API (Aquarium Pharmaceuticals) makes the water treatments, test kits and fish foods most Australian fishkeepers meet first — Stress Coat, Quick Start, Melafix, Algaefix and the test strips. PeekAPaw stocks the freshwater aquarium, saltwater, pond and turtle lines.
Two things are worth knowing before you dose. Several API treatments exist in more than one version: Stress Coat, Melafix, Algaefix, Accu-Clear, Simply Clear and pH Up and pH Down all come in separate aquarium and pond forms, and Stress Coat, Stress Zyme and Quick Start also have marine versions. Check the label matches your water before you buy. And test before you treat — the 5-in-1 strips read pH, KH, GH, nitrite and nitrate but not ammonia, which needs the separate ammonia strips.
Strips are for the weekly walk-past check: the 5-in-1, ammonia and pH strips give a quick read on the parameters that most often go wrong. If a reading is one you would act on, test again before you dose, and change water first rather than reaching straight for a chemical fix.
Two cautions from the labels themselves. API Algaefix is not for use with freshwater shrimp, crabs or lobsters, so skip it if you keep invertebrates. Pond pH Up and Pond pH Down are deliberately slow-acting, which is what makes them gentle on pond fish and aquatic plants. If ammonia is already high, Ammo Lock binds it while the biological filter catches up, rather than removing it.
