# Sticky  Common fishkeeping abbreviations



## ntiggr2

AC - Activated carbon
ALK - Alkalinity, buffering capacity of water
Amm - Ammonia
BBS - Baby Brine Shrimp
BW - Brackish Water
Ca - Calcium
Cl - Chlorine
CO2 - Carbon dioxide
DI - Deionizer, used to purify water before filling an aquarium, typically part of an RO system.
frag(s) - Broken or cut pieces of coral that grows
FW - Freshwater
Gal or G - Gallon
GAC - Granular activated carbon
GH – General hardness
GPH - Gallons per hour
Gravid - Egg-laden
HD - High Density
HO - High output fluorescent light
HOB - Hang On Back or 
HOT- Hang On Tank
Ich - parasite
L - Liter
LHS - Local hardware store
LFS - Local Fish Store
LPS - Local Pet Store
LR - Live rock
LS - Live sand
N2 - Nitrogen
Na - Sodium
NH3 - Ammonia
NH4 - Ammonium ion
NO - Normal output fluorescent light
NO2 - Nitrite
NO3 - Nitrate
O2 - Oxygen
O3 - Ozone
PC - Power compact fluorescent light
pH - Measure of the concentration of hydrogen. Used to measure acidity/alkalinity of H2O
PH - Powerhead, water pump
RO - Reverse osmosis, (type of H2O purification)
RO/DI - Reverse osmosis and deionizer combination unit (type of water purification)
RUGF - Reverse flow undergravel filter
SAL - Salinity
SG - Specific gravity
SHO - Super high output fluorescent light
Substrate – sand, gravel, crushed coral, etc in bottom of tank
SW - Saltwater
T5 - Type of fluorescent light bulb. New in aquarium hobby, high lumen output, energy efficient. 
UGF - Undergravel filter
UV - Ultra violet, type of light 
VHO - Very high output fluorescent light
W – Watts
WC - Water Change
W/D - Wet/dry, form of aquarium filtration
WPG - Watts per gallon


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## MediaHound

Awesome list, this will be very useful, thanks Donna! 

Thread stuck! 

If anybody cares to add to the list, go for it!


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## lagniappe

BBS-baby brine shrimp


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## fox128

TUD - Thank u Donna.


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## MediaHound

Atlantic Reefer posted some more abbreviations in the Reef forum here:
http://www.aquariumforum.com/f18/reefing-acronyms-428.html 
Cheers


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## mskitty

tyvm.....thank you very much. yes iill come in handy.


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## Dmaaaaax

DiY - Do it yourself....used alot with CO2 and diffuser contraptions.


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## georgeh

AC-Aqua Clear (filter)


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## gypsyfla

Thank you for the info


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## petlover516

CC=crushed coral
PH=Power Head
LRS=Local Reef Store/Shop
"Ma and Pa" stores=Family-run pet stores in which the people usually know what they're doing and are thus a good place to buy pet items.


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## bettafreak9200

petlover516 said:


> CC=crushed coral
> PH=Power Head
> LRS=Local Reef Store/Shop
> "Ma and Pa" stores=Chain stores like petco & petsmart that u should never think about buying from unless its for a good reason.


Actually I think you have that last one wrong. "Ma and Pa" stores, everytime I've heard it, is in reference to a small, family owned type store, which if the people know what they are doing, is usually the best place to get fish from.


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## alexcb

whats BTW? i always encounter this word.



MP-market prawn


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## James0816

MTS (Two meanings):
Malaysian Trumpet Snails
Multiple Tank Syndrome

OTS - Old Tank Syndrome


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## Oldman

BTW by the way.
IMO In my opinion
IME In my experience

There are enough to fill a book but not all are common.


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## James0816

Important one....

BB - Beneficial Bacteria


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## fry84

How about PWC?


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## jrodriguez

rts
red tailed shark

udc
upside down catfish


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## Guest

FO- Fish only
FOWLR- Fish only with live rock


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## spawn

DCA--->discus community aquarium


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## thatcichlidguy

A couple that got missed.
W/C- wild caught.
CFL- compact floresent light. becoming more popular these days
CT- community tank.
GT- green terror
JD- jack dempsey
FH- flowerhorn
RTM- red tiger motaquensis
HITH- hole in the head 
HLLE- head and lateral line errosion
Geo- geophagus
Gymno- gymnogeophagus
sp.- species as in Aequidens sp. refering to an undescribed species, or species of a genus in general.
syno.- synodontis
There are many more but I'm not trying to write a book here so I'll leave it at that for now.


