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. When a reading is one you would act on, the liquid kits are the ones to trust: the Freshwater Master Test Kit covers pH, high range pH, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate in one case, the Saltwater and Reef Master kits do the same for marine tanks, and single-parameter kits cover ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, phosphate, copper, calcium and water hardness. Ponds have their own master kit and wide-range pH kit.
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.
