Aquarium drip cup

thingiverse

When you have a saltwater aquarium, there are times when you need to add chemicals or medication to it. These situations call for precise dosing systems that allow you to administer the treatment slowly - and slowly is generally a very good idea because it's easy to shock fish and corals in this way. However, these automated dosing systems can be quite pricey. Here's a budget-friendly solution to cut costs significantly. The concept behind this DIY setup involves using a 3D printed cup with a cone-shaped spout. After printing the cup, you take it and carefully file just the very tip of that cone off so that you have a tiny hole, and then place it over a port in the lid of your aquarium. Fill it with a mix of saltwater from the aquarium and your chemical or medication, and let it drip slowly into the tank. You can adjust the drip rate for the cup by controlling how much of the tip of the cone you file off. Be very conservative when doing this as it doesn't take much to achieve a good drip flow. The initial drip flow will be faster, but as the amount of fluid in the cup decreases, the rate will slow down naturally. To increase the drip rate again, simply add more water from the aquarium to the cup; this also results in a slightly more dilute drip, which generally favors the living organisms in the tank. The cone-shaped spout ensures that the fluid drips into the aquarium rather than all over it. The cup has a slightly sloped floor that slopes down from the cup edges towards the wide end of the cone, ensuring almost all the content ends up going down the throat of the cone. Rinse the cup very thoroughly before and after each use to prevent any contamination issues. This 3D printed cup was created using Tinkercad. It was my first project! My friend Blake kindly printed it for me; it convinced me I wanted to get a 3D printer of my own, and now here I am.