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OK, I won’t leave you hanging any longer. Lets get to the meat of this dosing method. For those who have skipped our last post, you can catch up here.
There are many forum posts and great guides on this topic, which can lead to many conclusions, but none make it cut and dry as Pufferpunk’s. He could be found on Reef Central, and in this long, winded thread.
Here is what he suggests to do:
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. 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.
Now, lets look at the dosing amounts (Note: he used Sodium Ascorbate, a buffered Vitamin C, as it gave a pH of 7.1):
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
The rest of his guide can be found here. Awesome work my friend!
For my application of roughly 600 gallons of water, I would need to dose ((1892*6)/1112)*0.25= 2.55 tsp per day to maintain a 5 ppm of Sodium Ascorbate.
So lets put this theory to the test. I am going to take a photo of a set of zoanthids that I want to revive. I will post with an update and my regimen. So, stay tuned.
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Trained by the thirteenth ring master of the Sian Xiuang Coral Temple. Currently is apprenticing the art of Acropora shaping in the ancient tradition of Ninja Fragging. Known as the SPS hero! 
Vlad,
If you have access to a low range nitrate and phosphate kit please measure those before and after dosing too.
Improved coral growth.
If i recall the implication from my previous readings was, that this was for mainly zoos … does it go beyond zoos ?
We shall see. I am taking pictures.
Would you have a particular reason why would it be necessary to test those ranges? Would excess Vitamin C become a carbon source?
Hi Vlad,
Vitamin C (C6H806) can act as a a carbon source driving bacterial growth. I suspect this is what is occurring.
Thats what I suspected. Excess vitamin C will be used as a carbon source to fuel bacteria. I will also monitor my sponges for their increased growth. It is being said that carbon dosing will increase the capasity for sponges and filter feeders to grow much faster. I will keep you all posted.
I’m already dosing a Carbon (Zeo) and I supplement feeding with Selcon (contains Vitamin C ) so I’m a bit wary of dosing additional Vitamin C. I don’t need to feed the nuisance algae more than I already do!
You already have enough carbon for your bacteria. There are many ways to add carbon into your tank. I just chose the Vit C way.
any follow up on the VIT C dosing?
I would like to see some results.
thank you,
f.
I am going to do a post on this very soon. I will try to include some pictures of sponge growth in the system.
Any updates?
I started dosing about a month ago
growth has taken off a lil bit.
f.
I should do an update soon. There was some progress, but I noticed that overdosing is easy. Its best to stay on the lower side of the scale than the higher.
Sodium ascorbate is photodegradable, so try to get those doses in at night when the display lighting is off. A reverse photo-period refugium will still diminish the dose, but to a lesser extent. Anyone using the balling method should note that this is yet one more source of sodium being dosed frequently, so adjust your chemical regimen accordingly. Calcium reactors constantly add a carbon source (Co2), so the balling method or any other chemical additive method such as Randy Holmes Farley’s formula or combinations there of have a greater need for carbon dosing. I’ve heard a lot of reports of over dosing, and subsequent algae/cyanobacteria blooms. I think a common mistake is to try to establish the dose according to system volume rather than bioload and demand for carbon fixing of bacteria and zooxanthellae.
This calculator was posted on RC. http://www.reefsome.com/articles/Vitamin-C-Dosing It’s handy for the mathematically challenged, but it overlooks the biological aspect of dosing supply and demand. Personally, I think they developed the rudimentary calculator to drive thousands of people to their forum. Not a bad idea. Start working on that ATS screen calculator so we can get more visitors gentlemen. I have a perfect pitch man for it
“There are many forum posts and great guides on this topic, which can lead to many conclusions, but none make it cut and dry as capn_hylinur’s. He could be found on Reef Central, and in this long, winded thread.”
That is my chart, not capn_hylinur’s. Never even heard of that person. I’d be happy to help if there are any questions on this.
“I’m already dosing a Carbon (Zeo) and I supplement feeding with Selcon (contains Vitamin C ) so I’m a bit wary of dosing additional Vitamin C. I don’t need to feed the nuisance algae more than I already do!”
VC is way cheaper than Zeo & works differently than feeding Selcon (which I also do). It also STARVES nuisance algae. My cheato has dwindled to nothing, since there are no nutrients left for it to feed on from dosing VC. No detectable nitrate or phosphate. I am dosing at ~23ppm in my display reef tank.
Sorry for the confusion, as I was misguided. I will edit it for accuracy.
As these old methods such as carbon dosing become new again, they sometimes gain new insight and other times lose track of the plot. The original purpose of carbon dosing was to feed denitrifying bacteria grown in low oxygen, slow flow through, filtration devices (denitrators). The idea of adding a concentrated food source (carbon) was efficient, but nonetheless waned in popularity as aquarists weren’t interested in daily maintenance or dosing. For whatever reason, hobbyists have managed to put down the remote, get off the sofa and get involved in regular maintenance. The new approach is a shotgun method of adding VC to the tank with no regard to how it is expended or where it is going. VC is photodegradable, hydrophobic (poorly dissolved), and it is readily removed through protein skimming. The current dosing practices used by many seem to work well, but I can’t help but think those resources could be redirected to dosing smaller amounts to a denitrator as this minimizes the solubility, foam fractionation, and photodegradation issues while lowering the amount of residual chemicals (free radicals) building up and reacting in the aquarium.
The argument for dosing the tank instead of a filtration device is that corals have a complex bacterial population on their tissue and the VC is promoting these biofilms and not just feeding nitrobacter in a black box device or sand bed.
The good thing about VC dosing is it is a grassroots method with no marketing schemes pushing us into using it or buying chemicals or devices for its use.