All aquarium enthusiasts need to understand what is a pH and how it works to keep fish alive and at their best possible level of health.
This is basic chemistry and fairly easy to understand once you know how the values are computed.
It is commonly written as ph even though the correct way to write it is as pH.
The letters pH refer to the power of hydrogen or the percent of hydrogen.
This pH uses a scale of measurement of zero to fourteen.
The middle of the numbers, seven, has a neutral value.
There is pH in the water you drink, in the waters you swim in, in cleaning products and there is pH in your blood.
If the pH level gets out of line within the body, a condition called acidosis can develop.
Certain diseases can cause the body to have high acidity and this can be deadly.
In aquariums, the pH level is an indication of the acidity of the water.
A difference of five to four does not mean that the water acidity changed by one percent or that you can subtract one.
It is a little bit more complicated than basic subtraction.
Remember learning the powers of ten in math class in school? Well now it is going to come in handy.
The way pH is measured is by the powers of ten.
To make it easier to comprehend, picture the measurement like an hourglass.
The neutral reading of seven is in the middle or waist area of the hourglass.
Both six and eight begin at the number ten.
For each number higher or lower, you would multiply by ten.
For example, since six is a measure of ten, then the number five on the pH scale would be one hundred.
The number four would be a thousand as you are multiplying and so on.
At the high end, the pH is said to be alkaline.
Have you ever been swimming in a pool and climbed out to discover that your eyes were burning or your skin was red and stinging? That was probably due to an abnormal pH level.
If you have a cut or scrape on your finger and you slice tomatoes, the reason the juice from the tomato burns the wounded area is because tomatoes contain acid.
When the juice hits your sensitive skin, it burns.
It is the same with fish.
Too much acid can burn the tender parts of their bodies.
Even food has a varying degree of measurement on the pH scale.
Acids are found in the foods you eat and some of the liquids you drink which is why some people have trouble eating or drinking some things when they have a heartburn condition.
For most people, understanding pH levels are not something used every day, but for the fish hobbyists, it is knowledge that has to be put into practice on a daily basis for the safety of the fish.
This is basic chemistry and fairly easy to understand once you know how the values are computed.
It is commonly written as ph even though the correct way to write it is as pH.
The letters pH refer to the power of hydrogen or the percent of hydrogen.
This pH uses a scale of measurement of zero to fourteen.
The middle of the numbers, seven, has a neutral value.
There is pH in the water you drink, in the waters you swim in, in cleaning products and there is pH in your blood.
If the pH level gets out of line within the body, a condition called acidosis can develop.
Certain diseases can cause the body to have high acidity and this can be deadly.
In aquariums, the pH level is an indication of the acidity of the water.
A difference of five to four does not mean that the water acidity changed by one percent or that you can subtract one.
It is a little bit more complicated than basic subtraction.
Remember learning the powers of ten in math class in school? Well now it is going to come in handy.
The way pH is measured is by the powers of ten.
To make it easier to comprehend, picture the measurement like an hourglass.
The neutral reading of seven is in the middle or waist area of the hourglass.
Both six and eight begin at the number ten.
For each number higher or lower, you would multiply by ten.
For example, since six is a measure of ten, then the number five on the pH scale would be one hundred.
The number four would be a thousand as you are multiplying and so on.
At the high end, the pH is said to be alkaline.
Have you ever been swimming in a pool and climbed out to discover that your eyes were burning or your skin was red and stinging? That was probably due to an abnormal pH level.
If you have a cut or scrape on your finger and you slice tomatoes, the reason the juice from the tomato burns the wounded area is because tomatoes contain acid.
When the juice hits your sensitive skin, it burns.
It is the same with fish.
Too much acid can burn the tender parts of their bodies.
Even food has a varying degree of measurement on the pH scale.
Acids are found in the foods you eat and some of the liquids you drink which is why some people have trouble eating or drinking some things when they have a heartburn condition.
For most people, understanding pH levels are not something used every day, but for the fish hobbyists, it is knowledge that has to be put into practice on a daily basis for the safety of the fish.