237 replies to this topic

[dspdrew]

I was wondering about that while writing the last post. I thought I remembered reading somewhere that it was fly ash, but I probably just assumed it was once I started searching around. I read the study you posted, and yeah I guess wood ash does increase the absorbancy, but only a very very small amount.

[firehalk]

you should come up with a product to sell I'm sure you would get lots of buyers

[dspdrew]

I finished upgrading prototype number 3 that's just been sitting for a while now. This was the one I used to make the silicone mold of the nest.
 
Here you can see the ceramic tile mounted to the back of the chambers, in case you haven't seen my previous posts showing how the pieces are bolted together.
 

 
 
If you look closely, you can see the water starting to soak in.
 

 

 
 
I decided to try this one out with one of my Pheidole hyatti colonies. Normally this particular nest/chamber design would be for medium to large sized ants, but since I'm just testing it out, it's not a big deal. A lot of smaller ants would do just fine in larger chambers, it just doesn't make the best use of space. The bigger issue would normally be the size of this colony, which is a little small for the amount of room they have in this nest.
 
I set their test tube in the out world, and within four hours they were completely moved in.
 

 

 

[PTAntFan]

Looks like they are pretty happy, got the gradient going, hopefully the ceramic holds up.  Where did you come by it?

[dspdrew]

I got the ceramic from Michael's. You can also get unglazed ceramic tiles on Amazon. They are sometimes called bisque tiles.

 

There isn't really much of a gradient in something this small.

[dspdrew]

I'm still testing out the prototypes. Both colonies in the prototypes are doing really well. The Veromessor pergandei colony has been in one for two and a half months, and the Pheidole hyatti have been in one for a month and a half so far. Here you can see how much the Pheidole colony has grown since I put them in it.
 

 
 
The prototype I'm keeping the Veromessor in for some reason keeps building up a little water on the very bottom, and I really can't figure out why. It might have something to do with the angle of the bottom. When it was being cast, it might have pushed out slightly, making the bottom angle downward toward the front just a tiny bit. The other prototype doesn't have this problem.
 
One thing I found out because of this problem, is how much the ants prefer a very specific moisture level. Since it floods slightly, I've been having to pull the tank away from the backing for a while, and once it starts drying out, I have to put it back on it for a while. Every time I do this, there is a time frame of about 8 hours that almost every single one of the 1500 or so ants are inside the nest. Every time, shortly after this, the ants all start piling out of the nest and start streaming up the sides of the out world. The ones left in the nest are mostly all in the bottom chambers, where they also start moving all of their brood. They go through this cycle every single time, so I know for sure there is a very specific moisture level that they prefer. Because of this, I think I'm going to look into some sort of simple way to adjust the moisture level.
 
At this point, I still need to get the nest digitally drawn out so I can have a high resolution 3D print made of it.

[drtrmiller]

At this point, I still need to get the nest digitally drawn out so I can have a high resolution 3D print made of it.

 

What the hell are you talking about!?  I did this for you already, per your request.

[dspdrew]

You don't remember? You didn't understand exactly what I wanted, so it wasn't right. I think I've also changed my mind a little bit on the design. I also need a file that has been drawn up correctly, instead of imported from Illustrator for the reasons that you made clear to me. I need something that can be worked on, not just printed. Why on Earth do you think I've been talking about learning how to use a program for this?

[PTAntFan]

Do you have a shot of how you get to the water reservoir?  Is the back open on the bottom container?

[dspdrew]

This is the closest. It's just like this, but with a piece across the top.

 

[dermy]

That colony has really taken off in your Formicarium, great work Drew.

[dspdrew]

Okay, I still haven't done anything with this since the last update, but I have thought of a way to adjust the moisture level, and even create a controlled moisture gradient. This might be difficult to make, but I think I could probably come up with a way to do it without it being too much work. This will certainly raise the price if I decide to sell these, but it doesn't mean I can't easily make them without this option too.

 

Here's how it will work. Instead of a solid ceramic tile backing, it will be a ceramic tile array, separated by resin. This allows targeted tiles to be moisturized without the moisture soaking through the rest of the backing. I will then have precut reinforced PVA sponges (chamois) that will be placed on the back of the ceramic and resin backing, and then sandwiched between another thick, very solid and flat piece of acrylic. The PVA chamois will wrap under the very back acrylic plate, and up the back side of it about an inch, creating the pad that the water tank sponge presses against to transfer the water to the nest. Each of these precut chamois will be cut to send water to specific tiles, creating different moisture gradients. Some may only send water to the lower half, or maybe even just the bottom one inch of them. This might also solve the problem with the slight build up of water in the bottom chamber, because there will not be any water flowing downward through the backing. All water will flow up from the very bottom of the backing because of the chamois wrapping underneath the acrylic back plate.

 

I'll build a prototype of this piece and get some pictures of it as soon as I can.

[dspdrew]

Here's a sample of what I explained in the previous post. Since the exact process I had in mind isn't really going to be doable, I changed this to just strips of tile for each level of chambers instead of an array. Varying levels of moisture up and down is really what's most important anyway.
 
I basically just cut the tile into strips the exact size of the back of each level of chambers, and stuck them down to a surface temporarily, spaced exactly 2 mm from each other. Two millimeters is probably a large enough distance to ensure that no moisture will jump the gap and hydrate a tile that I don't intend to hydrate. It's also small enough to stay hidden behind the walls of the chambers. I built a fence around the whole thing and poured resin in between all the gaps.
 
Once the resin cured, I had one solid piece again. After cutting and sanding it down to size, this is what I ended up with. This thing feels very strong. The resin apparently bonds very well to unglazed ceramics.
 

 

 

[BrittonLS]

I think this is still my favorite best design of yours. Also if you still need help making a computer model, I consider myself pretty handy with CAD.

[dspdrew]

Yeah, the computer model is pretty much my next step. I need to learn a good 3D program myself though.

[dspdrew]

Still working on this formicarium. It took me a while, but I finally learned how to use a CAD program. 
 
Anyway, I created an intelligent sketch of the nest. This allows me to change the measurements of certain aspects of the nest and automatically have the rest of it adjust to the changes. This should save me a lot of time in the long run.
 

 
 
Intelligent sketch in action
 

[drtrmiller]

Still working on this formicarium. It took me a while, but I finally learned how to use a CAD program. 

 

Kids...they grow up so quick.  I'm proud of you, son 

[dspdrew]

I also added some curve to the tunnel, as you can see. I'll see how that looks once modeled and then decide if I want to go with that, or just keep it angled. I might even make it both ways, but I doubt it.

[dspdrew]

[Foogoo]

Still working on this formicarium. It took me a while, but I finally learned how to use a CAD program. 

 

Anyway, I created an intelligent sketch of the nest. This allows me to change the measurements of certain aspects of the nest and automatically have the rest of it adjust to the changes. This should save me a lot of time in the long run.

 

Whoa what program did you use? Looks nice!