Nathan Hill takes a look at two quality bits of glassware for the planted tank.
Ignore the odd use of capital letters in the company name, the gUSH glassware seems one of aquascaping’s best kept secrets — which is a shame.
Here is an aesthetically pleasing alternative to chunky plastic pipes and strainers going in and out of tanks. If you try to set up your first ‘art’ aquarium, the first thing that’ll hit you is how gaudy and inescapable are your existing pipes and fittings.
Both these pieces of glassware fit into 13mm/0.5” piping, so smaller existing canister filters should be compatible. Failing that, if not too upset about flow restrictions you can always adapt down from bigger outflow pipes.
Being glass, these items need to be handled with care. Get rough with them and they’ll break. Once glassware has been broken you can’t really botch it back together again.
Positioning the inlet and outlet simply involves hooking them over the top of the tank and using the supplied suction cups. As long as you don’t accidentally tug or knock them afterwards, then all is good.
Once in place, they really look the bee’s knees, however, and you only have to see one of George Farmer’s regularly featured tanks in PFK to understand what complementary pieces these can be.
They’re not cheap to buy and if you’re after practicality over looks they won’t be for you. However, if creating an aquascape and want to give it that visual touch that gets visitors trilling with delight, then you’ll want these bits to hand.
Price: £29.50 each; available from aquariumplantfood.co.uk.
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