Glossary - Aquarium Words and What They Mean
Activated Carbon - A substance you place in some types of filters to remove impurities from your water.
Alkaline - A water condition which has a pH higher than 7.0.
Air Pump - A piece of equipment to hook up to hoses in your aquarium to run air stones, bubble walls and ornaments that make bubbles. Some filters also need these to work.
Algae - That green stuff that looks like mold. It is actually a plant and loves light. For this reason you should not put your aquarium in front of a window. If you have a lot of algae, you want to check your tank for excessive nitrates as nitrates will feed off of algae.
Ammonia - The first step in the Nitrogen Cycle. This is what is produced from your fish waste (when he goes to the bathroom) and from rotting food laying on the bottom. You want to test your tank often for Ammonia.
Anaerobic - Means "living without oxygen". This is a term associated with "bad" bacteria.
Bacteria - Little living things that you cannot see that make the Nitrogen Cycle possible. There are "good" bacteria (the bacteria that results from the completion of the Nitrogen Cycle) and "bad" bacteria (the bacteria that you have in your tank before the Nitrogen Cycle is complete) that will harm your fish.
Biological Filtration - This is a kind of filter you can get that will mix your aquarium water with good bacteria and make the bad stuff in your water into good things.
Buffer - This is something you put into your water that will help you control the pH if you are having a problem with it.
Canister Filter - This is another kind of filter you can get that you have to put something called "filter media" into to perform a chemical filtration.
Carbon Dioxide - This is a bi-product of respiration (breathing). When we breathe in oxygen, it is transformed in our lungs to carbon dioxide, which we breathe out. Plants do just the opposite. They breathe in carbon dioxide and breathe out oxygen.
Chemical Filtration - This is done through a certain type of filter that you put a "filter media" into to filter out bad things in your water.
Chiller - This is a piece of equipment you can buy to keep the water temperature cool in your aquarium. Remember, certain fish need different temperatures to live in your aquarium. Before you buy any fish, you should first find out what kind of water and what temperatures they need.
Chlorine - Your city water department puts this into your water to make it safe for you to drink. It is very bad for your fish and will kill them, so you need to make sure it is gone from your water before you add it to your tank. There are treatments available to put into your water to remove the chlorine. It will also gradually go out of the water if it is left to sit for a few days.
External Filter - Another filter you can buy that is kept outside of your aquarium.
Fry - These are baby fish.
Gill - These are the things on your fish's body that they breathe out of.
Hard Water - This is water that has a lot of salts in it. If you have well water instead of city water, you will probably have "hard water".
Internal Filter - A kind of filter that is kept inside of your aquarium.
Invertebrates - This term is applied to any living creature that does not have a backbone.
Live Rock - This means a rock taken out of the ocean that has live bacteria growing on it. This bacteria is part of the Nitrogen Cycle.
Livebearer - This term means a fish that, when they have babies, has live babies instead of having to lay eggs first.
Mechanical Filtration - Another kind of filtration that filters out pieces of stuff and waste materials from your water.
Nitrate - The third stage of the Nitrogen Cycle. It is what is made from the nitrites in your water.
Nitrite - The second stage of the Nitrogen Cycle. It is what eats the ammonia in your water.
Nitrogen Cycle - The process your aquarium goes through where ammonia is made into nitrites and the nitrites into nitrates.
pH - A scientific measurement (Power of Hydrogen) that tells you how acidic or alkaline your water is. A pH of 7.0 is normal.
Pectoral Fins - The fins on your fish that are located behind the gill covers. They are generally smaller and very delicate.
Photoperiod - The number of consecutive hours that your lights are kept on.
Power Filter - A kind of filter that is powered by an air pump.
Power Head - A small submersible pump which is used to power wave makers and under- gravel filters.
Scale - These cover the body of your fish. They are the primary source of protection for most fish.
Substrate - Any material you might use as a covering for the bottom of your aquarium such as gravel, sand or crushed coral.
Undergravel Filter - A kind of filter that you put under your gravel (or other substrate). It has a few long plastic tubes which remain upright in the aquarium and are attached to a plate on the bottom. In each tube is an air stone attached to an air pump. As the air bubbles rise, a current is generated which continuously brings water from the aquarium, through the substrate and to the top of the tubes. This is a good filter to have if you have fish that produce a lot of waste.
Wet/Dry Filter - A biological filter system which consists of a plastic chamber with a biological filtration media. Water runs through the media, which mixes with the air, and reacts with the bacteria which serve to remove ammonia and nitrites. It is this wet/dry exchange that promotes bacterial growth.
Zeolite - A substance that you can put in your aquarium to remove excess ammonia. You can only use this is freshwater aquariums.
