(ANY INFORMATION USED FROM THIS ARTICLE IS STRICLY AT YOUR OWN RISK).
Vitamin C
Updated on May 13, 2000
Since I first wrote an article on Vitamin C, a few years ago, many more facts have come to light. They only enhance and strengthen my recommendation that adding Vitamin C to your aquarium is beneficial to the animals, animals of all genera and types. I have no scientific evidence to offer but only observations made personally, and feedback received from hobbyists who have used Vitamin C for extended periods of time.
Whereas a few years ago the use of vitamin C was probably quite limited even in the freshwater hobby, and for the most part restricted to adding some of it to foodstuff fed to fishes, recently, more and more hobbyists are starting to see the benefits of using Vitamin C in their Saltwater aquariums and Reef tanks. In those days it certainly was not used, at least not to my knowledge, with any aquarium therapeutic purposes in mind.
Nowadays hobbyists are using Vitamin C in different manners than we were accustomed to see and with benefits that were not known up to a few years back. You will learn more about this as you continue reading this section and as the benefits that can be derived from the use of Vitamin C are explained.
Hobbyists report that when using Vitamin C consistently, hair algae appear to vanish over a short period of time (on average hobbyists are reporting that such an effect is attained after a few weeks of treatment).
**********************************************************
Before going any further I need to point out that Vitamin C cannot be used unless you carefully monitor your dKH and pH. After all C is an acid.
**********************************************************
Do not get the impression though that using Vitamin C is dangerous. It is not at all but, since it does affect the pH, you need to make sure that you take actions to prevent the pH from falling, and thus create more stress in the aquarium.
This greater, and increased use of Vitamin C is a very welcome development of course, because of the many beneficial properties Vitamin C brings to the aquarium and, especially its inhabitants, as we shall see as we go through this review.
It should be noted that the Vitamin C is not added to the food (in the particular application I am about to explain), but that it is added directly to the water in the aquarium, whether a reef tank or a fish-only aquarium. The approach described here is different from the one or ones you are familiar with.
This is a different approach and does not mean that you cannot add it to the food as well. The purposes and aims of this method are different from the one where Vitamin C is added to the food but, they are not mutually exclusive of course. In our case we are trying to deal with other matters altogether than what is accomplished when adding C to food, and this will become clear as you read on.
Can you still add Vitamin C to the food and is it beneficial to do so? Of course, such is in fact a very good idea.
Make sure, when doing so, that the vitamin C you are using is still chemically active, meaning that it still has its potency.
Older vitamins that have been sitting around for some time, especially Vitamin C, loose their potency rather quickly. Light, in the case of Vitamin C, affects potency as well. Heat does too. Hint: store your Vitamin C in a dark and cool place and it will keep its potency for longer.
The reason for dealing with the Tadreef brand Vitamin C (in this section) is because it is the only one on the market that is specifically designed for aquariums (to my knowledge at the time of this writing).
As time goes on, other companies may offer Vitamin C for aquariums but, at this time, none is. One would hope that given the large number of positive results one can obtain with the use of Vitamin C, that such will indeed be the case. If you wish to avail yourself of the benefits of Vitamin C additions, at this time you will need to order from TadReef
Vitamin C for human consumption is not buffered in a manner that is appropriate for aquariums (calcium carbonate is used, a compound that does not dissolve in saltwater, and does not offer enough buffering for the very high acidity of ascorbic acid). Vitamin C for use in aquariums needs to be buffered in a different manner.
When you use Health Food Stores varieties of Vitamin C, the risks of an acid fall (sudden pH drop) are increased many fold, as those types are buffered for human consumption.
Be aware of this before embarking on this treatment method and be prepared to really watch the pH of your aquarium if you use generic type Vitamin C, or plain ascorbic acid.
Play it safe and use a product made for aquariums, noting that even then you will still need to buffer to some degree, as explained later.
The method described here relies on another manner of introducing Vitamin C and getting the fishes and other animals to benefit from it. Instead of introducing, a better word would be making it available to the animals in the aquarium.
Because Vitamin C affects the pH (as explained earlier), you will need to counteract this effect by the use and addition to the tank of buffering compounds. With TadReef Vitamin C you will have to buffer far less than with brands made for human consumption. Please keep that in mind when considering using Vitamin C.
You may think that I am stressing this so much that using Vitamin C is dangerous. It is not but it needs to be used with the knowledge required to use it safely.
To prevent too great a change in the water chemistry, too rapidly, the Vitamin C concentration is gradually increased over a period of several days, as explained below.
It is dangerous to add too much Vitamin C right from day 1. On one hand the animals are not used to it, and on the other, it will affect the pH a great deal, because it is a strong acid (ascorbic acid).
