Aquarium Acronyms & Abbreviations
A
1. A – Amp
2. AA - Amino Acid
3. ABT - Atlantic blue tang
4. AC - Activated Carbon (a chemical filtration medium) or Alternating Current.
5. Acan Lord – Acanthastrea
6. Acro – Acropora coral
7. AEFW – Acropora-eating Flatworms
8. AGA – All-Glass Aquarium (a brand of aquariums).
9. AIO – All-in-One, a prebuilt system that includes pump and filtration.
10. Alk – Alkalinity, a measure of the buffering capacity of (salt)water.
11. ATO – Auto Top-Off, a system that automatically adds water lost during evaporation.
12. ATS – Algae Turf Scrubber, a method of removing undesirable nutrients.
B
1. BA – Bubble algae
2. B2B – Business to business
3. B2C – Business to consumer
4. BB – Bare Bottom, a tank without sand or other substrate.
5. BRB – Be right back
6. Blasto – Blastomussa
7. BOD – Biological Oxygen Demand. Amount of dissolved oxygen needed in the water for your system.
8. BPS – Bubbles Per Second. A term often used for freshwater aquariums to describe CO2 entering a planted tank.
9. BRS - Bulk Reef Supply (online store)
10. BTA – Bubble-Tip Anemone
11. BTU – British Thermal Unit
12. BTW – By the way
C
1. Ca – Calcium
2. CBB – Copperband Butterflyfish
3. CC – Counter Current (a type of protein skimmer) or Crushed Coral
4. CF – Canister Filter
5. CFL – Compact Fluorescent Lamp (or Light)
6. CL – Closed Loop
7. CO2 – Carbon dioxide
8. Cu – Copper
9. CUC – Clean-up Crew
10. CW – Cold Water
11. CWC – Continuous Water Change
12. Cyano – Cyanobacteria
D
1. DC – Direct Current
2. DD – Downdraft, a type of protein skimmer.
3. DE – Double Ended
4. DFS – Drs. Foster and Smith (an online store in the US)
5. DI – Deionization, a type of water purification.
6. DI water – Deionized Water
7. DIY – Do It Yourself
8. dKH – Degrees of Carbonate Hardness, a measurement of Alkalinity
9. DO – Dissolved Oxygen
10. DOC – Dissolved Organic Carbon or Compound
11. DOM – Dissolved Organic Matter
12. DSB – Deep Sand Bed
13. DT – Display Tank (your main tank)
E
1. ETA - Estimated Time of Arrival
F
1. FAQ – Frequently Asked Questions
2. FO – Fish Only
3. FOWLR – Fish Only With Live Rock
4. Frag - Fragment (a small part of a coral colony removed in order to propagate it and grow another colony to share or sell or trade or place it elsewhere)
5. FTS – Full Tank Shot
6. FTW – For the win
7. Fuge – Refugium (a separate tank or part of a tank or sump devoted to culturing marine algae or copepods)
8. FW – Freshwater or Flatworm
9. FWE – Flatworm eXit by Salifert
10. FWIW – For what it’s worth
G
1. G – Gallon (example, 60g)
2. GAC – Granular Activated Carbon
3. GBTA – Green Bubble-Tip Anemone
4. GFCI – Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter
5. GFI – Ground Fault Interrupter
6. GFO – Granular Ferric Oxide (a phosphate remover).
7. GH – General Hardness
8. GHA – Green Hair Algae
9. GPD – Gallons per Day
10. GPH – Gallons per Hour
11. GSM – Gold Stripe Maroon Clownfish
12. GSP – Green Star Polyps
H
1. HA – Hair Algae
2. HAS – High Speed Aeration, a type of protein skimmer.
3. HID – High Intensity Discharge (lighting).
4. HO – High Output (fluorescent lighting).
5. HOB – Hang-On-Back (usually refers to a filter or protein skimmer).
6. HOT – Hang-On-Tank
7. HT – Hospital Tank
8. HTH – (I) hope that helps
9. HQI – Hardest Question Is or Mercury (Hg) Quartz Iodide
I
1. IDK – I don’t know
2. IME – In my experience
3. IMHO – In my humble opinion
4. IMO – In my opinion
5. IO – Instant Ocean (a brand of aquarium salt)
6. IR – Infrared
7. IW – In Wall
K
1. K – Kelvin
2. KALK – Kalkwasser, German for Calcium hydroxide solution or limewater, a common reef aquarium additive for calcium and reef building.
3. KISS – Keep it simple, stupid.
4. KMNO4 – Potassium permanganate, a chemical used for disinfection of equipment and for fish baths and swabs. Will kill snails, snail eggs and some parasites depending on strength of solution.
5. kWh – Kilowatt Hour
L
1. L – Liter
2. LED – Light Emitting Diodes
3. LFS – Local Fish Store (or pet store selling fish and fish supplies)
4. LHS – Local Hardware Store
5. LMK – Let me know
6. Lobo – Lobophyllia
7. LOL – Laugh out loud
8. LPD/H/M – Liters per Day/Hour/Minute
9. LPS – Large Polyp Stony coral
10. LR – Live Rock
11. LS – Live Sand
12. LTA – Long Tentacle Anemone
13. LX or Lux – Amount of lighting (one lumen) per square meter
M
1. MACNA - Marine Aquaria Conference of North America
2. MASNA - Marine Aquarium Societies of North America
3. Mag – Magnesium
4. mEq/L - Milliequivalents per Liter (a milliequivalent is 1/1000 of an equivalent), a measure of alkalinity.
