3D Printable Live Rock

[zoso]

Has a printable file been created yet ? If so will you share it ?

 

[sbash]

Has a printable file been created yet ? If so will you share it ?

Not sure Glasswalker is regularly on the forum any more. He moved away and had to sell his tank. This idea was never printed, I also doubt the 3d render even made it to an STL file.

This was a long time ago, but I recall a discussion where we determined this was not actually practical. Although the concept is good, the surface area wouldn't come near that of a normal (coral skeleton) live rock.

That said, we still believe we will be able to print plastic rocks which compare to the traditional rocks, but we would need a special algorithm (or piece of software) to generate the inside of the rock. So, the printing tech is there, but not the design tech.

 

[zoso]

Thanks for the update thanks sbash . I found his file on Thingiverse and have tried to print it with my flashforge using various software and have been unsuccessful in my attempts. I agree the concept is awesome and it would be very cool to achieve but as you state the appropriate algorithms are lacking. I’m sure in time this will be achieved .

 

[MarsRover]

Not really sure the desire for this? Also, there’s no way your printing tech will efficient print plastic with similar greater porosity to calcium carbonate.

Now, if you had a calcium carbonate printer....THAT would be awesome.....

Might actually be motivated to make one if people were willing to pitch in money for the parts......if enough people like this post, I’ll start a kickstarter....

This product claims to be a PLA-CaCO3 hybrid material. If you’re serious about printing something that will function as well or better than LR, https://filament2print.com/gb/woodceramic/762-smartfil-ep-limestone.html

 

[zoso]

Interesting product , might be worth buying a roll and testing it .

 

[FishKeeper01]

amazing designs, any other ideas? Thank yoU!

 

[FranklinDattein]

Any CaCO3 filament would still be approximately 70% plastic, so I am not sure it would offer advantages, other than a limestone looking until it gets covered in coralline. Also, I wouldn't say a limestone look is desirable.

I would rather look into ceramic 3D printers...

I personally gave up on the idea of 3D printing rock work. Instead, I have been having some success with 3D printed inserts and connectors I can attach to live rock.

 

[RyanS]

This is/was an amazing idea. Imagine the possibilities if you put lego type connections where you wanted to pop on/off frags. The surface area of the design is huge! I could see a structure built like this attached to a small pump to push water through. Lots of area for bacteria. Also think if you built these and were able to connect them building structure.

wow.

 

[carlosccsvzla]

Has anyone thought about a hollow vornoi shape and filling it up with coarse crushed coral? Or reactor media?

 

[shcrimps]

definitely gonna revive an old thread, would be super cool if someone made “racks” like the alternative reef ones but 3d files, even just the skeleton too. could cover that in reef cement for a super lightweight natural rack

 

[theatrus]

There is a certain knack to generative organic shapes and solids. Very different toolset really to drive them.

Would be interesting still if there was a way to drive some sort of casting process for ceramics. Could just be molds and firing in a kiln, but the advantage of going straight to 3d print is the ease of making certain shapes you just can't do with molds. Not sure there is a way to cast ceramics

 

[shcrimps]

There is a certain knack to generative organic shapes and solids. Very different toolset really to drive them.

Would be interesting still if there was a way to drive some sort of casting process for ceramics. Could just be molds and firing in a kiln, but the advantage of going straight to 3d print is the ease of making certain shapes you just can't do with molds. Not sure there is a way to cast ceramics

one with a large amount of complexity i don’t think a mix would be thin enough but that would be really cool, at some point i want to try and make some artificial pieces with the white concrete/shell/sand mix to make some intricate nano pieces

 

[encrustingacro]

The plastic rock would not be porous enough. Real live rock has tine interconnected pores that are too small to be printed by a 3D printer. Live rock is not just to house beneficial bacteria, but also acts as a pH buffer due to being made of calcium carbonate.

I actually thought of and posted a similar idea on here a few years ago, but instead of using plastic and a conventional FDM printer, one would use an SLS or binderjet printer with a mix of calcium carbonate sand/powder and salt. If binderjet printing was used, the rock would need to be sintered in an oven to fuse the sand and evaporate the binding agent. The rock would then be put in water to dissolve the salt, which would leave behind a porous structure.

