no more broken lily pipes!

[Mitch]

Wonder why youve been told that as the gent from my local fish shop who gets me all my tmc stuff said he can pick a set up from tmc direct anytime

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Thats what i was told on the phone (i work for a maidenhead aquatics). If they have changed their mind in the last couple of weeks and your lfs really can get some i would love to know so i can get some.

 

[Kogre]

I thought the whole point in clear pipework, either acrylic or glass, was for less visible/distracting footprint within the scape.

Stainless steel might be the way to go if you can hide it or don't mind the its visible presence but I don't see it as a replacement for clear breakable glassware, whereas acrylic quite obviously is.

Some nice links. 🙂

 

[Andy Thurston]

It looks good so you dont need hide it. Even with glass pipes, photos look better with pipework removed from tank

 

[Kogre]

Yeah I bet it looks amazingly natural in all those biotopes and artistically crafted aquascapes. So good in fact that they get removed when taking pictures. 😛

 

[Alastair]

Speaking of stainless steel you can get the inlet snd outlet set in steel with surface skimmer but seems a bit pricey. Looks the part though

http://item.mobileweb.ebay.co.uk/viewitem?itemId=321129434800&index=23&nav=SEARCH&nid=90873378517

http://item.mobileweb.ebay.co.uk/viewitem?itemId=221116643186&kw=221116643186

 

[clonitza]

Thanks Alistar for the links, nice they did a version with suckers, I can mount it on my shallow tanks. 🙂

 

[Andy Thurston]

Id rather look at those than a dirty glass or plastic one that im scared of breaking. Like you say there removed for photos anyway. And mirror finish pipe would probably hide better than glass even when its dirty

 

[m_attt]

Id rather look at those than a dirty glass or plastic one that im scared of breaking. Like you say there removed for photos anyway. And mirror finish pipe would probably hide better than glass even when its dirty

thats a good idea, wonder if you could get a stainless one chromed in some high shine stuff.

 

[Andy Thurston]

The ones in alistairs link looked fairly shiny you could probably diy with t-cut and/or chrome polish and elbow grease
Im a sheet metal worker and can polish stainless and consider chroming stainless as a waste of time and money when i can polish it. It would probably harm livestock too, as it goes through several chemical baths

 

[Kogre]

I doubt T-Cut or chrome polish is aquarium safe. You would probably need to seal it in something that is.

 

[sa80mark]

I wouldnt risk anything like t cut or polish but a cotton buffing wheel sprayed with water can give a really good shine to aluminium im sure it would work on stainless steel to

 

[Andy Thurston]

Ye chrome polish probably not safe but t-cut washes off completely with water. I keep reading that you can polish scratches out of fishtanks, so you could use the compound thats used for this. Google metal polishers, loads of places do it. those pipes look shiny so have already had tool marks polished to some extent. Theres no point putting a coating on stainless because it dosent stick properly and would become tatty in no time.

 

[Andy Thurston]

Stainless is a lot harder than ally. It would probably work but take ages and i wouldnt fancy starting from a grained finish

 

[Kogre]

If knowing T-cut washes off completely with water, doesn't that defeat the purpose of suggesting it in the first place?

 

[Andy Thurston]

No cos its an abrasive compound not a coating