Does anyone 3d print stuff for their tank? Advice on material needed

The April FOTM Contest Poll is open!
FishForums.net Fish of the Month
🏆 Click to vote! 🏆

clambert122

Fish Fanatic
Joined
Dec 13, 2020
Messages
138
Reaction score
72
Location
Chicago
I know very little about 3d printing in technical terms as far as resins go and so forth.

I need to print a tank safe part though to hold some filter pads in my overflow to prevent my loaches from swimming down into it.

I spend about 30 minutes every morning fishing them out of the overflow of the tank. Im about to just let them live in there honestly. I want to print up a piece that can clip to it that i can cut a filter pad to size and just slide in there.
 
i do not know but i think it is plastic which is mostly safe
 
i do not know but i think it is plastic which is mostly safe


Na. Its not plastic in the traditional sense. Its a form of resin. And some of them I know are not water safe, and will leech materials into the water.
 
Na. Its not plastic in the traditional sense. Its a form of resin. And some of them I know are not water safe, and will leech materials into the water.
yes i think you should get the "artificial" reesins that can be made into fake aquarium stuff. you could test, or someone else could come. i know hot glue is safe for aqurium
 
Can anyone please reply? I don't know the answer but I don't want it getting lost in all the old posts. :)
You can look into PLA, as it is easier to print with because it has a lower melting point. Make sure you give the printed item a good wash after you sand/file any bits that may hurt the fish. Which printer are you using?
 
Last edited:
Na. Its not plastic in the traditional sense. Its a form of resin. And some of them I know are not water safe, and will leech materials into the water.

This is what I found on the subject with a cursory look. Until now I had thought that 3D printing was still done with plastic or nylon compounds. There was something a couple of years back about 3D printed food. :sick:
 
clamber1122 - do you have a 3D printer? If you do then I'm surprised you don't know the names of the materials used - the manual usually tells you the name and they usually have a customer service line that you can call. If you don't - they are really expensive ($200-500 for a low end model) that seems to be an excessively expensive way to solve your problem. I have a 3D drawing pen that I've used to make a part for my black glasses - it really worked - I just held the glasses in one hand and the pen in the other and attached the two plastics, then since this was a really small piece, melted plastic to the other end of the piece I was making - I made it slope just like the original did and it held the lens of the glasses in place.

. The pen could easily make a rather flat piece like you're describing in just about any size you need, It's called "the doodler" - look on Amazon, I think right now they cost about $80, They just call the materials "plastic" - one is PLA the other is ACL or something like that, PLA heats hotter than the ACL but you select which kind you are using and the pen heats it to the proper temperature, it's easily as hot as hot glue which if you melted some down and made a mold out of aluminum foil then poured the hot glue into the mold it would work just the same, you would have to do some research (probably in a craft's forum to see if it will leech into water). As far as the pen, you could just call the manufacturer and see what they can tell you about the type of plastics they use, You could also take a tupperware container (or the cheaper version at the grocery store) and cut a piece out of it that would be the right size then see if that silicone stuff that they seal aquariums with would "glue" it to the overflow container, You know both the tupperware plastic and the silicone is safe for fish since both are safe for people.

Hopefully I'm at least understanding your question. When I've talked to customer service about their pen and the plastics they always referred to them as plastics not "resins", now with a 3D printer that may be different but I don't know why it would be. Their customer service is really good - I managed to get a new pen out of them even though it was past the warranty time - which is a big problem with this product I went through 3 of them before I got one that worked consistently, If you send me a drawing with measurements on it I could make it for you and send it to you but I wouldn't have anyway to attach it to the overflow

Since supposedly hot glue doesn't degrade in water melting some of that down and pouring it into a mold made out of aluminum foil and then glueing it to the overflow sounds like the best idea, When I first got the doodler pen I thought hot glue could behave the same way,
 
I do not have a 3d printer, but I have friends who do. I was hoping to leverage their services. Thank you for the info. :)
 
I do not have a 3d printer, but I have friends who do. I was hoping to leverage their services. Thank you for the info. :)
3d pens work too but theyre a little harder and make uglier stuff
 
3d pens work too but theyre a little harder and make uglier stuff

The problem is I need this to be a rather precision piece.

That being said, I think I found a low tech solution for the problem. At least there were no loaches in my overflow this morning. :)
 
Last edited:
I just got back into 3D printing as well, and I'm not sure there are any resins I would trust in an aquarium. Pieces that I have made and "hollowed" as you're supposed to have had liquid resin in them when they broke. I would NOT want that in a tank. I have made some pieces solid, and to be honest, you'd probably WANT a solid print to keep it weighted down.... but solid shouldn't have issues with remaining SLA resin.

If I were going to try it, I know that Elegoo makes a "water washable" resin. It doesn't necessarily mean it's food safe or tank safe, but... probably less harsh that the normal resins. And after printing I would give it multiple washes, multiple passes in the UV curing station, and try to coat it with some spray paint that I know is aquarium safe as a sealer.
 
Hopefully I'm at least understanding your question. When I've talked to customer service about their pen and the plastics they always referred to them as plastics not "resins", now with a 3D printer that may be different but I don't know why it would be.
To clarify, there are two main types of 3D printer. The one you're talking about is FDM, which is basically a "hot glue gun" for plastics. A heated print head moves around extruding a plastic filament that is being fed through it, basically what your pen is doing. There's PLA, ABS, PET-G and some other less common materials out there. PET-G is considered food safe and would probably be just fine for an aquarium.

The type clambert is talking about, and the kind I have is an SLA/DLP printer. In that, you have a vat of UV sensitive liquid resin, and it basically builds as the build plate lifts out of the vat. Each layer, a light under the vat... a laser with a mirror aiming it for an SLR or an LCD display screen for DLP... shines on the vat for a few seconds to cause the resins to harden there and adhere to the build plate or printed model above it. It then lifts up to separate from the film at the bottom of the vat, then lowers back into the resin to do the next layer. These chemicals are a lot more harsh than PLA or PET-G.... but the print quality is AMAZING.
 

Most reactions

trending

Staff online

Back
Top