JBL ProScape S20 Straight Aquascaping Scissors

JBL ProScape S20 Straight Aquascaping Scissors are straight 20 cm trimming scissors for everyday aquarium plant maintenance.

Key Features

• General trimming scissors: Straight blades for the everyday jobs: topping stem plants, thinning out a bush, taking a tired leaf off a rosette. If you buy one pair of aquascaping scissors, this is the shape to buy.
• Sized for small and medium tanks: Twenty centimetres is long enough to work without an arm in the water and short enough to stay controllable in a tank under about two feet deep.
• 27 mm finger holes: Wide enough for adult fingers, so a long trimming session does not end with pinched knuckles. Cramped handles are the reason most aquascaping scissors are uncomfortable to use for more than a few minutes.
• Cuts rather than tears: Ground in Japan to close tolerances so the blades shear past each other cleanly. A sharp pair severs a stem and the cut heals over; a blunt pair crushes it, and a crushed stem is where rot starts.

Choosing Between The ProScape Tools

• The letter says what the tool does. P tools are pincers, for planting and placing. S tools are scissors, for trimming. SP is the spatula, for shaping the substrate.
• The number is the length in centimetres. Sixteen for close detail work in a small tank, twenty for most aquariums, thirty to reach the back of a deep one from above the rim.
• Straight is the shape for general work. Curved brings the tips or blades in flat against the substrate while your hand stays level above the water. Wave is for shearing a carpet to an even height and for plants tucked out of reach.
• Most planted tanks are covered by one pair of straight pincers and one pair of straight scissors. The curved, wave, slim and spring versions each solve a specific job that the straight pair does awkwardly.

Looking After Them

• Rinse in fresh water and dry properly after every use. Stainless steel resists corrosion, it is not immune to it.
• After use in a marine tank, rinse immediately. Salt left to dry in the joint and on the tips will pit the steel, and a pitted edge tears plant tissue instead of cutting it.
• Do not use them to prise, scrape or lever anything. One bent tip and the two halves never close against each other again.
• Store them dry and on their own rather than loose in a drawer with other tools, which is how edges get knocked and points get bent.
• A drop of light oil in the pivot once in a while keeps the action smooth. Wipe the excess off before the tool goes back in the tank.

Good To Know

• Twenty centimetres long and 60.5 g.
• For a deeper tank, the S30 straight pair is the same blade shape on a 30 cm body.
• Sharp points and edges. Keep them out of reach of children and do not leave them lying in the cabinet where you reach in without looking.
• Suitable for fresh water, marine and brackish tanks, as long as they are rinsed in fresh water and dried after use in salt water.