferpunk]

Also Pufferpunk, your recommended dosages don't consider the sodium in the mix so the concentrations would actually be less than stated.

Yes, they do:
Supplement Facts
Serving Size: 1/4 teaspoon (1.3 gm)
Servings Per Container: 363
Amount Per Serving
Vitamin C 1112 mg
Sodium 137 mg

[funkman262]

Originally Posted by Pufferpunk

Yes, they do:
Supplement Facts
Serving Size: 1/4 teaspoon (1.3 gm)
Servings Per Container: 363
Amount Per Serving
Vitamin C 1112 mg
Sodium 137 mg

What that means is that for each 1112mg of VC you're adding, you're also adding 137 mg of sodium (for a total of 1249 mg of powder). So for each gram of powder, only 89% of it is actually VC. 100 gallons is 378.5 liters, multiply by 5 mg/L to get your 1892 mg of VC, but not all of that powder is VC. Divide by 0.89 to get 2120 mg of powder (1892 mg of which is VC). In other words, if you were adding pure VC, your calculations would be correct, but since some of the powder is sodium, you need to add a little more powder for the same amount of VC. Sorry, I didn't mean to nitpick, I thought I'd just let you know

[Pufferpunk]

My calculations are only for the ascorbic acid added. I will have Jeff chime in on this, since he actually helped make this chart.

[Jeff]

Here you go Puffy:

The recommended dosage of "Vitamin C" is understood to be the same as the Nutribiotic product in the case of this discussion, the years of testing and observing and everything related to Pufferpunk's efforts to refine this aquarium additive.

Funkman262, are you studying to be a lawyer?

[funkman262]

Originally Posted by Jeff

Funkman262, are you studying to be a lawyer?

lol no, environmental engineering (although many people tell me I should be a lawyer). I've spent much of the past couple years mixing chemicals in the lab so I tend to be a bit critical on dosages lol

[funkman262]

Woops, double post. How do I delete?

[Jeff]

Hehe, I understand. The thing about the dosage chart is that you don't have to be precise at all. It is very possible to adjust the dosage that best fits your tank. After dosing a year or so, I cut back to around 2-3 mg per day to maintain things. I still had great growth and color in my corals and I only did a water change once a month or so. My tank was very mature and stable which helped a lot.

[funkman262]

Originally Posted by funkman262

The Brightwell would probably be fine for someone with a nano like me. I checked out the dosing instructions and a 500mL bottle ought to last me over 2 years...I just did some calculations and based on the results, the recommended dosage is about 0.38 mg/l of ascorbic acid per day. Seems pretty low. Somebody correct me if I'm wrong.

I'd like to hear some feedback on this. In order to add 5 ppm twice a day, this 500 mL bottle would only last about a month on a 20g system. It doesn't seem very economical to use this, even on a small tank. But, I have heard some pretty good reviews on this product (I'm assuming they were dosing the recommended amounts). Maybe even tiny amounts of the Vitamin C is enough to have a positive effect on fish/coral health...