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## ladyonyx

LPS corals-large polpyed stony corals
SPS corals-small polyped stony corals
zoas-Zoanthids
palys-Palythoa
CAE-Chinese Algae Eater
SAE-Siamese Algae Eater


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## fishwrangler516

thanks very very much for this, this will be very useful for me *w3


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## ValorieMackison

What is FTS?


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## mfgann

fry84 said:


> How about PWC?


PWC - Partial Water Change


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## aznix

Thanks for this... im new to fish keeping and reading posts not knowing its meaning is hard lol... now it get it... thanks a lot


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## danilykins

Ahhh nice...

AC also means AquaClear :/


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## ElChef194

FC- fishless cycle
FIC-fish-in cycle
Semi-ag- semi-aggressive
SA- south american
T5, T8- types of lighting for plants
canister- type of filter
AC- activated carbon
BF(M)-biofiltration (media)
CFM- chemical filtration media
FM- filtration media
LPF- liquid plant food
fert- fertilizer
"stacked"- the reference of money we all would have if we had less obsessive hobby.


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## Reefing Madness

GFO- Granular Ferric Oxide
GAC- Granular Activated Carbon


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## Dukenukem713

1


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## johnmark03

Thank you for sharing these abbreviations.
really nice post ...
Here some more abbreviations.

LFS- Local fish shop
Amm- Ammonia
NO2- NitrIte
NO3- NitrAte
CO2- Carbon dioxide
pH- Potential of hydrogen. A scale to measure the acidity/alkalinity of water
GH- General hardness. The concentration of dissolved magnesium and calcium in water
KH- Carbonate hardness. The buffering capacity of water, ie stability of pH.
SG- Specific gravity. The salinity of water. Only applies to brackish and marine set-ups.
RO- Reverse osmosis.
MTS- Malaysian trumpet snails
DCF- Dwarf clawed frog
WCMM- White cloud mountain minnows
NTD- Neon tetra disease
KHV- Koi herpes virus
UGF- Under gravel filter
PFK- Practical Fishkeeping (magazine)


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## OspreyPrey

ValorieMackison said:


> What is FTS?


FTS- Full Tank Shot - used in aquarium photography


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## Raymond S.

Read this in a post one time and was wondering what HC could mean.
I sprayed H2O2 directly on the gravel to kill the BGA but HC would grow there for a couple of months.
I presume the H2O2 to be Hydrogen Peroxide but what might the HC be ? Any idea's ?


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## Auban

Raymond S. said:


> Read this in a post one time and was wondering what HC could mean.
> I sprayed H2O2 directly on the gravel to kill the BGA but HC would grow there for a couple of months.
> I presume the H2O2 to be Hydrogen Peroxide but what might the HC be ? Any idea's ?


it would make more sense if the quote was "i sprayed H202 directly on the gravel to kill the BGA but the HC *wouldn't* grow there for a couple months"

in which case, BGA means blue green algae(cyanobacteria) and HC means Hemianthus callitrichoides, a common ground cover plant.


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## Raymond S.

Auban said:


> it would make more sense if the quote was "i sprayed H202 directly on the gravel to kill the BGA but the HC *wouldn't* grow there for a couple months"
> 
> in which case, BGA means blue green algae(cyanobacteria) and HC means Hemianthus callitrichoides, a common ground cover plant.


Thank you and it is 100% possible to be that groundcover plant like you said because if I remember the Thread was about stopping
algae on ground cover plants and not being able to get plants to grow in a certain aria of a tank. I'm always skimming post about ground cover plants in hopes of finding one that don't require high light and all the everything that goes/w this in general. Tried Tricho/died/Elitine Hydropiper
and it died...needs no higher than 76F I found the hard way. Most of what I've tried has died due to lack of light(enough).
Can't seem to get Pellia to grow either even though it don't need high light. Have some full sized baby tears growing but don't know which
of the two(that I know of) that I have. It seems to prefer the top/floating but I've read that if you trim the top as it grows from the bottom
of your tank it will bush up a bit. Don't really want total ground cover just a bit here and there. Do have Dwarf Pennywort(just a couple
of sprigs didn't die)starting and actually a native hair grass is hanging in and putting out new leaves but at half the length of the original.
A bog plant is doing better after I up-graded the light. Still very thin on leaves both numbers and sizes of but sending out runners !
Well thanks for the info...


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