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The common types are shown in the figure. The ramshorns (Planorbis corneus) are handsome snails, especially the red variety, which has a semi-transparent shell and a bright red body. The Australian red snail (Bulinus australianus) is of a similar color but whelk-like in shape. Other whelk-like snails are the Limnaea species, some of which are carnivorous and will help to clean up dead fish which may have become trapped and unnoticed at the rear of the tank. The winkle like snails of the genera Paludina and Viviparus are live bearing snails, preferring cold to warm water, although Viviparus can tolerate tropical conditions fairly well.

Many fish attack snails and worry them to death. Some large fish, such as cichlids, will eat all but the big ones whole. When they can survive, they are usually worth-while additions to the tank. They are good scavengers, and their eggs or young provide an occasional tidbit for the fishes. When too much prepared food has been used, snails may save the lives of the fishes by clearing it up before the water is fouled. Their capacity in this direction is not unlimited, however. In addition, all but some of the live bearers are air-breathing and do not deplete the tank of any significant amount of oxygen. They crawl to the surface at intervals and take in air. They also absorb a little oxygen from the water, and if the tank is seriously depleted of oxygen they will remain at the surface and so act as indicators that all is not well.

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Pumps may be of single or multi cylinder type, or without cylinders at all, operated by a vibrating diaphragm. Those without cylinders are the cheapest to run and have been perfected recently by a number of manufacturers to such a stage that they are often preferred to the older cylinder pumps. They do not require oiling and are more silent, or should be, but they are less durable and must be placed above the level of water in any tank they supply, or water may run back into the pump. On the other hand, they do not reverse, as do some pumps of conventional design, and so cannot actively suck the water into themselves.

Air may be compressed into drums, and these can last for quite a time. Even a 5-gallon drum pumped up to a pressure of 1 atmosphere (14 pounds to the square inch), half the pressure in a car tire, will deliver a total of about 1,100 cubic inches of air. This is enough to operate an aeration stone for about 10 hours, but the air would not flow at a uniform rate throughout this period. A better arrangement is to have water flowing from one reservoir to another, displacing air at a more uniform pressure throughout the period covered. A more efficient, small electric pump is a much easier solution and doesn’t cost very much.

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Experience shows that with reasonably small bubbles, of an average diameter of about 1/25 inch or less, an aerating stone delivering 2cubic inches of air per minute is adequate in a 15-gallon tank. This observation is really of great interest, for it demonstrates the fact that adequate aeration does not work by simple bubble-water interchange, for the surface of the bubbles exposed to the water at any one moment is only about 12 square inches, assuming a bubble diameter of 1/25 inch and a period of 4 seconds for a bubble to travel from bottom to top of the tank.

As the bubble size decreases (a really first-class stone can give bubbles of less than 1/100 inch in diameter), the surface exposed by the bubbles rapidly increases, for not only is it greater per square inch of air, but also the bubbles take longer to reach the surface. With 1/100-inch bubbles, which take some 10 to 15 seconds to travel up through the water, the area exposed is 120 to 180 square inches, but even then it is less than the normal surface area of the tank (288 square inches). With such fine bubbles, the water looks quite cloudy over the stone, for at any one moment as many as 1 million are suspended in the water.

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Glass has the valuable property, when used in moderation, of admitting the heat rays of the sun but retaining the lower-temperature radiation from warm objects inside the room. It therefore acts as a heat trap, well-known to gardeners, and can cook fish in a greenhouse with great efficiency. Otherwise, glass is not a very good insulator and conducts heat fairly well, although it does not readily transmit the longer heat waves, to which it is opaque. Quite thick glass—1 inch or so—is needed for good insulation, or much cheaper, double glass, with an insulating air space of an inch or even less.

If the room has no separate roof, best use must be made of the windows. It will be found that the tanks nearest the windows get too much light, whereas those farthest off probably get too little and also get it too obliquely. Much can be done by shading those tanks which need it, and by painting and keeping the upper part of the room white.

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