3Dprinted parts and saltwater

[ann arbor hokie]

Anyone with any experience? Specifically submerged parts. Toxicity? Part life? Other factors?

[arking_mark]

Following...

[sethsolomon]

Depends on the material. I know PLA will slowly dissolve in salt water.

 

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[ann arbor hokie]

Any idea of rate both submerged and being splashed? And what the dissolved components do to a reef?

[sethsolomon]

Any idea of rate both submerged and being splashed? And what the dissolved components do to a reef?

Not sure what the dissolve rate is. But as for effects, do a google search on microplastics and coral. I remember there being several articles about it at one point.

 

 

 

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[ann arbor hokie]

Thanks, I'm knee deep in forum posts. Good search term for sure

[sen5241b]

Years ago I stopped at a coral quarry in the Florida keys and they had table saw that could cut through porous aragonite and create perfect cubes of rock. I have one in my tank to this day. Not sure what shape you want but cutting coral might be the way to go.

[scott711]

there are a lot of people that make parts for their tanks from 3d printer (frag plugs come to mind), do a search on one of the bigger boards and I am sure you will find something.  Thing-universe and instructibles have some stuff.

[zygote2k]

Ask Justin at Avast- he does 3-D printing and uses parts in saltwater.

[Origami]

I have a small 3D printer (Afinia makes it) and the filament that it uses is ABS (which is saltwater safe). I've never printed parts for aquarium use, though.

[tom39]

Years ago I stopped at a coral quarry in the Florida keys and they had table saw that could cut through porous aragonite and create perfect cubes of rock. I have one in my tank to this day. Not sure what shape you want but cutting coral might be the way to go.

 

How big is this cube? I would love to see a pic.

[HokieReefer]

Check out jrhupp's build thread in the DIY section on Reef Central. Anything you could ever possibly 3D print he's printed and is using on his tank. It's a pretty awesome thread.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2547305

 

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[davelin315]

We have a few things made for our aquariums at the Lab from a 3D printer.  We avoid PLA as it breaks down rather quickly and use ABS.  Just a heads up, the only thing I can think of that would be toxic is if you buy specialty plastic, otherwise it should be fine.

 

We don't have anything with long term exposure, but we do have a 3D printed scraper for a curved surface that gets immersed periodically.  Designed and printed by our very on bbyatv's son here at the Lab (he's one of my employees - spitting image of and sounds just like Bruce!).