3D printed fun with Fluval Nano 3.0

[Koaan]

I'm setting up a couple tanks with these little inexpensive lights, and I came across a couple very helpful 3D printable add-ons I wanted to pass along.

Note that while using PETG filament is perfectly adequate for the shrouds, for the brackets it is NOT, the weight of the light will shear it right off along the filament bonding lines. Ask me how I know 😬

I found a friendly individual on Etsy to print the Thingverse brackets for me in PLA instead, which works a treat!

1) Easy 3D printable slide-on shroud, keeps the glare out of your eyes for the tanks in your TV room etc:

Thingiverse link 3D print for shroud

2) Oversized tank bracket, for any tank with a rim:

Thingiverse link for oversized bracket


In real life:

 

[Koaan]

Haven't figured how to edit a post:

 

[_Maq_]

A rimmed tank! I haven't seen any for ages!

 

[Koaan]

Metaframe metal framed aquariums were tremendously popular in the States from the 1930s to the late 1960s.. don't know how old this aquarium is but it's probably older than you or I 😄

MetaFrame article at the Museum of Aquarium and Pet History

 

[Koaan]

Note that while using PETG filament is perfectly adequate for the shrouds, for the brackets it is NOT, the weight of the light will shear it right off along the filament bonding lines....

I found a friendly individual on Etsy to print the Thingverse brackets for me in PLA instead...

Please note this somehow got backwards 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️ it is PLA that is only adequate for the shroud, too flimsy for the bracket.

PETG is required for the bracket, and usually has to be outsourced as fewer people have it at home.

Some days are like that. 🙄

 

[_Maq_]

Metaframe metal framed aquariums were tremendously popular in the States from the 1930s to the late 1960s.

For you, it'll be probably difficult to fancy the conditions inside a communist regime:
There were no aquarium manufacturers in the country. All industries were nationalized and obliged to obey the central planning authority, in fact the Central Committee of the Communist Party. They did not consider necessary to support aquarium hobby for the working class, therefore - no aquariums.
We could legally purchase the glass, but we - ordinary people - could not legally purchase iron rims (nickel or aluminum rims were out of reach, unheard-of luxury). The Party's reasoning went that the working class people do not need iron rims for any purpose, because all sorts of business were illegal and all sorts of consumers' goods were provided by the state. Welding anything? What for? Even mentioning such an intent sounded suspicious, anti-social.
In the end, we simply stole the rims from the nearest "national" enterprise. Naturally, we did so in full collaboration with the employees. Everybody understood that without stealing no person could survive. Of course, we had to provide some kind of compensation; often stealing something else from our employer, another national enterprise. And then the welding. The same formula. No private person could legally own welding tools, but every welder - employee of a national enterprise understood very well our situation. Being a welder, just like many other crafts, was quite a good living; not due to high wages, but thanks to illegal services provided to people in need. It was all very very illegal but everybody lived like that.
Aquarium hobby thrived. Aquariums were everywhere, perhaps even in the chambers of the Central Committee. Nobody bothered to ask where all those tanks came from in spite of their omission in the Five-Year Plan of National Economy Development. Everybody, including members of the Central Committee understood. They too stole whatever they could. They routinely lied to us and we lied to them.
Can you imagine living in such an insane world?

 

[Koaan]

Wow 😬😬😬

When I was a kid we smuggled Levi's 501 jeans across the border into BC, Canada👖 because before NAFTA they were a luxury item, so you could sell them for double or triple what they cost down here...

Not the same. 😕

 

[LFNfan]

For you, it'll be probably difficult to fancy the conditions inside a communist regime

They routinely lied to us and we lied to them.

This is fascinating - thank you for sharing. I'm slowly reading The Gulag Archipelago and I see similarities between the 'insane world' you describe in the aquarium context, and what is recounted in that book (in a very different context).

 

[_Maq_]

I'm slowly reading The Gulag Archipelago

For me, the most depressing moment of the whole book was the part describing life after releasing from the camp. One did not regain freedom, it was merely a transfer from one, sharper prison to another one, called the Soviet Union. There was no escape. There never was and still is not an escape in Russia.
My father died in 1986, deeply convinced that we would never ever regain liberty again. The most horrible Gulag was in our minds.

 

[LFNfan]

I have just started Part 3 so not reached that point yet (thanks for the spoiler ).

For someone who has grown up in a western democracy I found the first few chapters quite petrifying - a knock on your door in the middle of the night, out of nowhere, and your life will never be the same. And you could never be prepared for what's to come. It's almost impossible to grasp.

Also the inevitability of the machine - what the state wants to happen will happen, and no amount of truth or logic can stop it. In the interrogations, logic seems to become inverted so a true statement of innocence is the unerring indicator of guilt.

Awful.

There is a strong thread of dark humour in the book though, that makes it more bearable to read.

 

[_Maq_]

There is a strong thread of dark humour

We've invented zilions of bitter jokes. Par example this one: Which are the most difficult periods during building communism? - There are four of them: spring, summer, autumn, and winter.
Yet, you know, only some experienced camps or prisons. But all of us lived in a world where words lost their meanings. All values were relativized. Like, par example, when certain Mr. Lavrov says that certain country presented a threat to his country. It's a lie. Everybody including himself knows that it's a lie. Still, his compatriots stick to it not because it's in line with facts, but because that's a convenient view. So, "the truth" has a different meaning there. And they imposed their perception of the world on us.
So, don't be fooled, Solzhenicyn criticized Gulag because he suffered it personally, but in fact, he was a staunch Russian imperialist. Similarly, Gorbachev expressed his support for annexation of a certain peninsula. At its core, it has nothing to do with Communism, and indeed, they've got rid of it when it was no longer convenient. No change of minds ever occurred.
Enough of it...