3D Printed Reef

[Coral Hind]

A co-worker was telling me about an artificial reef made by a 3D printer. I thought that would be cool to use a 3D printer to design your own aquascape or even coral inserts. It looks like sandstone and you could design all kinds of caves or spots for fish to hide in. Maybe design in holes for frag plugs.

 

Here is an article I found and some pictures.

 

http://www.3ders.org/articles/20121030-worlds-first-3d-printed-reef.html

 

 

 

 

[BowieReefer84]

wow, are those sitting on 4' pallets?

[Coral Hind]

I think so. I read they are over 3 feet tall. Must have been one large printer!

[ohaverd]

wow, are those sitting on 4' pallets?

nice catch... ya those are friggin big!

[Mattiejay6]

I was just reading a post on reef central or reef2reef about this... It seemed pretty awesome. They were more geared towards making un common aquarium parts and expensive things.

[YHSublime]

One of my coworkers was telling me how they are starting to use 3d printers to create food by using cartridges with basic ingredients like sugar and flour, etc.

 

Crazy direction this technology is headed.

[Coral Hind]

I've heard of the food printers. I read they used a protein based powder.

 

A store could make colored frag plugs which would make pricing easier, one color for each price group.

[AlanM]

That's pretty awesome.  Wonder how strong the material is. 

 

With one that big you could print the whole tank with rock walls on the back, left, right, including integrated overflows and returns and just silicone in a front pane of glass.

[Origami]

That's incredible. They must weigh... alot!

[pettyrd]

Awesome.

[zygote2k]

in 25 years, they'll be printing people.

[smallreef]

in 25 years, they'll be printing people.

As long as we don't make a copy or clone of you..I may be okay with that,lol

 

If we could print food on a mass scale and feed all the hungry in our country I think that would be a true great use of this technology..

But printing some live rock is pretty freakin cool...wonder if they put calcium and other properties in it?

[Coral Hind]

It was the "D Shape" printer that was used to create the sandstone artificial reef rocks. It has already built a house. Here is what it looks like.

 

 

 

 

[ohaverd]

in 25 years, they'll be printing people.

The Fifth Element!  Print me out a Leeloo!

[davidm]

only if you have a multipass.

[sen5241b]

It certainly looks cool but the trouble with artificial rock is it does not come close to the porosity of real live rock, aragonite. Without the porosity it can't hold beneficial bacteria.

[AlanM]

Seems like you could almost make it as porous as you wanted depending on the resolution of the printer.  If you're spitting individual 1mm grains down, for instance, that's a lotta surface area.

[BowieReefer84]

in 25 years, they'll be printing people.

Or maybe today...

 

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-205_162-57600576/scientists-grow-human-brain-tissue-in-petri-dish/

[Coral Hind]

It certainly looks cool but the trouble with artificial rock is it does not come close to the porosity of real live rock, aragonite. Without the porosity it can't hold beneficial bacteria.

There isn't much porosity once you get a nice layer of coralline algae or encrusting coral on a rock. I remember about ten years ago there was a bunch of research and debate on message boards about the topic. Basically once the live rock is covered and pores blocked you have decoration, not much filtration.

[BowieReefer84]

Here is a 3D printer I found playing on Amazon.

 

http://www.amazon.com/MakerGear-M2-Assembled-3D-Printer/dp/B00ELUOERA/ref=cm_cr_pr_sims_t

[smallreef]

Awwwwwwww still cool...we could make small tank sizes pieces!

[YHSublime]

Here is a 3D printer I found playing on Amazon.

 

http://www.amazon.com/MakerGear-M2-Assembled-3D-Printer/dp/B00ELUOERA/ref=cm_cr_pr_sims_t

What's awesome is that it has 6 reviews, all at 5 stars.

[goodreeef]

Did not know they had printers that big! I own my own cnc , and once owned a 3d scanner.  I have read an article recently that said that 'the next technological revolution is on the horizon and it will be in industry because of the advent of 3d printing , 3d scanning '  and ' the ability of the femto-second laser to cut thinks so precise'!

 

If you enjoy this kind of thing, read about the femto-second laser. I ran across this ,in one of my machining geek google searches, it has been used to do laser eye surgery(high end though), but now they have discovered that it cut metal more precise than ever before possible. 

 

I am looking forward to the day that 'if i need a shovel, well i will just print one on the family-owned 3d printer' ....no more going to Lowes or Home-depot.

[YHSublime]

I am looking forward to the day that 'if i need a shovel, well i will just print one on the family-owned 3d printer' ....no more going to Lowes or Home-depot.

 

You think we will see it?

[Jason Rhoads]

You think we will see it?

 

Yes, I bet amazon has them in "redbox" like stations within 10 years.