The World’s Smallest Zong. With a Gemstone Inside.

ZongGlass has been blowing Zong water pipes in Phoenix, Arizona since 1992. Over those three decades they have made Zongs in dozens of sizes, colours, configurations, and styles. The Nano Zong is the smallest of them all — and the most luxurious. Built on a 19mm tube that is barely wider than a standard pen barrel, the Nano Zong packs a genuine Zong kink neck, an encased precious opal gemstone, and a colour-shifting ZongGlass dichroic marble into a form factor that fits in your pocket. It was one of the most anticipated new pieces of 2020, and it remains one of the most distinctive pieces in the entire ZongGlass catalogue.

19mm: Understanding Nano Scale

To understand what 19mm means, consider context. Standard bong tubing runs 35mm to 50mm in diameter. Mini bongs typically use 25mm to 35mm tubing. ZongGlass’s own Micro Zong uses 25mm tubing. The Nano Zong’s 19mm tube diameter is smaller than anything else in the ZongGlass range — and smaller than almost anything in the wider mini bong market. At 19mm, the tube is barely wider than a standard pen. The entire piece is correspondingly compact, making it genuinely pocketable, desk-friendly, and discreet in a way that no standard-sized Zong can be.

This extreme thinness is not just an aesthetic choice — it’s a technical glassblowing achievement. Blowing and shaping a consistent Zong kink at 19mm diameter requires a level of precision and skill that exceeds what is needed for larger diameter tubes. The Nano Zong represents some of the most technically demanding work that comes out of the ZongGlass Phoenix studio.

The Encased Opal: A Gemstone Built Into Your Bong

Every Nano Zong includes an encased opal — a real precious opal gemstone that is incorporated into the glass body during the blowing process. ‘Encased’ means the opal is surrounded and sealed by a layer of glass on all sides: it is not glued on, it is not a surface decoration, it is not a synthetic imitation. It is a genuine stone, permanently fused inside the glass structure. This technique requires the opal to be carefully placed at exactly the right moment during the blowing process, at exactly the right temperature, to prevent the stone from shattering from thermal shock while ensuring the surrounding glass seals around it completely.

The visual result is extraordinary: the opal’s characteristic play-of-colour — the flashes of fire, green, blue, and gold that opals are prized for — is visible through the glass, appearing to float inside the piece. No two opals produce identical colour patterns, which means no two Nano Zongs look exactly alike. The opal is unique to every piece.

✨  What makes opals special: Precious opals display ‘play-of-colour’ — a phenomenon where light diffracts through tiny silica spheres inside the stone, producing vivid, shifting spectral colours that change with viewing angle. This is entirely different from the iridescence of dichroic glass and produces warm, jewel-like flashes of red, orange, green, and blue.

The ZongGlass Dichroic Marble: Colour That Shifts With Every Angle

Alongside the encased opal, every Nano Zong also includes a ZongGlass dichroic marble. Dichroic glass contains a microscopically thin metallic oxide coating applied via vacuum deposition — the same technology used in aerospace optics and camera lenses. This coating selectively transmits and reflects different wavelengths of light depending on the viewing angle, causing the glass to appear to change colour as the piece is turned or as the light source changes. In direct light, it appears one colour. In transmitted light, it appears a complementary or contrasting colour.

The dichroic marble is a discrete, rounded glass element that sits as an integral part of the Nano Zong’s design. On a piece this small, the marble occupies a visually significant portion of the total glass area, making the colour-shift effect highly visible and central to the piece’s appearance rather than a subtle accent. The combination of opal fire and dichroic colour-shift on a single 19mm piece produces a visual complexity that is genuinely unusual at any bong price point.

Affixed Downstem: What It Means and Why

Unlike most bongs — including the larger Zong models — the Nano Zong uses an affixed (fixed) downstem rather than a removable one. The downstem is fused directly into the glass body during the blowing process and cannot be removed. At 19mm tube diameter, there is not sufficient physical space to incorporate a standard removable ground glass joint without compromising the structural integrity of the tube at nano scale.

The affixed downstem is available in either male or female orientation — you select which you prefer at checkout. Either orientation accepts a standard 14mm bowl. The trade-off is that cleaning the downstem requires the same method as cleaning the bong itself (a soak cleaner like Grunge Off is ideal for this reason — it reaches the interior of the affixed stem without needing mechanical scrubbing). The advantage is a cleaner visual silhouette and a fully integrated glass structure with no joint connection points that could loosen over time.

Colour Options: 8 Premium Choices Including Clear

The Nano Zong is available in 8 colour options — one more than the Full Color 1 Kink Zong. In addition to the standard seven premium colours (Amber, Black, Light Blue, Cobalt Blue, Green, Pink, Purple), the Nano Zong is also available in Clear. On a 19mm piece carrying an encased opal and a dichroic marble, clear glass is a particularly interesting choice: it allows the internal optical elements to be fully visible without any tube colour filtering the light through the glass walls. A clear Nano Zong with opal and dichroic marble showcases both inclusions at maximum visual impact.

