• You are viewing the forum as a Guest, please login (you can use your Facebook, Twitter, Google or Microsoft account to login) or register using this link: Log in or Sign Up

What aquascaping tools do you use and why?

I got a needle point pair of medical forceps from a dissection kit, a normal pair of medical forceps, pair of medical forceps with a “bent” end, pair of plastic forceps from an old first aid kit, pair of JBL forceps someone left in my room at college, pair of straight nail scissors, pair of curved nail scissors, old RAC card on a stick as a substrate scraper, an old tooth brush, small decorators paint brush, medium decorators paint brush, DR Wellfish algae pad, few Stanley blades and razors, various household spoons, various size syringes (0.5ml, 1ml, 2ml, 5ml, 10ml 20ml), some measuring cups off old treatment bottles, digital scales plastic cups and the small round screw lid Tupperware boxes for ferts and other little bits and peices.

Don’t think iv actually paid a penny for any of them, they all either outlived their original intended use, were found or scrounged from around the house or given to me and they ALL come in incredibly useful!

No need to spend tonnes of money on overpriced products from JBL, ADA etc… They are all just simple tools which are packaged with all pretty colours as something intended for aquatics given a little logo on the handle and had their price jacked up 10x.
 
Superman has already beaten me to it but............

...........I have curved and straight scissors. Curved and straight tweezers plus a 'substrate leveller'. All about 30cm long

I use them for...............show!!! They are in the cabinet virtually unused!!!!!

By that I mean that I find a pair of nail scissors (I use small ones meant for babies) and my fingers are more suitable for the job.

Occasionally I will use the straight scissors to plant large root plants like Crypts but other than that they get no use at all 🙂
 
I use JBL scissors and ADA tweezers.
Does anyone know if the rule is "the sharper the better" where scissors are concerned, or can they be too sharp?
Also i notice that the thick blades of the JBL scissors squash the cut stems a little, I wonder if this is a good thing or not.

Cheers,
James
 
I've always been told sharper is better, it reduces damage to the plant structure, actually cutting rather than crushing the stem.
 
I keep mine pretty sharp too, they definately cut rather than tear the stems.
However they do flatten the end of the stem a bit, this is not necessarily a critism, perhaps this will prevent so much of the plant's sugars and ammonia leaching into the water after pruning.
I've no idea if this is the case, just a random thought really 🙂

Cheers,
James
 
🙂 Never checked the stems after cutting actually, but they grow so well afterwards that it does not seem to be an issue.

I though about getting a surgical kit but it is harder to get surgical scissors than I thought.. 🙂
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top