You must follow the suggestions given for the gradual build up of the concentration to prevent these negative reactions. You must also add the amount needed to reach the desired concentration at least once a day.
Some hobbyists use the required dosage twice a day, not just once. They add two equal dosages per day and report faster and better results. What I mean here is that if the tank requires, for example 2000 mg to bring it up to the desired C concentration, these hobbyists had 2000 mg twice a day.
This extends the amount of time that the animals are exposed to chemically potent Vitamin C activity by two and has, based on personal findings and their reports, given better results.
I will conduct further research into this too. In essence what they are doing is treating their aquariums two times a day, adding the same dosage as needed to achieve the desired concentration and doing so twice a day as indicated.
This can be done because the active life of Vitamin C in an aquarium is only about 8 hours.
**********************************************************
Important Note
It is extremely important that you monitor the pH on a regular basis as any drop can occur even several hours after adding C. Monitor the dKH and maintain it at 9-10 during the complete treatment period. This is most important to avoid an acid fall or pH drop. This is also different from the original recommendations, the latter where to maintain the dKH at 7-8. I have had better results with the higher dKH levels.
**********************************************************
Use only "complete" buffers to re-establish the carbonate hardness (dKH). A complete buffer is one that contains more than just baking soda (sodium bicarbonate). A complete buffer needs to contain several carbonates and bicarbonates,
Note that you certainly can continue to run your Kalkwasser (KW) addition set-up during the entire treatment period, or the entire addition of C period
Note that it is best, as you probably already know, to use a drip method for adding KW. This adds KW in small amounts, but continuously and evenly). In fact, this will help maintain a more stable pH too, since limewater is high in pH.
Some hobbyists use baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) as a buffer, thinking that this will solve their buffering problem. This is not so at all.
You do a complete buffer, not just baking soda (bicarbonate). Using only baking soda will NOT do it.
On the contrary, it will maintain the pH at a low level as the natural pH of baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) is only 7.8 (not nearly high enough for our aquariums. This may not be apparant right from the start, but do it for long enough and you will find it harder and harder to raise your tank's pH to the levels that are recommended.
Note also that you need to check the buffer, respectively the pH, for as long as you use Vitamin C in large dosages. Checking only from time to time is not good enough. The buffer that already exists may absorb the effect of the acid for a while, but may not do so for the length of time you are using the Vitamin C. That leads to the sense that all is fine and then suddenly, one day, you discover that your pH is way too low.
(cont)
Vitamin C
Updated on May 13, 2000
Since I first wrote an article on Vitamin C, a few years ago, many more facts have come to light. They only enhance and strengthen my recommendation that adding Vitamin C to your aquarium is beneficial to the animals, animals of all genera and types. I have no scientific evidence to offer but only observations made personally, and feedback received from hobbyists who have used Vitamin C for extended periods of time.
Whereas a few years ago the use of vitamin C was probably quite limited even in the freshwater hobby, and for the most part restricted to adding some of it to foodstuff fed to fishes, recently, more and more hobbyists are starting to see the benefits of using Vitamin C in their Saltwater aquariums and Reef tanks. In those days it certainly was not used, at least not to my knowledge, with any aquarium therapeutic purposes in mind.
Nowadays hobbyists are using Vitamin C in different manners than we were accustomed to see and with benefits that were not known up to a few years back. You will learn more about this as you continue reading this section and as the benefits that can be derived from the use of Vitamin C are explained.
Hobbyists report that when using Vitamin C consistently, hair algae appear to vanish over a short period of time (on average hobbyists are reporting that such an effect is attained after a few weeks of treatment).
**********************************************************
Before going any further I need to point out that Vitamin C cannot be used unless you carefully monitor your dKH and pH. After all C is an acid.
**********************************************************
Do not get the impression though that using Vitamin C is dangerous. It is not at all but, since it does affect the pH, you need to make sure that you take actions to prevent the pH from falling, and thus create more stress in the aquarium.
This greater, and increased use of Vitamin C is a very welcome development of course, because of the many beneficial properties Vitamin C brings to the aquarium and, especially its inhabitants, as we shall see as we go through this review.
It should be noted that the Vitamin C is not added to the food (in the particular application I am about to explain), but that it is added directly to the water in the aquarium, whether a reef tank or a fish-only aquarium. The approach described here is different from the one or ones you are familiar with.
This is a different approach and does not mean that you cannot add it to the food as well. The purposes and aims of this method are different from the one where Vitamin C is added to the food but, they are not mutually exclusive of course. In our case we are trying to deal with other matters altogether than what is accomplished when adding C to food, and this will become clear as you read on.
Can you still add Vitamin C to the food and is it beneficial to do so? Of course, such is in fact a very good idea.
