Dosing Vitamin C

[Cichlid-Man]

Anyone tried it? Big thread on RC on it. I started dosing it about 1-2 weeks ago. The idea at first was to use pure Vitamin C to help Polyps open up or come back to life after they started melting away. Results have found that not only does it help the Zoas but all sorts of other coral benefit as well.

I use pure Sodium Ascorbate powder, it like instantly disolves in the water from Iherb.com. I mix it with top off water, but some put it straight in the sump.

I have to say after about only 1-2 weeks using Vitamin C, i'm fairly impressed. Its the only thing changing in my normal tank routine so any changes can be attributed to the useage of VC. I'm seeing bigger, healthier polyps, better SPS polyp extension, Zoas growing that have been at 3-4 polyps more 6 months or more, polyps opening more, and my other coral such as GSP and LPS seem to enjoy it too.

Only water changes i can see is it might effect pH and/or Alk. So monitor that. So far i havn't noticed a big enough change. Anyone else dosing?

Right now i have stopped dosing, i want to see if i can tell any difference.

 

[epond83]

So how much do you add?
Can you add too much? (I know in humans excess is just exspelled so you can't over dose)
Is there any way to test to see how much is in the water and how fast it is being used?

 

[1979camaro]

I have never done this, though I too have heard about it...keep me informed!

 

[Airborneguy]

I read a bit about it and asked this same question on another forum not long ago, although I never started dosing it. I might check it out soon because one of my zoa frags is starting to die (everything else is doing awesome).

 

[Cichlid-Man]

The only negative i've seen so far is some color has faded from the SPS. Though they have better polyp extension. Weird. They arn't dying, just fading color. Thats why i am thinking about stopping i want to see if the VC is really causing this.

Find out your tank volume in Liters and then multiply that by how concentrated you want the VC. So say if you have a 50gal tank and want to start at 5ppm then you would need about 947mg of VC. Which on the powder i have is just under 1 serving size.

VC is very unstable, so it might not be a bad thing to bump up each dosage a little bit more.

 

[Lotus]

I haven't tried it yet. I may at some point.

The last time I had a problem with zoas, I did a series of three Furan 2 dips. It cleared the problem right up (closed, shrinking zoas, followed by some fungus on the polyps).

 

[Cichlid-Man]

Not the best comparison but all i have right now. This is over the course of less then 1 month. I highly believe this is all because of the Vitamin C. Not dosing anything else, and nothing has changed except for dosing the VC.

Before - Notice the long stalks. Not to many of them. (5-7 polyps)

After - Explosion! Look at all the babies. (30+ polyps)

 

[TRe]

lol if u could prove that i may have to give it a shot

 

[zoalover34]

are those your ppe's?! If so frag me some ill send ya some tubbs!

 

[TRe]

he wishes those were his PPE's lmao

 

[Cichlid-Man]

Do it TRe! It works! Although the stoney's arn't as much of a fan of it as the softies.

I wish those were the PPEs, those are the mohawks.

 

[skratikans]

very nice pics as always! Are you cont. vit C dosing?

 

[Cichlid-Man]

I havn't this past week and a half. I wanted to see if it was the cause of the Tri Color's color loss, seems like it might be. But it definently helps everything else in the tank.