A bit of a break in proceedings there I'm afraid but back on with this now... and we're on to Lighting...
The book states that "a little sidelighting in the form of daylight through the front glass is quite permissible" however we now know this is a major cause of algae... the book goes on in relation to algae to say that "too little light will result in the growth of brown algae and the plants will not flourish; too much light will result in the growth of green algae" which is a somewhat over-simplistic but not totally incorrect view. However, a lighting period of between 10 and 15 hours in recommended!! We would now recommend 8 to 10 hours!!
There are also only two forms of lighting know to fishkeeping at this time. Tungsten and fluorescent.
Interestingly the section on water requirements covering dechlorination, heavy metals, water hardness, pH and the importance of maintaining stable conditions I really can't find fault with! It look like this bit of the hobby hasn't changed in a long while! Hopefully we are getting it right already!
So on to aquarium plants...
A big deal is made about the ability of the plants to provide oxygen into the aquarium in line with the comments before about he importance of aeration in the 1980s aquarium hobby. As a goldfish book there are also warning about plants suitable for coldwater and that goldfish are likely to munch their way through soft leaves plants and their bases need protecting from being uprooted.
There is a little advice on planting in bunches rather than rows which fits with the thinking on Dutch style aquascaping from the time.
Vallis, Ludwigia, Bacopa, Myriophyllum, Ceratophyllum, Egeria, Eleocharis, Lagarosiphon, Cabomba, Lemna, Azolla species alongside various moss species are all mentioned which are species we are still growing in our aquariums today
Acorus is also mentioned though this is now used more readily as a terrarium plant as it is better sites to such conditions and is certainly not a true aquatic species like many of the others. Usefully it does make this distinction but only for Bacopa!!
The book also recommends a dip in potassium permanganate to remove unwanted passengers on the leaves which is something I didn't necessarily expect from over 30 years ago!
Next time I'll cover "Setting up the tank" and "Feeding" and possibly "Maintenance" time permitting.