DaJMasta
Valuable Member
I've worked on 3d printing various kreisels for in-tank use but ultimately stopped because I wasn't having any success actually raising larvae in them. A bunch of experience, a bigger printer, and a bunch of different (mostly bucket based) designs, I saw a club member using a jellyfish tank to raise larvae and thought "I should try that again."
The result is this! I finalized the design in may but wanted to get some time using it and actually some results, and now that my kuekenthali shrimp are settling and I've had a few going for a while to maintain and use, I'm distributing the design for others to use.
This 3d printed shell fits inside of the Imagitarium (Petco house brand) 10 gallon rimless tank. You print the parts, glue in some fine mesh (my preference so far is 150 micron) to the windows, silicone the shell into the tank, and then finish setting up the plumbing and heating, fairly simple setup. The result is a tank with a 3-4 gallon kreisel area that keeps larvae in a slow, rotating suspension (and keeps food particles in unless very small), and a total volume of more than double that for some modicum of stability and dilution capacity.
At least so far, even without filtration I've been getting away with infrequent (slightly less than monthly) water changes and have still had pretty good results. Water changes are easy, though, as you can just siphon out the outer portion and replace it, leaving the larvae untouched in the middle. The side viewing makes it pretty easy to spot larvae with a flashlight through the top, and the opaque black shell blocks some stray light which will attract some larvae.
So if you have a decent sized printer and want to raise some larvae, give my design a try:
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:7409430
And I've got a little tour/intro video here:
The result is this! I finalized the design in may but wanted to get some time using it and actually some results, and now that my kuekenthali shrimp are settling and I've had a few going for a while to maintain and use, I'm distributing the design for others to use.
This 3d printed shell fits inside of the Imagitarium (Petco house brand) 10 gallon rimless tank. You print the parts, glue in some fine mesh (my preference so far is 150 micron) to the windows, silicone the shell into the tank, and then finish setting up the plumbing and heating, fairly simple setup. The result is a tank with a 3-4 gallon kreisel area that keeps larvae in a slow, rotating suspension (and keeps food particles in unless very small), and a total volume of more than double that for some modicum of stability and dilution capacity.
At least so far, even without filtration I've been getting away with infrequent (slightly less than monthly) water changes and have still had pretty good results. Water changes are easy, though, as you can just siphon out the outer portion and replace it, leaving the larvae untouched in the middle. The side viewing makes it pretty easy to spot larvae with a flashlight through the top, and the opaque black shell blocks some stray light which will attract some larvae.
So if you have a decent sized printer and want to raise some larvae, give my design a try:
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:7409430
And I've got a little tour/intro video here:
