General hardness is the approximate amount of minerals in the water. Some fish require a lot of minerals in the water. For example, African cichlids like very high mineral content, whereas some other fish, such as discus, don’t like many minerals in the water, especially salt.

To check your mineral level, we use a general hardness kit. Firstly add five milliliters of water to the tube. When you first put the liquid in, it turns orange, and as we keep adding this liquid, it will eventually change to green. We need to count how many drops it takes to turn green, then multiply that by 18 to get your general hardness level.

You increase the level of GH in your aquarium by adding some minerals in the form of a product called a water conditioner, which is a blue crystal added at the rate of one level teaspoon (about 5 grams) per 10 liters of aquarium water.

If you can keep the general hardness around 200 or a bit over 200 parts per million for most of the average tropical fish, they will be a lot happier, healthier. Also, Water Conditioner is a natural remedy against illness.

We have stores located in Hoppers Crossing and Ferntree Gully.