5. Mg – Milligram or Magnesium
6. MG/L – Milligrams per Liter
7. MH – Metal Halide (Light)
8. Milli - Acropora Millipora
9. MJ – Maxijet
10. MM – Miracle Mud, a type of substrate usually for freshwater aquariums
11. MTS – Multiple Tank Syndrome. When you can’t stop adding more tanks and more fish ad nauseum. Very serious affliction with high degree of contagion among reef aquarists.
N
1. Nems- anemones
2. NH3 – Ammonia
3. NH4 – Ammonium
4. nm – Nanometer, a measurement often used in lighting terminology
5. NNR – Natural Nitrate Reduction
6. NO – Normal Output (fluorescent light)
7. NO2 – Nitrite
8. NO3 – Nitrate
9. NPS – Non Photosynthetic
10. NRN – No reply necessary
11. NSL – Natural Sunlight
12. NSW – Natural Seawater
13. NTS – New Tank Syndrome. May be caused by lack of beneficial bacteria and/or increasing bio-load too fast, and/or overzealous cleaning of equipment.
O
1. O2 – Oxygen
2. ORA – Oceans, Reefs, and Aquariums
3. ORP – Oxidative Redox Potential
P
1. PAR - Photosynthetically Active Radiation
2. PAS – Photosynthetic Action Spectrum
3. PO4 – Phosphate
4. PAR - Photosynthetic Active Radiation
5. PBT - Powder Blue Tang
6. PC - Power Compact
7. pH – Measure of Concentration of Hydrogen Ions. Seven (7) is neutral. Less than (<) 7 is acidic and greater than (>) 7 is basic.
8. PH - Powerhead
9. PM – Private message (through a forum)
10. POTM - Picture of the month
11. PP - per polyp or Potassium permanganate (see KMNO4)
12. PPM - Parts Per Million
13. PPT - Parts Per Thousand
14. PS – Protein Skimmer
15. PVC - Poly Vinyl Chloride
Q
1. QT - Quarantine Tank, used before introducing new livestock to display tank.
R
1. R2R – Reef2Reef.com
2. RBTA - Rose Bubble-Tip Anemone
3. RC - Reef Crystals
4. RDSB - Remote Deep Sand Bed
5. Rics – Ricordia
6. RO – Reverse Osmosis, a type of water purification routinely used for saltwater aquariums.
7. RO Water - Reverse Osmosis Water
8. RODI or RO/DI- Reverse Osmosis and Deionization (unit or water that has passed through this unit.)
9. ROTFLMBO - Roll on the floor laughing my butt off.
10. RP – Return Pump
11. RR - Reef Ready, aquaria with one or more overflows and predrilled holes for plumbing to a sump.
12. RTN - Rapid Tissue Necrosis
13. RUGF – Reverse Flow Undergravel Filter
S
1. SAL - Salinity
2. SE – Single Ended
3. SG – Specific Gravity. A ratio of density.
4. SHO/T5 – Super High Output Fluorescent Light, equivalent to power compact fluorescents.
5. Shrooms – Mushroom Coral
6. SLR – Single Light Reflector
7. SPS – Small Polyp Stony Coral
8. SSB – Shallow Sand Bed
9. STN – Slow Tissue Necrosis
10. SW – Saltwater or Sea Water
T
1. T5 – a type of fluorescent lighting
2. TDS – Total Dissolved Solids
3. TFC – Thin Film Composite, a type of RO membrane.
4. TIA – Thanks in Advance
5. TL;DR – Too long didn’t read.
6. TLTR – Too long to read
7. TM - Temperature
8. TMI – Too Much Information
9. TOTM – Tank of the Month
10. Trachy – Trachyphyllia
U
1. UGF – Under-Gravel Filter
2. ULNS – Ultra-Low Nutrient System
3. UV – Ultraviolet, a type of light that is shorter wavelength than visible light (but longer than X-rays), sometimes broken down into UVA, UVB, and UVC.
V
1. V – Volt
2. VHO – Very High Output (fluorescent light)
W
1. W – Watts
2. WC – Water Change
3. WD – Wet-Dry, a type of filtration.
4. Wellso – Wellsophyllia
5. WYSIWYG – What you see is what you get
Y
1. YGPM – You’ve got a private message
2. YOLO – You only live once.
3. YWG – Yellow Watchman Goby
Z
1. Z&P – Zoanthids and Palythoa
2. Zoa – Zoanthid
References:
· Source: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/lingo-commonly-used-acronyms-0.57652/
· Source: http://www.3reef.com/threads/common-acronyms-and-abbreviations.54351/
· Source: https://aquarium-digest.com/tag/aquarium-abbreviations/
· Source: https://www.thereeftank.com/forums/f362/acronyms-frequently-used-list-134531.html
· Source: https://www.fishlore.com/aquariumfishforum/threads/saltwater-acronyms.15147/