Newbie Question: Water condition

[MyFishAteTheCAt]

I'm surprise there's no sticky for this topic.

Ok, I'm a total newbie. I just investing myself in a very nice 75 gallon tank with all the neat fishes and filters. However, I'm still having trouble understanding the different water condition symbols. And what they stand for. (sorry chemistry was my weaker subjects.) :idea2:

pH - Acid?
NH - Ammonia
NO2 - Nitrite
GH - General Hardness
KH - Carbon Hardness


How would you raise (pH, NH, NO2, GH, KH) levels?
How could you lower (pH, NH, NO2, GH, KH) levels?

I want to treat my fishes well.

 

[chunksofpoooo]

How would you raise (pH, NH, NO2, GH, KH) levels?
How could you lower (pH, NH, NO2, GH, KH) levels?

Generally there are tablets or water additives that you can add to your tank (lfs will sell kits), but generally the rule is "if it works, dont fix it." If your water isnt killing your fish then its often more trouble than its worth to try and change the GH or KH. pH however is sometimes rather important, and can generally be changed rather easily, but even then pH is affected by the GH and KH of your water and is hard to keep constant considering that you will constantly be changing your water.

Temperature, Ammonia and nitrIte/nitrAte levels are the most important, and the ones you really need to watch. read through the stickies about cycling your tank and keeping tabs on the different levels.

ps

pH doesnt just denote acidity, it measures alkalinity and acidity.
If it isnt your strongpoint try reading through happychem's sticky on water chemistry, he does a great job of going through pretty much everything

 

[happychem]

To answer your questions about changing them, you don't. With the exception of breeding, which if you're new to the hobby, probably isn't your primary concern , stable water conditions are much better than some magic number. Some things that we do alter water params, like adding CO2 to a planted tank (lowers pH).