Vitamin C (carbon source) dosing, no skimmer. It CAN be done. Carefully.

awesome posts, a couple quick questions though. Do the fish benefit at all from the added VC? Should I start dosing the same 1/8th tsp on my 54 gal then step it up after a week and so forth? i.e. vodka dosing Would Tang work as well? lol

 

I do not know if the VC benefits the fish at all. I see no observable benefits on them in my tank, but they were in good health to begin with. Now, you can add a small pinch of the VC powder to your food soak, which should be beneficial to them (and light years cheaper than the reef-spec stuff).

Start by dosing 1/8 teaspoon per 20 gallons on your 54g, since you haven't dosed VC before, that should be sufficiently overkilling the safety. 1/8th tsp per 20 gallons for a few days, then up to 1/8th per 10 gallons. Finally you can do 1/8th per 10 gallons TWICE a day (if you have a skimmer, at least------!!!!). I dosed a full teaspoon twice daily in an 80g system, which is the same dosage as 1/8th per 10g twice a day, with a skimmer.

If you do NOT have a skimmer, doing 1/8th per 10g twice a day would be uncharted territory and the results are entirely your risk .



In the end, you may be limited on how much VC you can dose based on the amount of alkalinity this stuff adds since it's buffered. 1/8th per 10g, twice a day was my upper limit but it kept my alk dead-nuts steady for months.

In my 11g, 1/8th per 10 ONCE a day is my upper limit at the moment, and I may need to scale it back. My alk bumped up to 11, so my tank isn't using it all that fast right now.


I don't know about dosing Tang in the tank. I'd try Ovaltine first.

 

Could I get you to post the product that you are using. I know some people use powdered absorbic acid with soda ash for buffering, and that there are many commercial options as well. Its interesting its raising your KH like that because usually the buffered powder is set to 10

 

NutriBiotic, Sodium Ascorbate, Crystalline Powder, 16 oz (454 g) - iHerb.com


I'm not sure what you mean about the powder being "set to 10".


I do know this, it only add 0.1dKH, per 1/8 teaspoon, in 10 gallons of water. That's not much. Then again I don't have a lot of SPS in my tank so over time it does build up unless to corralline algae really get to cooking.

 

Cutting the dose to 1/16th tsp per 10 gallons. My alk has reached 11, so I'm cutting the dose in half to slow down the progression of the alk increase until I see the alk drop back down to 9 or 10, as corraline algae growth develops more in this tank.


I'll keep it at 1/16th if I see the same benefits as I'm seeing now---- meaning-- pristine clear water, nitrates under control, and healthy soft corals.

 

19 days into this. No negative effects other than the elevated alk, but it's only 11.

Water remains very, very clear. I will test nitrates later.

Also, I have nearly no pest algae problems. There are tiny spots of it here and there like all tanks have, but since I have no skimmer, no GFO or carbon, and no mechanical filtration, I'd say this is quite nice.

 

Day 20.

The first 14 days, dosed 1/8 tsp per 10 gallons.
The past 16 days, dosed 1/16 tsp per 10 gallons to reduce the amount of alk it's adding.

Nitrate is holding steady at 2ppm. Minor increase from several days ago (from a "somewhere between 1 and 2 ppm" up to a solid 2ppm). Which is good, since this tank has no skimmer, no chemical filtration, and no mechanical filtration.


Phosphate has done some odd stuff. Started at "undetectable" (Day 1), went up to a solid 0.1ppm somewhere around Day 10. Now, at Day 20, it's back down to undetectable. I cannot attribute any of the phosphate stuff to the VC dosing, since there is no skimmer being used here. Unlike nitrate (which is metabolized into nitrogen gas which dissipates) phosphate won't just "float off" when metabolized, it stays in the tank. So I'm not quite sure what's going on here. Coral growth, I suppose (which there is obviously growth since this is a softy tank).

I'm using the Seachem Phosphate test which is a low range kit. However, it's a bit tricky to read at the low end (0.05ppm). But the test results are "very, very bright yellow".



This tank looks fantastic. You have to strain very hard to find any algae in the tank whatsoever. I do feed lightly, but I'm impressed so far with how this very low-tech tank is doing.

 

nice updates. When/if you stop will you be backing down the dosage like with liquid carbon dosing or stop cold turkey.
Im interested to see what effect a cold turkey stop would have since, you know, its your tank now mine lol

 

If the tank is in good health when I stop, and if I'm only dosing the small dose (1/16th) I'm doing now, it will be cold turkey, otherwise I'll be having to count the individual crystals and dropping them in 1 by 1 lol. It would be easier on a larger tank.


I have skipped multiple doses of VC in the past before (my 80g system from a year or two ago), and I was dosing about 4X this much. I just skipped it when I went out of town or on vacation. Never noticed a problem.

I had a mixed reef, with some fairly costly corals in it (red/blue goniopora, a 4"X8" hydnophora colony, for example-- and several green bubble-tips). I never had a problem in the least. I did have someone checking the tank for me, but never had an issue.


You do have to remember that the Vitamin C is probably metabolized quite quickly, and it also is broken down by the intense lighting in the tank. Thus really, within a few hours, the VC is gone from the system. I've read that it's about a 3-4 hour process, tops (I have no idea where I read that or saw it, so it must be true lol).

 

I know with other carbon the bacteria that eat it will have a mass die off and foul the system. Maybe there is just a smaller population with VC.