43 replies to this topic

[Ants_Dakota]

That is so cool. What is that white foam-like material, and does it adsorb water?

[AntaholicAnonymous]

[AntaholicAnonymous]

I silicone the base of the tower to the point where it'll be underground.
I did it for stability cause ants can dig through foam and even silicone.

They will try to modidy it. It's awesome but you gotta think ahead if you want it to keep looking good with a raging colony inside lol.


The thick silicone gives the structure stability and I made downward ridges so water can flow down and doesn't build up against it

[AntaholicAnonymous]

It's household insulation foam.
I bend and cut a mesh as the skeleton of a structure. I foam it and cut in the shape and details.

The cut foam would absorb water and I don't want that cause it's a permanent setup and mold could be a problem over the years.

So for that reason and esthetics you apply silicone that you can do a lot of detail on if you want to and coat it with the substrate that fits the environment you wanna make for the ants.

That's the basic explanation of every step I did so far

[AntaholicAnonymous]

I'll also get into substrates, clean up crew like springtails and isopods,moisture throughout the setup and how to set it up in a way that the inhabitants live along side each other and don't have to compete for resources.
Probably on maintanace too cause that's the easy part.

[AntaholicAnonymous]

I did a little bit of work and you can sorta see the steps above.

I'm not close to finished but I assembled the parts into the terrariums shape

[AntaholicAnonymous]

Doesn't look good yet.
No lighting no plants the cave is empty and the foraging area isn't close to done BUT you can sorta get the idea of what I'm going for. The tower is mostly in the ground leaving the spiral for them to walk on level with the soil.

The cliff is like a border for the substrate and the cave sits sort of under that mountain.

I'll get a light fixture this week I already have the plants and I'll fi ish this during the week. I didn't have much time to work on it recently but now I do

[ponerinecat]

I did a little bit of work and you can sorta see the steps above.

I'm not close to finished but I assembled the parts into the terrariums shape

 

Very interesting design! It wouldn't fit a natural habitat imo as its a bit perfect and and too neat, but all in all its a very pretty tank.

[AntaholicAnonymous]

Thank you man glad you like it.
I see what you're saying but I'd disagree cause I already made a tank like this and it works perfectly running for a year with ants and many other creatures like springtails, isopods, jumping spiders, millipedes, centipedes and many more.

It's not gonna stay as neat as it is when it's new but we are talking about almost 80 kilos of substrate.
Most effort went into planning for what the ants will do to the setup and how to make it bio active.
The tank isn't finished and the design not complete without the ants doing their own construction

[AntaholicAnonymous]

Lemme explain the water cycle real quick cause that's important.

The sand filled tower isn't watered at the top as pictures above show it has a mesh wich is gonna be next to a foresty planted area that's wet and it'll get the moisture needed from there since I want the top dry for my Messor to be able to make a big seed storage up there if the choose.

there's a drainage layer that you can see on the left (the gravel) that's over the entire ground below the substrate devided with a mesh and a layer of active carbon to filter the water.
I water the plants and the excess water runs down in the drainage.
The cave is connected to the drainage and moisture will evaporate out into there and out the cave entrance.

The cave will have moss and plants that like the high humidity. Heating mats also help the water evaporate and create air exchange due to temperature differences.

Moisture will also escape through tunnels that the ants make all the way down wich they will.

I only water the plants and the rest is happening by itself.

[ponerinecat]

Thank you man glad you like it.
I see what you're saying but I'd disagree cause I already made a tank like this and it works perfectly running for a year with ants and many other creatures like springtails, isopods, jumping spiders, millipedes, centipedes and many more.

It's not gonna stay as neat as it is when it's new but we are talking about almost 80 kilos of substrate.
Most effort went into planning for what the ants will do to the setup and how to make it bio active.
The tank isn't finished and the design not complete without the ants doing their own construction

So I expect the leveling of the terrain and vegetation will make it look more natural, huh? Personally I like my naturalistic tanks to be like a chunk of wilderness I took out of the wild and boxed up.

[AntaholicAnonymous]

And that's cool i love those too.

I like mine to look like a scaled down landscape that couldn't possibly exist naturally.
My last one has a floating island for example.
A mix of nature, my fantasy and the chaos the ants unleash upon what I made for them that's what I want in my living room if that makes sense.

[AntaholicAnonymous]

[Antkid12]

Looks great!

[AntaholicAnonymous]

I made some changes to the look.
I never liked the tree on top that much so I just ripped it out and I'm attaching a new and better one.
I just stuck a screwdriver in the tower and used cable ties to hold it up and sticks to keep it from tipping over.

You can see a hangmans noose hanging off and that's gonna be my next project.
I haven't made the cave yet and I want there to be some type of monsters den theme where you can sorta see it in the dark and it extends this noose all the way up to the tree.

I'll make it look like a root up until the noose starts I hope it'll look like some folklore type of situation just to make it more interesting to show people that come over.

I'll add more and more details as I get the ideas I'm facelifting my other terrarium too and I'll show you that too very soon

[AntaholicAnonymous]

[AntaholicAnonymous]

[AntaholicAnonymous]

That's how the tree turned out i made strings with grey silicone and you don't see it that well on the pictures but I really like that look.

Sorta looks like it's been there for ever including the nooses. It's almost done its just the cave that needs work but that's gonna be annoying to reach in there so it'll take a bit since that's not the only setup I'm working on at the moment.

The messor barbarus colony is growing and I hope they will soon be able to move in

[Canadant]

Looks awesome! Are those nooses? Pretty cool.

[AntaholicAnonymous]

My other terrarium has a forest wallpaper behind it but this one only a white wall.
I wanna try something different and draw a background. I never seriously drew anything so I'm pretty happy with it. That's not the background just an example for what I'm trying to do.