Hobbyists have requested that I post more information on the reason for adding some of the elements and compounds that are contained in Vital Gold. Indeed, after posting Vital Gold's composition, hobbyists came across a number of additives that are not found in natural sea water and questioned me with regard to the reasoning for adding such elements and compounds to an additive. Why would they be used was the thinking if they are not found in the ocean.
It appears to be uncommon in the hobby to to do so, in fact I do not know of any other company that has given out a complete list of ingredients of their additives, and even less explained why they are included.
I will gladly comply, however, as it will make the product more understood, and hopefully increase its use, as the positive results obtained from adding Vital Gold are numerous and rapid and are beneficial to the animals we maintain in our aquariums.
Not that these are not of my statements. Hobbyists on our mailing lists have reported that they obtain very positive results even after using the product for only a few days. Long term use at the recommended dosages only increase these benefits. Such messages can be found by going to Our Web Page and scrolling down the main index page to find the Message Database Search Link. You can then use Vital Gold as the keywords for your search.
Vital Gold evolved over a number of years and was sold under different names. Each time we made a number of changes to its composition, we changed its name to reflect that it was an upgraded version of the product.
Each time sufficient reasons were available to me to change some of the ingredients' concentration or add new ones, I have done so, and updated the formula.
The supplement has been on the market in various formulations for 10 years or so, and has been upgraded over that period of time to what it now is. It started of as Liquid Gold for those who were in the hobby at that time. That name is still around and that composition is too and it marketed by another company.
Further improvements to the formulation led to the name change to Vital Gold, which is the one that the supplement is now know as.
As such, Vital Gold, even today, is a constantly evolving product. We keep it up-to-date with what the latest findings on coral and fish requirements are, and look for such information in journals, on the Internet and in specialized publications.
Testing, and the results obtained, determine whether a change is actually made. Describing the testing would be a very involved task, but I can assure you that it is thorough and rigorous, and that we do not make changes simply because an author recommends a particular compound or element.
We look for corroboration by others, and whether or not we can reproduce the benefits that are described in test aquariums, and reproduce them repeatedly.
Just because it works once is not enough. We have to be able to convince ourselves that the benefits can be repeated in different aquariums on different animals.
It would appear that what some hobbyists are interested in is the reasoning behind adding compounds that are, so they claim, not normally found in NSW (natural sea water). I do not dispute that fact that Vital Gold includes many such compounds. The reasons for this will become clearer as you read on.
On that note though, I would like to point out that, to my knowledge, no one has actually performed in depth testing to determine whether some of these compounds are present in NSW, or whether they are actually used in some form or another by the animals we keep but acquired in "different" manners than by uptake from NSW. This is important as we refer to charts that are not all inclusive in terms of what NSW contains.
For an additive to be beneficial it need not necessarily be present in NSW. That may sound controversial but it is not in my opinion. Indeed, animals may acquire that particular compound, or its active ingredients, through other means, feeding for instance.
This is important to keep in mind when one looks at additive. Not all of them are found in the water directly. Some come with the foodstuff trapped by corals and fishes, and some come as by-products of processing such foodstuffs.
Let me give an example (and an odd one at that): the active ingredients in strong peppers, which are really Vitamin C like compounds that act as anti-oxidants and appear to protect the animals' immune systems. In this respect you may wish to read the Vitamin C article in the SW Library of our web site and read up on the benefits one can derive from the use of that vitamin in high dosages added directly to the water, but I digress.
In areas where such peppers grow, seeds and grains fall into the soil. Rain makes these mix into the ground and ground water transports them to rivers. This particular one is, of course, only one of many that are part of total of elements and compounds river waters pick up along their way.
Rivers eventually flow into the sea or into the ocean. As NSW is considered a universal solvent, it follows that ingredients from these peppers end up in the ocean in some form or another together will all other ones that were transported by river waters.
It does not matter which chemical form exactly of a compound is found. The point I wanted to make is that, just as other elements end up in the ocean in this manner, the active ingredients of many plants and other flora will eventually wash into the ocean as well.
The breakdown of the active ingredients of certain compounds may result in the fact that the ingredient itself is not identified, but its make-up parts are. Additionally, keep in mind that when you see an analysis of NSW, for the most part you only see a listing of the compounds that appear on the Table of Chemical Elements (formerly Table of Mendeljeff). Complex and other compounds are not listed in such an analysis. Many more compounds "are" however present in NSW.
The key, of course, when introducing elements to ASW will be to introduce the ones that make sense, because of their potential benefits.
In addition, the concentrations need to be such that no "overdosing" occurs and that only minute amounts are present in the additive formulations when such is all that is needed, based on the testing conducted.
NSW may not contain the compounds themselves, as listings of its composition indicate. On the other hand, listings of what NSW actually contains "besides" basic major and minor chemical elements are not available. That does not mean however that such a compound is not present, or that does not mean either that such a compound may prove to be beneficial and affect the animals positively.
Hard to believe? Here is an example: the fact that Caulerpicin is present in waters around reefs is not mentioned in the listings of NSW, and neither is the fact that albumin is, to name only two. Yet both are present. The former as the exudate of Caulerpa algae and the latter as the by-product of organic breakdown.
Considering that certain elements are not listed as being present in NSW, why would we want to introduce such special compounds to ASW?
Note that these compounds are of different types:
If positive results can be correlated to their presence in ASW then it makes sense to add them to our aquariums, whether NSW contains them or not. Whether they are present in NSW is not the only criterion we should follow. There may indeed be other reasons and other considerations for doing so, and there are, as we shall see.
Let me clarify the last statement a little more: conditions around a natural reef are "far" different from what what the animals in our aquariums are exposed to. We cannot even compare the two. The differences between the "open" system that exists in the ocean and the "closed" systems our aquariums are, tend to be very significant.
