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Fish Water Care
35 products
Showing 1 - 35 of 35 products
Our fish water care range runs to 36 products and covers everything you add to the water rather than to the fish: tap water conditioners, ammonia detoxifiers, bacteria starters, pH buffers, algae control, clarifiers, aquarium salt and marine minerals, and plant care. Freshwater, marine and pond formulas all sit here, almost all from API, alongside the Animal Wellbeing Aquarium Blackbeard Remover.
What each type of treatment does
Dechlorinators neutralise the chlorine and chloramine in mains water, which is why they are the one bottle you reach for at every water change — API Tapwater Conditioner and Aqua Essential do the general job, and the Betta and Goldfish Protect conditioners are the same idea in species-specific formulas. Ammonia products work on the waste side: Ammo Lock binds free ammonia in the water column, while Ammo-Carb and Ammo-Chips are granular media that sit in the filter. Bacterial starters such as Quick Start, Stress Zyme and Marine Quick Start seed the colonies that convert ammonia to nitrite and then nitrate, which is exactly what a newly filled tank has none of. Clarifiers such as Accu Clear clump fine particles so the filter can trap them; they answer cloudy water, but not its cause.
pH, salt and algae
With pH, steadiness matters more than hitting a number. API Proper PH holds a set point, while PH Up and PH Down move it, and both are best used in small steps across several days rather than in one dose. Marine Buffer Max does the equivalent job on the saltwater side, where Marine Calcium, Marine Magnesium and Marine Complete Trace replace the elements corals and invertebrates draw down. Freshwater aquarium salt is a general tonic rather than a marine salt mix, so check the dose rate before adding it to a planted tank. Algae products are split by water type — Algaefix for freshwater, Marine Algaefix for marine, Pond Algaefix for ponds, and the Blackbeard Remover for the tufted black beard algae that settles on plant edges and hardscape. Treat any of them as a reset while you deal with the light and nutrients that caused the bloom.
Pond-strength formulas in the range
Around a quarter of the range is pond-dosed rather than aquarium-dosed: Pond Accu Clear, Pond Simply Clear, Pond Ecofix sludge destroyer, Pond Stress Coat, Pond Care PH Up and PH Down, and Pond Care Chlorine and Heavy Metal Detoxifier. Dose these against pond volume in thousands of litres; an aquarium dose does not scale up. API CO2 Booster covers the planted-tank side, supplying carbon in liquid form.
