Sometimes I get inspired to do things that are both obnoxious because someone said it wouldn't work and need to be credited to others because someone had a great idea I thought I could incorporate into something else. This design is the outcome of one of those situations.
I was told that Zoo-Med's Excavator substrate for reps was a bad idea to use in an ant nest because it was designed for a single introduction of water and future water applications could lead to collapse and devastating consequences. From what I'd seen of my use of it in the past that just didn't seem to add up. Further, I had recently read about one of Drew's designs for small nesting/claustral set up involving an Amac box inside another one with a Hydro-stone base beneath water absorbent substrate.
So I thought "let's put both of these to the test." Here is the visual design process.
I began with just an idea and a few pieces of acrylic boxes from The Container Store.
The goal was to add a foraging area to the top of Drew's design. To do so, I'd need to cut out squares in the bottom of the foraging box that were the approximate size of the nesting containers going underneath.
Cutting the boxes was a total PITA because the acrylic cutting tool I had was designed for score and break and it was old.
Then I needed to start adding the Excavator substrate. But, I wanted to minimize visibility issues with the substrate so I filtered out much of the finer particles.
Filling the substrate in was pretty easy with a pop-sickle stick. Added water first to make sure there was no puddling/mudding in the bottom. I want moisture to rise in this design that Drew came up with originally.
And I can also with great glee state that I discovered today that she has a small clutch of eggs in the bottom-most chamber she has dug. She still wanders the foraging box much of the day and spends a lot of time testing the walls, but this development has me pretty excited. So, I'm calling it the Drewcarium for now because the design isn't possible without his inspiration. I have further plans to change the design for even better visibility but it will require some machining from a plastic professional. This design came together for about $10 at the Container store in Pasadena, CA and some diligent elbow grease working those cuts. I hope you like it. Interested in feedback and suggestions.
Wanted to add that the Excavator substrate still might not work out, but only the test of time can tell me that. But I don't want to come off like an arrogant jerk just because I got this far. It's not even the end of the summer.
Edited by PTAntFan, June 18 2015 - 2:45 PM.