Make sure, when doing so, that the vitamin C you are using is still chemically active, meaning that it still has its potency.
Older vitamins that have been sitting around for some time, especially Vitamin C, loose their potency rather quickly. Light, in the case of Vitamin C, affects potency as well. Heat does too. Hint: store your Vitamin C in a dark and cool place and it will keep its potency for longer.
The reason for dealing with the Tadreef brand Vitamin C (in this section) is because it is the only one on the market that is specifically designed for aquariums (to my knowledge at the time of this writing).
As time goes on, other companies may offer Vitamin C for aquariums but, at this time, none is. One would hope that given the large number of positive results one can obtain with the use of Vitamin C, that such will indeed be the case. If you wish to avail yourself of the benefits of Vitamin C additions, at this time you will need to order from TadReef
Vitamin C for human consumption is not buffered in a manner that is appropriate for aquariums (calcium carbonate is used, a compound that does not dissolve in saltwater, and does not offer enough buffering for the very high acidity of ascorbic acid). Vitamin C for use in aquariums needs to be buffered in a different manner.
When you use Health Food Stores varieties of Vitamin C, the risks of an acid fall (sudden pH drop) are increased many fold, as those types are buffered for human consumption.
Be aware of this before embarking on this treatment method and be prepared to really watch the pH of your aquarium if you use generic type Vitamin C, or plain ascorbic acid.
Play it safe and use a product made for aquariums, noting that even then you will still need to buffer to some degree, as explained later.
The method described here relies on another manner of introducing Vitamin C and getting the fishes and other animals to benefit from it. Instead of introducing, a better word would be making it available to the animals in the aquarium.
Because Vitamin C affects the pH (as explained earlier), you will need to counteract this effect by the use and addition to the tank of buffering compounds. With TadReef Vitamin C you will have to buffer far less than with brands made for human consumption. Please keep that in mind when considering using Vitamin C.
You may think that I am stressing this so much that using Vitamin C is dangerous. It is not but it needs to be used with the knowledge required to use it safely.
To prevent too great a change in the water chemistry, too rapidly, the Vitamin C concentration is gradually increased over a period of several days, as explained below.
It is dangerous to add too much Vitamin C right from day 1. On one hand the animals are not used to it, and on the other, it will affect the pH a great deal, because it is a strong acid (ascorbic acid).
You must follow the suggestions given for the gradual build up of the concentration to prevent these negative reactions. You must also add the amount needed to reach the desired concentration at least once a day.
Some hobbyists use the required dosage twice a day, not just once. They add two equal dosages per day and report faster and better results. What I mean here is that if the tank requires, for example 2000 mg to bring it up to the desired C concentration, these hobbyists had 2000 mg twice a day.
This extends the amount of time that the animals are exposed to chemically potent Vitamin C activity by two and has, based on personal findings and their reports, given better results.
I will conduct further research into this too. In essence what they are doing is treating their aquariums two times a day, adding the same dosage as needed to achieve the desired concentration and doing so twice a day as indicated.
This can be done because the active life of Vitamin C in an aquarium is only about 8 hours.
**********************************************************
Important Note
It is extremely important that you monitor the pH on a regular basis as any drop can occur even several hours after adding C. Monitor the dKH and maintain it at 9-10 during the complete treatment period. This is most important to avoid an acid fall or pH drop. This is also different from the original recommendations, the latter where to maintain the dKH at 7-8. I have had better results with the higher dKH levels.
**********************************************************
Use only "complete" buffers to re-establish the carbonate hardness (dKH). A complete buffer is one that contains more than just baking soda (sodium bicarbonate). A complete buffer needs to contain several carbonates and bicarbonates,
Note that you certainly can continue to run your Kalkwasser (KW) addition set-up during the entire treatment period, or the entire addition of C period
Note that it is best, as you probably already know, to use a drip method for adding KW. This adds KW in small amounts, but continuously and evenly). In fact, this will help maintain a more stable pH too, since limewater is high in pH.
Some hobbyists use baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) as a buffer, thinking that this will solve their buffering problem. This is not so at all.
You do a complete buffer, not just baking soda (bicarbonate). Using only baking soda will NOT do it.
On the contrary, it will maintain the pH at a low level as the natural pH of baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) is only 7.8 (not nearly high enough for our aquariums. This may not be apparant right from the start, but do it for long enough and you will find it harder and harder to raise your tank's pH to the levels that are recommended.
Note also that you need to check the buffer, respectively the pH, for as long as you use Vitamin C in large dosages. Checking only from time to time is not good enough. The buffer that already exists may absorb the effect of the acid for a while, but may not do so for the length of time you are using the Vitamin C. That leads to the sense that all is fine and then suddenly, one day, you discover that your pH is way too low.
(cont)
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