NSW is pure and constant in its composition; the water in our aquariums is a constantly fluctuating soup of chemicals that only approximates what NSW is all about, and does not account for other variables that are discussed later in this article.
Comparing NSW and ASW is, therefore, only marginally beneficial. Yes, we need to ensure that we approximate its composition, but we also need to make sure that we provide the animals with compounds that benefit them, and help them cope better with the "totally" different conditions they are exposed to in aquariums (versus what they are exposed to on the reef).
The compounds in question that are present in Vital Gold and that appear to be unorthodox, and not mentioned as part of NSW (keep the note I made earlier in mind that complex compounds present in NSW are not mentioned anyway), fall into a category that professionals refer to as "adaptogens". Such compounds include ginger, suma, ginseng, garlic, and so on.
So what are "adaptogens"?
Adaptogens are defined as "non-toxic natural substances that help maintain cell balance and provide resistance to stress and/or allow for more energy generation".
Hans Selye, famous Canadian Stress Specialist and Dr. I. I. Brekhman, a Professor of Biologicaly Active Substances, conducted large amounts of research on "adaptogens" and other substances such as glycosides (the active ingredients of ginseng) and their effect on cell tissue, energy, stress reduction, and cell binding.
Adaptogens of any kind, and the ones used in Vital Gold are recognized ones based on extensive research by others in the scientific community, assist animals in combating the effects of the far greater amount of stress they are subjected to in aquariums, and also assit in tissue (cell) generation and regeneration. Even increased energy effects derived from adaptogens are positive in this respect.
I noted the far greater amount of stress animals are subjected to in aquariums and ASW. Indeed, water quality around a reef is hundreds of times purer than what we actually have in our aquariums, even with the best filtration methods. I am not saying that everyone is in this situation, but the majority of hobbyists are.
Some highly filtered and low in population aquariums may have far better conditions and animals in such tanks may "live" in a far better environment. In the average aquarium, with a high load, and small amounts of water, this is not so and animals are stressed continuously.
Anything we can do to improve these conditions by providing animals with additional means of combating these stressors and this poor water quality, enhances our chances of success with the animals we maintain. Hence their presence in Vital Gold.
Cell building-blocks are the matrix of life of the animals and if we can promote that condition by providing compounds that enhance the animals' ability to build cells and sustain the ones it already has, we have again achieved a step in the right direction.
Besides adaptogens, other ingredients are present in Vital Gold to provide needed chemicals in various forms. Some are used directly in various metabolic processes and others are uptaken, converted and it is their by-products that are used in the same, or other life sustaining processes.
As complex as life is, it is not surprising that new findings come about on a regular basis and that a path for improvement always exists for any supplement. With Vital Gold we have done so and are doing so as explained earlier.
One area that was used in adding elements and compounds to Vital Gold is the knowledge on human nutrition, an area that has greatly evolved in the last number of years.
Nutrionists have been able to demonstrate the beneficial effects of many compounds and elements and have been recommending them for many illnesses and chemical imbalances.
The fact that chemical imbalances exist and can be adjusted by the judicial intake of certain elements, opens up a whole area for the aquarium additive field. Some of these compounds were tested and after evaluation were added to Vital Gold. Others were not, or have not yet been.
Note that such compounds are not listed as part of NSW yet that does not mean that animals do not acquire them. The main source besides uptake from the water is from the food uptake of course. We need not forget that what animals survive on is acquired to a great extent from the foodchain and not only from their surroundings.
You will forgive me for not naming the latter compounds because that is part of product development and divulging them would take an edge away from us if they were divulged at this time. I am working with several though but had to interrupt some of the research due to our move to Atlanta. I am gradually getting back into research but, to do so properly, one does not want to jump to rapid conclusions. Further enhancements to Vital Gold will come about though. That is for sure. My intent is to keep the product as up-to-date as possible and improve on it as time goes on and make it even better than it already is.
Some non traditional compounds that were demonstrated to work though, and that are included for that reason in Vital Gold, include Omega-3 and other fatty acids, Selenium, anti-oxidants, chlorella extracts and so on.
Although these may not be present in NSW, they are present to some degree in the natural nutrition corals and fish enjoy in nature, but not in our aquariums. After all, the variety of foods found around the reef are far greater than what we could ever provide in our tanks.
This being the case, it made sense to test along those lines and determine whether benefits could be substantiated from using them. I gathered enough evidence after testing, and therefore they were added to Vital Gold. As such they are available to our animals, whereas without VG they may not be.
As you can see the reasons and rationale for the inclusion of an element or a compound in an additive are far more complex than whether it is present in NSW or not.
One needs to consider other factors such as nutrient supply as well, and which by-products are derived from that during metabolism.
One needs to consider stressors and how to combat them by providing the animals with the means to do so
One also need to consider the adaptogenic benefits of other elements (as described earlier on).
This is not meant to be a treatise on what an ideal additive should contain as I do not believe that such an additive will ever be developed. We can gradually improve what is offered though, by testing and researching the impact of certain elements and compounds and if found to be positive, include them in additive offerings (in this case Vital Gold).
I hope that this answers most of the questions many present and potential users of Vital Gold have, by giving a more detailed description of why certain elements and/or compounds are included and shedding some light on the fact that because conditions in aquariums are so different than conditions on a natural reef, that one needs to consider many other factors besides just what is present in NSW.
I will reflect more on the topic and update this article at a later date with more information, especially when other elements are added to Vital Gold to improve its effects even more.
I will continue to work on improving Vital Gold. Although positive reports are numerous and negative ones just about non-existent, there is in my opinion always room for improvement. Keeping an open mind is what makes progress happen. I certainly try to practice that.
June 14, 1997, Albert J. Thiel for Thiel Technologies