Vitamin C? anyone dosing?

[LeeR]

anyone dosing sodium ascorbate to treat zoa fungus?

just wanted to know if anyone here and canada has tryed it out or has a source for bufferd sodium ascorbate

[Ron99]

I'm thinking about it but haven't tried it yet. I asked at a local pharmacy and they should be able to order it in for you in powdered form.

[levi1803]

For some reason all of my zoa's were all closed up for about a month, none of them seemed to be melting or anything and they didn't seem to have fungus or anything. I did dose Vit. C for about a month and within the 1st couple days they started opening slowly and by the end of the 1st week they were all open and happy, I dosed for the rest of the month and have since stopped as they are all open and looking fantastic. I got the powdered buffered vitamin C from a local health supermarket, it was about $15 and dosed about 1 tbsp 2X per day in a 46 gallon tank.

[urbanhellfire]

Is there a way to test for vit C in a reef?
How do you know when enough is enough? This is the first time I have heard of vit C dossing.

Vodka, vitamin C, whats next dosing Big Mac's? :mrgreen:

Its all good :biggrin:

[LeeR]

no there isnt anyway but apparently it only last a short time in water... not sure what happens to it.

well heres the making

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=1494717



hers the just of it

for anyone interested

I use this product:
http://www.iherb.com/ProductDetails...293197697039798
$5 0ff coupon code: LUL789
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
Dose 2x/day.

I have made it easier by rounding off with 1/4-2 tsps in my tanks.
Be sure your pH is around 8.2 & your alk is around 9-10, before you start. Keep an eye on both (I test weekly, now that I notice no changes).

[levi1803]

Apparently the Vit C only lasts about 12 hours in your tank, that's why they state dosing twice a day. Who really knows though, all I know is it worked well for me and all my LPS, softies and SPS didn't seem to care about it either way. Glad I tried it anyway as now my zoa's are doing great.

[karazy]

I want to try this once my tanks are up :)

its kinda hard to figure out the dosage though, because the chart doesn't make much sense to me.
basically what im getting is when i start dosing my system that's 40 gallons in all, i should be dosing 600 mgs, 1 in the morning and 1 at night?

[Oscar]

Glad I tried it anyway as now my zoa's are doing great.

I tried to find the product referred to @ ReefCentral but could not get it here. What was the name of the product you used?

[justinl]

i have to say, i think this is a suicide method. Vitamins are toxic at high levels, you ("you" being you or zoas, or anything else) get too much of the stuff and you will die. there are no vitamin tests on the market; they occur at low low concentrations because they're supposed to. I never dose what i don't test for; seems like it's just asking for something to go wrong. long story short, i think this is the same kind of BS as blind iodine dosing.

[levi1803]

i have to say, i think this is a suicide method. Vitamins are toxic at high levels, you ("you" being you or zoas, or anything else) get too much of the stuff and you will die. there are no vitamin tests on the market; they occur at low low concentrations because they're supposed to. I never dose what i don't test for; seems like it's just asking for something to go wrong. long story short, i think this is the same kind of BS as blind iodine dosing.

Personally I wouldn't have done it if I hadn't tried everything else, but thought I would try as a last resort and it worked. Since all my zoa's opened up I haven't used it again. (that was about two months ago) I used lower doses then they suggested on that thread as I was a bit freaked out about it. Not sure I would recommend people doing it for no reason though, or for long term.

[ReefJunkie]

I have used it to treat my frag and display tanks (mostly zoos) a few times over the last year without any side effects and it works for the brown fungus....Soon as the zoos get better I stop and continue carbon. I use Ascorbic Acid from the health food store 1000mg gel caps, half a cap twice a day. That was about 30 gallons of water.

[fkshiu]

i have to say, i think this is a suicide method. Vitamins are toxic at high levels, you ("you" being you or zoas, or anything else) get too much of the stuff and you will die. there are no vitamin tests on the market; they occur at low low concentrations because they're supposed to. I never dose what i don't test for; seems like it's just asking for something to go wrong. long story short, i think this is the same kind of BS as blind iodine dosing.

I do agree with that. However, ascorbic acid is water soluble so even if you do OD you should be able to remove it relatively quickly and easily with water changes. It's not like a heavy metal which will build up over time. Linus Pauling advocated mega-doses of vitamin C for human health. Although the efficacy of this is unproven (and a bit quacky if you ask me), I don't think there was a big safety issue.

I've never really had all that much luck with fancy zoas in my tank so I might give it a try starting at a low dosage and keep a close eye on things - not that I'm expecting a miracle or anything. ;)