Working on, in and taking care of your aquarium is so much more fun with proper tools. High quality scissors and tweezers are usually made of stainless steel and very suitable for underwater use. Here are some tips to keep you enjoying your aquascaping tools for a long time.

Dry your tools!

It makes a lot of sense to dry your tools with a towel after usage. This will ultimately prolong their lifespan and even though most manufacturers use stainless steel and stainless alloys for their scissors and tweezers, there might be a case or two of flash rust in some spots - usually where the steel is in contact with the tool’s screws but also the contact surface between a scraper and its blade. These contact points should be dried and taken care of very conscientiously.
Neglecting care of the tools supports rust, and that, together with adhering dirt particles has a negative impact on the tools’ ease of movement. This is especially true for plant scissors.

Use in marine water aquariums

Since marine water is very aggressive and corrosive on steel , we strongly recommend that after use in marine water you first rinse the tools under fresh water to remove the salt. After that, the tools should be dried properly. If the tools are not maintained in this way, spots of rust can occur that will eat much deeper into the steel.These damage the tool irreparably in the long run.

A pair of scissors with heavy rust damage from improper use in a marine water aquarium.

Clean your scaping tools

Borneo Wild’s Polish Tip is very suitable for removing superficial dirt and mild spots of rust from your tools. This polishing tool is equipped with three different surfaces with individual grains. The pink surface is for removing flash rust and dirt, the white one for smoothing the steel and the grey one for polishing the tool to a high gloss finish.
Caution: Take care not to grind off too much material, especially close to the scissor blades since they get dull very easily. Polish in small motions and only in one direction.

Sharpening scissors

Regular plant scissors, that’ve become dull, can be sharpened with a household scissors grinder. Again, you should be careful not to remove too much material. This is more difficult with models with curved blades like the Wave Cutter or Curved Spring Scissors. These are less suitable for sharpening in a scissors grinder. A more hands-on sharpening method with e.G. a hone or small whetstone makes more sense here.

Scraper maintenance

For most scrapers the blades should be replaced regularly to restore the required sharpness. Since these blades are usually not made of a stainless alloy unlike the scraper itself, they are more susceptible to rust. For this reason, the blades should be unmounted and dried thoroughly after working with it.