Collection: Water Care

Most fish keepers are aware that tap water contains a disinfectant known as chlorine, which is harmful to aquarium pets. Therefore, tap water cannot be added directly to aquariums without the addition of aquarium water dechlorinator or water conditioner for fish tank setups. In the past, hobbyists could let the tap water sit and “age” for 24 hours so that the chlorine would evaporate. However, nowadays many water treatment facilities use chloramine, which is a more stable form of chlorine and does not readily evaporate, so a dechlorinator for fish tank use must be used to neutralize the chlorine, chloramine, and other toxic chemicals. We sell several different brands of aquarium water conditioner, as well as a special betta water conditioner with additional helpful additives.

Not sure why is my fish tank cloudy? Depending on the cause of the cloudy fish tank water, there are products that help you clear up cloudy water in fish tank setups. Try an aquarium water clarifier. This water treatment for fish tank usage works by adding binders to the free-floating fine particles in your cloudy aquarium water. The fine particles become bigger and heavier, which allows them to be caught by your fish tank filter or sink down into the substrate for easy removal using an aquarium gravel vacuum.

Make sure you know how to test aquarium water. We offer our fast and easy aquarium water test strips to measure nitrate, nitrite, general hardness (GH), buffering capacity (KH), pH, chlorine, and ammonia. Each bottle comes with an aquarium water test strip chart on the back, as well as printed on a separate card for easy comparisons. For specialty measurements, we have several aquarium water test kit types, including a phosphate test kit and copper test kit.

If you’re starting a new fish tank or recently added a lot of new fish and other animals to your aquarium, get a head start on cycling your aquarium with a bottle of live aquarium beneficial bacteria for fish tank setups that will help purify the water from toxic waste chemicals. Our favorite brand of beneficial bacteria aquarium hobbyists can buy is Fritz Zyme7 because this brand of aquarium bacteria in a bottle actually works.

If you have very soft water that is low on mineral content, try adding crushed coral, Wonder Shell, or Seachem Equilibrium as a gentle way of raising your water’s GH (or general hardness). Goldfish, livebearers, African cichlids, and certain dwarf shrimp all love hard water and therefore require higher levels of freshwater aquarium minerals and salts for proper muscle growth, bone or exoskeleton development, and other healthy biological functions. For specialty animals like African cichlids that come from the African rift lakes, we also carry cichlid salt or cichlid lake salt to help raise the pH, GH, and KH for them to thrive.