Notes on 

 Aquarium Water ana Its Restoration 



I 



ADOLPH DORMEIER 



The nature as well as the amount of 

 dissolved mineral and chemical sub- 

 stances has a great bearing upon the 

 suitableness of water for the mainten- 

 ance therein, in a thriving condition, of 

 organic life. There can be no question 

 that the amount and kinds of gases, also 

 dissolved, have a still greater influence 

 upon whatever life it may contain. It is 

 upon the air supply absorbed by the 

 water that most fishes depend for respir- 

 ation. If this air becomes contaminated 

 by poisonous swamp-gases, which are 

 more greedily absorbed by cool water, 

 the health of these animals will be ser- 

 iously impaired. Aquarists are apt to 

 lose sight of this fact or else place too 

 little weight upon its importance in suc- 

 cessful fish-culture. 



The quantity of gases generated by 

 the decay of vegetable, and to some ex- 

 tent, animal matter, that has to be ab- 

 sorbed and then diffused into the atmos- 

 phere by densely overgrown bodies of 

 water, is considerable. To illustrate this 

 point : It used to be great fun, when 

 I was a boy, to drill a small hole through 

 the ice cover directly over a pocket of 

 gas in order to watch the characteristic 

 blue flame of the escaping sulphuretted 

 hydrogen (swamp-gas), when ignited. 

 On warm summer nights we listened to 

 the most gruesome tales and speculations 

 concerning will-of-the-wisps. This we 

 now know is simply produced by escap- 

 ing phosphoretted hydrogen. This 

 product of decay has the singular prop- 

 erty of igniting upon mere contact with 

 air, there to burn away slowly with a 

 spookish glow, which often moves about 



in a breeze and is visible only during 

 dark nights. The water of the pond I 

 have in mind was always crystal-clear, 

 but this one fact alone is never a sure 

 indication that animals of the higher or- 

 ders can exist therein. In this instance 

 the odor would have condemned the 

 water for aquarium use. 



It was probably a similar condition 

 prevailing in the stagnant ponds and 

 roadside ditches of southeastern Asia 

 that necessitated the development of the 

 labyrinth, a supplementary organ of res- 

 piration, to enable fishes to survive in 

 them. This organ enables fishes pos- 

 sessing it to take air directly out of the 

 atmosphere and utilize it, thus making 

 them independent of the oxygen content 

 of their own element. Putrefying pro- 

 cesses take place within any well planted 

 aquarium, though perhaps in a lesser de- 

 gree, according to the keeper's sense of 

 neatness. That it does take place under 

 the best of care is attested by the odor, 

 more or less pronounced, of old estab- 

 lished tanks containing old water. 



The beneficial influence upon fishes in 

 such tanks, to be attained by aerating 

 the water, is too well known to require 

 discussion, but while thorough aeration 

 unquestionably assists in reducing the 

 proportion of the polluting gases to the 

 absorbed air, by inducing the water to 

 absorb more air (ventilating the water, 

 so to speak), how much more rational 

 would it be to eliminate the polluting 

 gases entirely, thus enabling the aquarist 

 to retain his valued old water indefinite- 

 ly ? To point out an efficient method to 

 accomplish this, and more, with very 



