Vit C dosing

[Proteus]

Can someone explain vit c dosing and the pros/cons of doing so

[Nano]

I'm still learning about it myself, I am dosing it for my Zoas, and general health of the coral. i have talked to a lot of people on a few forums, as well as done some reading online, and its hard to find any cons about it. there always are though, so if some one is aware they could cover that part :P
Lets see some pros
My tank crashed about 6-8weeks ago, and everything was melting and just looking terrible, a few people told me to use vitamin c to help perk things up again. I was told its a form of carbon dosing.

after a few days of dosing i started to notice a dramatic improvement in my corals that were once melting, the had begun to come back in full force, some even stronger the before! now since the crash I have continued dosing a small amount daily, and my zoas are growing like never before, and the color is much better.
Heres a con
I read online that vitamin c doesn't bind well with water, so its tough to mix it in, so i just mix it in to my top up water once a day, and top up manually with it.
another con (I read online)
vitamin c doesn't stay effective for more then 8 hours due to its sensitivity to UV light, so daily dosing is needed to see full results from it..

Again, this is just what I have read, i have no idea whether or not it is factual. Don't quote me on it lol. but I'm sure there are a few others that can chime in with some more (reputable) info

i use ascorbic acid crystalline powder, vitamin c in a pure form, with no fillers colors etc. i got it from the pharmacy, about 8oz for $10

[Proteus]

I have been tryin to read up but there Alot of conflict.
I use prodibio so I am not sure if using it would be bad as its said to be a form. Of carbon dosing
Also read that Sodium Ascorbate powder. Is buffered to nutrel so not to affect ph

[ashr]

Very interesting..

[RuGlu6]

I also heard that ascorbate is better then ascorbic acid
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http://www.jlaquatics.com/product/bw-vtc0250/Brightwell+Aquatics+Vitamarin-C+Marine+Supplement+-+250ml.html
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[Proteus]

any one else have experience

[toytech]

i use the vit c tablets from walmart (no name brand) 500mg daily for my 15 gal frag tank thats mostly zoas . Any frag ive gotten that has looked sad or starting to get fungus has cleared up quickly and im getting good growth from almost all my zoas , and my duncan is doubling in size every 2 months.

[Snaz]

i use the vit c tablets from walmart (no name brand) 500mg daily for my 15 gal frag tank thats mostly zoas . Any frag ive gotten that has looked sad or starting to get fungus has cleared up quickly and im getting good growth from almost all my zoas , and my duncan is doubling in size every 2 months.

Wow. This all sounds great. How do you prepare the tablets? Crush and dissolve in tank water?

[Proteus]

I had a partial crash due to a light going. And had a few Sps get really ****ed. Was hoping to try this to see if it would help rejuvenate them

[daniella3d]

I have been dosing for many months now, but I don't dose a lot. I have seen improvement in the general health of my zoanthids. I was dosing more but if you dose too much you will start to see a white bacteria film on everything. This is detrimental to most gorgonian that just close up and do molt after molt.

I had to reduce to a very minimal dose so that my gorgonians would stay open. All of them are photosynthetic. No other coral have any adverse reaction to vitamin C. I think what the gorgonians don't like it's not the vitamin C but rather the biofilm that build up on them so they then need to molt to get clean again, and it's alot of energy wasted to molt all the time. Since I reduced the dose they rarely molt.

I now dose NoPoX and I see no adverse effect on dosing NoPoX and vitamin C together. I dose around 1 gram of sodium ascorbate in my 70 gallons per day.

[toytech]

Im lazy and just drop the tablets in a low flow area and let them dissolve , i dont have any fish so i dont have to worry about them eating the chunks.

[Proteus]

I put 1000 mg into system yesterday and skimmer went crazy. But I'll have to check ph today and see if that is y

[daniella3d]

sodium ascorbate never affect my skimmer.

[RuGlu6]

I have been dosing for many months now, but I don't dose a lot. I have seen improvement in the general health of my zoanthids. I was dosing more but if you dose too much you will start to see a white bacteria film on everything. This is detrimental to most gorgonian that just close up and do molt after molt.

I had to reduce to a very minimal dose so that my gorgonians would stay open. All of them are photosynthetic. No other coral have any adverse reaction to vitamin C. I think what the gorgonians don't like it's not the vitamin C but rather the biofilm that build up on them so they then need to molt to get clean again, and it's alot of energy wasted to molt all the time. Since I reduced the dose they rarely molt.
.
Have you considered increasing or changing the flow patterns to help get rid of the bio film?
I find that pointing my tunzies up towards the surface creates a lot of gentle swirl kind of flow that corals like a lot

[daniella3d]

It's not even a question of flow, as the biofilm also build up on the pumps where the flow is highest. It's just a matter of carefull adjustment of dosing until things stabilize.

Have you considered increasing or changing the flow patterns to help get rid of the bio film?
I find that pointing my tunzies up towards the surface creates a lot of gentle swirl kind of flow that corals like a lot

[ScubaSteve]

I used to use Vit C dosing for a while with great success. I now only use it if the zoas seem to be unhappy as I already use other forms of carbon dosing.

Now, because vit c is a carbon source, you have to be careful adding it to your system. You need to take a similar approach to vit c dosing as you would with any other sort of carbon dosing: start low and slowly increase. Adding too much right off the bat will cause a bacterial bloom with can crash your tank. It can also strip nutrients really quickly from the water which can often trigger STN in acros. There is an old post I think on RC that said how much to use per tank volume and gave a dosing regimen (can't exactly remember where... maybe check with ZoaElite. He might remember.).

Titus99, if your skimmer is going nuts, you added too much. Give your tank a few days to mellow out they try again but GO SLOW!

[Proteus]

My thought exactly about overdosing. I will wait a week then start 1/4 dose

Thanks for the input from everyone