 

[Crustaceon]

I don't see a reason why ABS printed "rock" wouldn't work, even from a ph buffering standpoint considering most of us would have sand under said plastic rock, or could just make the plastic rock hollow and fill the void with aragonite sand and direct some amount of tank flow through that space via dedicated ports, etc.. It doesn't seem like complicated thing to pull off. A simple test would be starting a reef tank with a tupperware container with a bunch of tiny holes drilled in it and filling it with the proper sand. Imagine having a bunch of small, compartmentalized individual sandbeds with flow entering it from all directions to prevent hydrogen sulfide buildup.

 

[theatrus]

I don't see a reason why ABS printed "rock" wouldn't work, even from a ph buffering standpoint considering most of us would have sand under said plastic rock, or could just make the plastic rock hollow and fill the void with aragonite sand and direct some amount of tank flow through that space via dedicated ports, etc.. It doesn't seem like complicated thing to pull off. A simple test would be starting a reef tank with a tupperware container with a bunch of tiny holes drilled in it and filling it with the proper sand. Imagine having a bunch of small, compartmentalized individual sandbeds with flow entering it from all directions to prevent hydrogen sulfide buildup.

It would work fine. There are literally frag systems built with no live rock component.

That said, having some rockwork is beneficial. Could be a pile of rubble in the sump for all it mattered.

 

[encrustingacro]

It would work fine. There are literally frag systems built with no live rock component.

That said, having some rockwork is beneficial. Could be a pile of rubble in the sump for all it mattered.

generally, frag systems that don't have live rock in the display will have live rock or ceramic bio-media in the sump

 

[encrustingacro]

I don't see a reason why ABS printed "rock" wouldn't work, even from a ph buffering standpoint considering most of us would have sand under said plastic rock, or could just make the plastic rock hollow and fill the void with aragonite sand and direct some amount of tank flow through that space via dedicated ports, etc.. It doesn't seem like complicated thing to pull off. A simple test would be starting a reef tank with a tupperware container with a bunch of tiny holes drilled in it and filling it with the proper sand. Imagine having a bunch of small, compartmentalized individual sandbeds with flow entering it from all directions to prevent hydrogen sulfide buildup.

If you were to put sand in a hollow plastic rock with holes, the sand would either fall out of the holes or the holes would be too small and/or too few to let flow in. Remember that aquarium sand is usually in between 0.5 and 2mm grain size. A fine mesh would be needed to both keep the sand in and let flow through, though it would be flimsy and too thin/small to be printed by a conventional FDM printer.

 

[Crustaceon]

If you were to put sand in a hollow plastic rock with holes, the sand would either fall out of the holes or the holes would be too small and/or too few to let flow in. Remember that aquarium sand is usually in between 0.5 and 2mm grain size. A fine mesh would be needed to both keep the sand in and let flow through, though it would be flimsy and too thin/small to be printed by a conventional FDM printer.

If the holes would be too small to let flow in, then how does actually live rock work? Think about that for a second. So, yes, there could be either a “falling out” or clogging issue if the holes were too large/small. So what do you do? You have the sand sit in a basin within the “rock” and directly flow from larger holes above the sand line downward and at an angle to flow along the bottom curvature of the basin.

 

[Crustaceon]

It would work fine. There are literally frag systems built with no live rock component.

That said, having some rockwork is beneficial. Could be a pile of rubble in the sump for all it mattered.

I have a basket of seachem matrix in one of my sumps for this exact reason.

 

[encrustingacro]

If the holes would be too small to let flow in, then how does actually live rock work? Think about that for a second. So, yes, there could be either a “falling out” or clogging issue if the holes were too large/small. So what do you do? You have the sand sit in a basin within the “rock” and directly flow from larger holes above the sand line downward and at an angle to flow along the bottom curvature of the basin.

The sand inside the plastic rock would fall into the holes, clogging them, and in order for the rock to be feasibly printed, the holes would be too few to let flow through. (Good) live rock doesn't get clogged because it is filled with pores and there is nothing inside the rock to clog the pores. Having the sand sit in a basin within the plastic rock would not give you enough surface area for ample nitrification. Remember that the pores in live rock are much smaller than the space between sand particles.