On coloured tubes, the opal and dichroic marble interact with the tube colour to produce different combined effects: a cobalt blue tube with gold fuming and dichroic marble produces a richly layered jewel-tone piece; an amber tube with silver fuming reads as warm and organic; a black tube with any fuming and the opal creates maximum contrast for the opal’s colour play.

Fuming: .999 Silver and 24ct Gold

The Nano Zong offers fuming at higher precious metal purities than the larger ZongGlass Zong models: .999 silver (essentially pure silver, compared to the .995 used on the 1 Kink Zong) and 24ct gold (pure gold, compared to the 22ct used on larger models). At nano scale, the fumed layer covers a smaller total interior surface area, which means higher-purity metal produces a more concentrated, vivid iridescence per square millimetre of glass. On a 19mm tube carrying an opal and a dichroic marble, silver or gold fuming adds a third layer of optical depth to an already visually complex piece.

• .999 Silver fuming — produces warm gold-amber iridescence inside the glass that deepens with use and returns to bright silver-sheen clarity after cleaning. On the Nano Zong’s small tube, the fuming effect is concentrated and vivid.
• 24ct Gold fuming — produces blue-violet iridescence with richer jewel-tone shifts. Gold fuming on a purple or cobalt blue tube creates an extraordinarily deep colour layering effect.

Beaker or Bubble Base: The Two Classic Zong Bases

The Nano Zong is available in Beaker or Bubble (OG) base style at no extra charge. At 19mm tube diameter, the base is proportionally important: it provides the stability counterweight for the narrow, light tube above it. Both base styles are engineered to keep the Nano Zong upright and stable on a flat surface despite its narrow profile.

• Beaker base — the wider, flared cone base provides maximum stability and water volume; the modern silhouette complements the precision, artisan feel of the Nano Zong
• Bubble base / OG — the classic round sphere base; the most visually balanced with the Nano Zong’s compact proportions; the original ZongGlass base shape from 1992

Made to Order: Your Nano Zong Is Custom-Built

Like every ZongGlass piece, the Nano Zong is made to order in Phoenix, Arizona. Your chosen configuration — colour, base, fuming, and downstem orientation — is blown when your order is placed. Because the Nano Zong requires more technically precise glasswork than standard Zong sizes (19mm tube work demands greater precision from the blower), production time is stated as ‘a couple of weeks’ rather than the standard 2–3 week range given for larger Zong models. Allow up to 30 days during peak periods.

The Nano Zong in the ZongGlass Family

Who the Nano Zong Is For

The Nano Zong is not the everyday-use Zong for most people. It is the Zong for specific buyers:

• Glass collectors — the opal, dichroic marble, and extreme narrow tube make the Nano Zong a display piece as much as a functional water pipe; it belongs in any serious glass collection
• Gift buyers — the Nano Zong is arguably the most gift-appropriate piece in the ZongGlass catalogue; the combination of small size, premium inclusions, custom configuration, and the prestige of the original Zong brand makes it an extraordinary gift for the right person
• Zong completists and fans — for people who already own a full-size Zong and want the smallest Zong ever made as a companion piece
• Discreet users — the 19mm tube and compact proportions make the Nano Zong genuinely easy to store discreetly and travel with
• Opal and dichroic glass enthusiasts — anyone who collects heady glass pieces with optical glass effects will immediately recognise what makes this piece exceptional

Cleaning Your Nano Zong

The Nano Zong’s affixed downstem and 19mm tube make conventional brush cleaning impractical. The recommended cleaning method is a soak cleaner: ZongGlass’s own Grunge Off Super Soaker is the ideal choice. Its alcohol-free, abrasive-free soak formula reaches the interior of the affixed downstem and the 19mm tube body without any mechanical action, protecting the encased opal and the dichroic marble from the risk of abrasive or chemical damage. Do not use alcohol-and-salt shake cleaning on the Nano Zong — the mechanical agitation at 19mm tube diameter and the chemical exposure risk to the opal and dichroic elements make this inadvisable.

Complete Specifications

The Smallest Zong Ever Made. And the Most Loaded.

The Nano Zong is proof that size and luxury are not mutually exclusive. In the smallest Zong water pipe ZongGlass has ever produced, you get an encased precious opal, a ZongGlass dichroic marble, .999 silver or 24ct gold fuming, eight colour options, two base styles, and a custom blown-to-order piece from the original Zong team in Phoenix, Arizona. There is nothing else quite like it in the mini bong market. Order yours today.