5 replies to this topic

[Del]

Hi all, I'm looking for some feedback on a formicarium design I am working on. Sorry in advance for the poor photographs.

 

The design was inspired by one of Drew's acrylic formicaria. Currently it consists of a poured grout nest bolted to the wall of an acrylic box, with a tube leading to the outworld above. 

 

This is a very rough prototype to ensure it works. Hopefully it will look neater and cleaner in the future. Currently a colony of Anonychomyrma is living in the small test tube in the outworld, and they seem reluctant to move into the grout nest.

 

The nest is hydrated via a reservoir (currently a plastic test tube but this may change) attached to the nest via aquarium tubing that is siliconed into a small hole I drilled into the back of the grout. However I am noticing that the grout is sucking up the water like no other, to the extent that water is beading on the inside surface of the grout nest. I feel like this is a bad thing- I don't think they like to swim in water, and one could easily drown in a droplet of water. 

 

Does anyone know why this is happening? Did I perhaps mix too much pearlite in with the grout? Is the aquarium tubing too wide and delivering water too quickly?

 

Thanks in advance!

Edited by Del, April 4 2016 - 6:29 PM.

[Inlineants]

Your water logging the nest. The line of having a constant water flow is too fine to tune. I recommend not changing anything, simply watch your moisture levels and fill the tube of water when it needs it. Grout will hold moisture for days even weeks. Once you have a good moisture level up and rolling, you will probably find you are only adding water a couple times a month. 

Edited by Inlineants, April 4 2016 - 6:55 PM.

[dspdrew]

Yeah, capillary action will pull water up a material like that probably quite a few feet, which means if it is a few inches tall, the entire thing will remain saturated as long as there is a continuous water supply. I've tried to find a solution to this, but have not yet. I am starting to rethink all my hydration techniques, as most ants don't really like a wet nest.

[Barristan]

How often did you refill the water reservoir? My plaster nets also have a water reservoir but I only refill it once a week and let the plaster suck out all water.

[Del]

Ideally I'd like to find a way of attaching a reservoir to the formicarium that does not need to be topped up for weeks or even months. I'm going to make the hole at the end of the aquarium tubing smaller and see if that restricts the flow of water to a level that does not flood the nest.

[dspdrew]

Fluid dynamics is a lot more complex than people think. I realized this myself while trying to make a hydration system with a water tank that lasts months and has no issues. I've been trying to do this for a long time with still haven't found a perfect solution. I have a few journals (maybe some that you haven't seen) where I have already experimented with a lot of ideas. I document everything, so anyone can learn from all my work and time spent.

 

With water flow, the rate is nothing more than the rate; it's not a limitation. If too much water is flowing into one area and flooding, slowing it down will just make it take longer to flood. The only benefit to this would be if you used something else like evaporation to counter the water flow. The problem with that though, is you would have to have a precise balance, which would mean precise conditions at all times, otherwise the nest would eventually dry up, or flood again.