Vitamin C dosing for zoanthids (I am clueless)

[N7Jab]

Starting Out

Super excited to start dosing with vitamin C, I have a colony of zoa's that has closed with only 2 heads open about 5 days ago for no apparent reason. I even did a freshwater bath with 2 drops of providine iodine but nothing really came off of it as far as parasites and its still closed except for 2 heads. But after reading this I think im going to try vitamin C and see if there any results, very excellent read (started from page 1). Kinda messed up tough and got Ascorbic Acid vitamin C and just ordered the correct Sodium Ascorbate buffered vitamin C. But I think im still going to try the Acidic C and add pH buffer to it to even it out Im thinking (1) 1/8th tsp of Ascorbic Acid to (3) 1/8th tsp of buffer as i have a 25Gal tank. I'll defenetly take some before and after shots as i really want to see if this works out, thanks again for the awesome read!!

 

[RichieT]

Super excited to start dosing with vitamin C, I have a colony of zoa's that has closed with only 2 heads open about 5 days ago for no apparent reason. I even did a freshwater bath with 2 drops of providine iodine but nothing really came off of it as far as parasites and its still closed except for 2 heads. But after reading this I think im going to try vitamin C and see if there any results, very excellent read (started from page 1). Kinda messed up tough and got Ascorbic Acid vitamin C and just ordered the correct Sodium Ascorbate buffered vitamin C. But I think im still going to try the Acidic C and add pH buffer to it to even it out Im thinking (1) 1/8th tsp of Ascorbic Acid to (3) 1/8th tsp of buffer as i have a 25Gal tank. I'll defenetly take some before and after shots as i really want to see if this works out, thanks again for the awesome read!!

I think that buffer is going to mess with your Alk levels so just keep an eye out

 

[Rob in Puyallup]

Is it coincidental that AquaVitro Fuel has vitamin c in it?

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S III using Tapatalk 2

 

[N7Jab]

I think that buffer is going to mess with your Alk levels so just keep an eye out

Yeah I'm supposed to Get the sodium ascorbic by Monday so this acidic one won't be for a long time and I'm using API proper 8.2 as buffer until then fingers crossed thou that it helps my zoanthids open back up

 

[Pufferpunk]

Be sure your alk/pH is stable & where you want it before dosing VC. Sodium ascorbate is already buffered to pH of 7. The amounts you'll be adding shouldn't change your pH or alk levels much. Just keep an eye on them & dose alk accordingly.

 

[Pufferpunk]

VITAMIN C DOSING CHART
Here are the directions:
Use this product:
NutriBiotic, Sodium Ascorbate, Crystalline Powder, 16 oz (454 g) - iHerb.com FREE SHIPPING!!!
$10 off 1st order of $40 & up or $5 off on smaller orders, when using this code: LUL789


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 I-herb 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!

 

[CLR48]

I have been dosing this every other day. It says 1 ml per 50 gal daily and I have a 6 gal I think I am going to start doing it every day if not twice a day. As of now I'm doing one drop every other day.? Should I start doing it twice a day? Here's a picture of vc I'm using.

And I'll get some pics up of my corals so far since I've been dosing my Duncan witch I had for a month and had no baby heads, after a week dosing it has 4 baby heads now.

 

[CLR48]

Here is before

And here is a picture taken just now

You can see three pretty good size ones on the front and one small one on the back.
I have added some sunny dee zoas and in a weeks time since adding them the sprouted 3 new heads with more baby's coming I can tell.
And my armour of god zoa had two heas when I got it the same time as the sunny dees and now it has 6 heads

 

[dwilliams87]

I have been keeping tabs on this thread for a while now and I bit the bullet today. Ordered the vitamin c from iherb you recommended. I have a 20g and a 40g so by my calculations i should be dosing a little over 1/16 tsp in my 20 twice a day and a little under a 1/4 tsp in my 40. Does that sound correct? Also, your referal code from 2008 still works.:thumb:

 

[jedimasterben]

I had to stop dosing after backing off my kalk additions (alk was around 225ppm, quite a bit higher than I'd like right now), and had another bloom of dinoflagellates (which are bacterial, and also carbon limited). Lower pH situations are ideal conditions for dinoflagellates, so until I can get my alk down and figure out a proper kalk addition amount that won't creep it up over time, no VC.

 

[dwilliams87]

Jedimasterben - has the Vit C worked well for you?

 

[jedimasterben]

It succeeded in creating a low-nutrient environment (a la carbon dosing), but other than that, I didn't particularly notice much difference in corals besides what you'd normally see under low-nutrient conditions. Zoas still remained closed most of the time (some weird chemistry issues I must be fighting, in addition to the toxins in dinoflagellates), and the same palys that I've never seen open are still closed to this day (been about a year and a half that they've been closed, but continue to encrust onto whatever they sit on and turn the closed polyps toward the light).

 

[Pufferpunk]

At what levels were you dosing?

 

[jedimasterben]

Increased dosing every other week by 5ppm-ish, I think I peaked at 35ppm or so. Backed it down after a month or so of that, then went back down to around 12ppm or so (what I calculated that 1/2tsp would be for my system).

 

[dwilliams87]

Well, I dosed the vitamin c for the first time last night. We'll see what happens.

 

[dwilliams87]

Well after dosing for one week, my chemistry is thrown off. Has anyone else had this issue? All went higher than normal and Ca went lower than normal.

 

[Dowtish]

Well after dosing for one week, my chemistry is thrown off. Has anyone else had this issue? All went higher than normal and Ca went lower than normal.

Is it buffered vit c?

 

[dwilliams87]

Yes it is. That's why I am confused.

 

[HWDylan]

If I understand everything right, dosing VC is basically carbon dosing.
What type of effect does this have on an already ULNS tank?

I dose Red Sea NoPoX and Reef Energy a&b. Will VC be of any benefit to me and what will the effect be on a system that is already using a carbon dosing method?