Sea urchin hats

[spamvicious]

Apologies if this the wrong section but I wasn’t sure where to post.

I have a pin cushion sea urchin and have been looking for some hats for him. However I can’t seem to find any reasonable sellers in the UK. The only one I’ve found is selling a single hat and delivery for £10 which seems ridiculous.

I saw someone selling loads of playmobil hats on eBay. Would they be reef safe?. Obviously I wouldn’t just leave it in the tank all the time, they would get changed over and stuff. Or does anyone sell 3d hats in the UK on here?

 

[T-J]

I have a 3D printer, and they are super easy to make and basically cost pennies.
Check your local reefing groups on FB and see if someone can print you one.

 

[spamvicious]

I have a 3D printer, and they are super easy to make and basically cost pennies.
Check your local reefing groups on FB and see if someone can print you one.

Yeah I asked someone on fb who offered 3d printing services but they never got back to me. I’ll have a look around. Tho I’m slightly tempted to get a budget 3d printer myself

 

[T-J]

Yeah I asked someone on fb who offered 3d printing services but they never got back to me. I’ll have a look around. Tho I’m slightly tempted to get a budget 3d printer myself

If you do print your own, make sure you use PETG for anything that will go in your tank. I've printed a number of items without any noticeable issues.

 

[spamvicious]

If you do print your own, make sure you use PLA for anything that will go in your tank. I've printed a number of items without any noticeable issues.

Yeah I was looking into it today but someone said PLA wouldn’t be any good and ABS is better?. I know the cheaper printers usually print with PLA.

 

[lilly.hall]

I have a toy box printer and print hats for my urchin all the time!

 

[DaJMasta]

Use PETG for aquarium prints. While PLA should work for most situations, it degrades faster and is less generally inert and chemical resistant than PETG - PET plastics are often used for food containers and are a great choice for stable and nonreactive printing plastic, so long as it doesn't have additives which could do damage (like copper particles, fiber fill, etc).

A best choice would be ones with an explicit food grade rating, but they tend to command a premium and aren't necessarily going to perform better, they just are guaranteed to be safe. Other potential choices could be nylon or ABS, but both are more complicated to print with (more susceptible to moisture getting into the filament, higher temperatures, etc.)

That being said, because of the size and the detail of the urchin hats, they are most likely printed on SLA resin format printers that don't use filaments at all. It should be possible to make one on a standard printer, but the detail won't be as fine and some geometries may be tricker to make.

 

[jrill]

If you do print your own, make sure you use PLA for anything that will go in your tank. I've printed a number of items without any noticeable issues.

Common consensus is that Pla should not go in the tank.

 

[T-J]

Common consensus is that Pla should not go in the tank.

Correct. I mistyped my original comment. I meant PETG, as that's what's currently being used in my printer. I've corrected my original comment.
I print with PETG, ABS and PLA. They all have their purpose. PETG is for the tank, ABS for general printing and PLA for causing me headaches.