Those not experienced in chemical manipulations may find some difficulty in obtaining and weighing accurately the several ingredients; and I should advise them to purchase the preparation sold by Mr. Bolton, of 146, Holborn Bars. This merely requires to be dissolved according to the instructions just given. Mr. Bolton has given minute attention to the preparation of the salts, and is now improving them by compounding with them the minute quantities of the more subtle ingredients, which were originally omitted by Mr. Gosse. The salts are sold in packets, at the rate of three gallons for a shilling; a price which must be considered reasonable when we consider the purity of the article, and the care taken in its manufacture.
Filtering.—When the salts are well mingled with the water, pass the liquid, through a filter, into the tank, which is supposed to have been already well-seasoned, and furnished with a bottom of sand and pebbles, and any ornaments that may be deemed necessary. A bee glass, with a bit of sponge thrust into the orifice, is a convenient form of filter, but if such a thing is not at hand, take an old flower pot, and wash it quite clean, thrust a piece of sponge through the hole in the bottom, and throw into it a handful of powdered charcoal. This may be suspended above the tank, or stood on two slips of wood, and filled from time to time, till the whole of the water has been passed through it.
ACTINIA MESEMBRYANTHEMUM, DYCTYOTA DYCHOTOMA.
Some healthy plants of Ulva latissima and Enteromorpha compressa are now to be introduced, and the whole left undisturbed for at least a week or ten days, when the stocking with animal life may commence; some of the hardy Actinia being the best of all to start with. But if the aquarian is in a fever to see something alive in the new vessel, he may drop in half-a-dozen Actinia mesembryanthemum, one day after the introduction of the plants, and unless he has made some mistake in the preliminaries they will do well. I have, for the sake of gaining information, placed this anemone in water the instant it was prepared, and without filtering it, without suffering the loss of one; indeed, I have some by me now which a year ago were so operated on; they attached themselves directly, and lived through all the trials incident to a new tank, in which there was not a single drop of natural sea water. Mr. Hall tells me he has, on emergencies, kept them alive for a week in soap-suds, and even in more offensive liquids; and judging by the life the creature leads on the sea shore, now submerged in the cool waters, and now exposed to the burning sun, it is not at all surprising that it has a hardy constitution. Still, this hasty proceeding is not to be recommended; let time develop the powers of the water, let the solar light reach the plants through the green medium of the stained glass, and soon a lovely beading of oxygen bubbles will appear, to indicate that all is right, and then the animals may follow each other in proper order to their domestic home.
If a little real sea-water, even a pint or two, can be obtained to mix with the artificial, the ripening of the latter will be considerably hastened, but it is an interesting fact in the chemistry of the aquarium that, though in the first preparation of sea-water certain of the ingredients are left out of the prescription, in process of time those very same ingredients are to be discovered in it by means of analysis. How do they get there? They are communicated to it by the vegetation, and hence as the water acquires age, like good wine, it increases in strength, and after some months use, will maintain creatures in health that would perish in a day in water recently prepared.
The preparation costs, when prepared from ingredients bought at wholesale price, about three-pence a gallon; but it is a much better plan to purchase it ready prepared, the price then being only four-pence per gallon, or a three gallon packet for one shilling.