63 replies to this topic

[Shareallicu]

I would love to make one similar to this one day!

[Shareallicu]

Where do you find these acrylic boxes?

Probably custom made

[fortysixandtwo]

Very nice. I dig 

[honourable]

Just an update of the novomessor + camponotus 

[honourable]

[FeedTheAnts]

Very cool nest and colony!

[Serafine]

This looks really nice!

[honourable]

Will build a similar set up for honeypots if I can get my hands on a colony.

[honourable]

Novomessor cockerelli got alates! 

[Superant33]

How much would you charge?

[honourable]

Sorry charge for what?

[Superant33]

My apologies. What I ineptly was asking was this: would you build and sell this formicarium? I am curious about the asking price

[honourable]

I built it just for fun. I don't plan to sell it because the cost of the acrylic tank is high. If you ever want to build one yourself just send me a message !

[Superant33]

Will do. You did a great job.

[honourable]

Instructions and what I've learned (I know pictures are much better, but I'll upload them if I can find them or will do it once I build another one):

 

1) Get a tank of your choice. I used a 20g acrylic tank.

Try to get one with a lip on top of the tank, this way you can apply fluon underneath the lip and it will look cleaner. Or you can build a lip for it and put it over the tank (lots of extra work IMO).

This tank has no glue on the inside of the edges so the ants can't use the glue to climb (but they do still climb just not as much).

Acrylic is much lighter, but much easier to scratch. I was careful enough not to do any major scratches while putting in the hydrostone nest but there are minor scratches. Unavoidable (Unless you have a spare tank to do all the measuring, fitting, testing, etc and put the final pieces in a brand new tank).

The look of the acrylic tank is much clearer and nicer than a fish tank. There's also rimless starfire glass tanks if you want to spend $$$.

2) Get some hydrostone.

I spent about 40 pounds experimenting with the hydrostone in order to get the right size for the nest. Bought a 50 lbs bag. If I were to do it right the first time maybe about 20 lbs needed.

There's many other options but hydrostone seems to be the hardest material for a good price. Once it's set almost rock hard.

I don't hydrate my nest so the hydrostone doesn't stay wet so no problem of it "sweating." The ants novomessor cockerelli are doing fine without any hydration.

No molds either.

3) Get some acrylic pieces to make the mold for the nest. Get thick acrylic so they don't warp so much while pouring the hydrostone.

All I did was made a 5-sided box 18x8x3 inch box (no top) for the mold of the largest side of the nest.

A 12x8x3 for the smaller sides nest (Used the same box but made it smaller).

4) Tape the acrylic pieces together so that it will hold the hydrostone.

5) Get oil based clay 5 lbs should be more than enough. Don't even try to do it without the clay.

You'll spend DAYS trying to use the dremel to shape the tunnels and nesting areas. That's 24/day. And dust flying everywhere.

6) Use the clay and shape out your nest and put it on the 18x8x3 box.

This box is of course depends on how big your tank is and how high you want the nest area to be. I did it half as high as my tank.

If your tank has a lip, DO NOT build it exactly as wide as the tank. You won't be able to put in the hydrostone because of the lip.

My tank is 24" wide and my nest is only 18". This way you can put the nest inside the tank + other nesting areas.

Play around with the shape of the nest with the clay until you get nice depth of the tunnels, nesting area, etc to your liking. I had to throw away some hydrostone pieces.

The depth of my tunnels and nesting areas is about 1 inch. The tunnel width is 3/4 inch. Nesting area varies.

7) Make your hydrostone mixtures and pour it in the 18x8x3 box with the clay already inside of it.

Details of how to make the mixture can be found on youtube. Also don't pour anything with hydrostone down your toilet, or sink. If you do, you'll probably need new pluming pipes for your house. About 6-10 grand to replace all with copper plumping.

Pour it slowly and make sure to cover ALL of the clay to a good height (half an inch is good). If your clay is showing, it means your nest will have a hole.

8) Let it dry over night

9) Cut the tape that holds the box together. Just the 4 corners. This way you can leave the Base + Sides intact and reuse the box for the second nest.

10) Take out the acrylic sides of your box and then the hydrostone nest

11) Use toothpicks, small pointy sticks, and your nails to take out the clay.

I washed my nest with a garden hose while I was taking out the clay. Don't worry the water won't do anything to the hydrostone once it's set.

Have fund cleaning out the clay if you have OCD. I was almost going crazy trying to get EVERYTHING out.

It's a big nest and it's 2 large pieces + 1 small ones. So that's a lot of clay and cleaning. I reused my clay since I did one side of the nest at a time.

12) Use a dremel to clean up the tunnels. I also used the dremel to "scar" the tunnels and nesting area. Or you can use a really hard pointy metal sticks to do it.

The point is to make tiny scratches for the ants to be able to hang on. The clay makes the hydrostone nest too smooth for them.

13) While making the nest put it in the tank to see how it fits, adjust by using the dremel to grind down the sides for small adjustments.

14) Make the top of the nest by making 2 pieces. I can't do it in 1 piece because my tank has a lip.

The top layer can be really thin. Mine was 1/2 inch. I poured some sand I bought at petco/petsmart while the hydrostone hardens.

Pour more hyrostone and sand /repeat until you get the texture you want for the top.

15) While the hydrostone hardens I put some rocks in there too.

The rocks I used is called dragon rock I think. A few small pieces cost me less than 2 bucks.

Looks nice! But this is permanent so you can't remove the rocks to redecorate as opposed to just putting rocks into the tank afterwards.

16) For the top piece use the dremel to make the entrance where the tunnels of the nest meet with the top piece.

 

It took me a couple of weeks since I needed to get materials, experimenting and trials/error. Had lots of fun and learned a lot while doing this.

If I were to build another one I would not sell it since it's time consuming and too awesome to sell. Build your own - you won't regret it!

Built it with my gf and had a fun time.

 

I thought about the hydration by making holes and putting in pipes, but end up not doing it. It is not necessary for the type of ants I'm keeping.

 

Cost: $200-300. The major cost is the acrylic tank. I had to buy the dremel and acrylic pieces to build the molding boxes but I can reuse them.

50 lbs hydrostone bag can build many smaller tanks. Oil clay is cheap. 

 

The tank weights like 50 lbs with just 4 side pieces and the top pieces. It's heavy with the hydrostone. Don't make the nest too thick or the tank will be really heavy.

 

Will upload pictures in the future. 

 

Oh the best thing about this nest is that...I can remove all the pieces for cleaning if my colony dies and reuse it!

 

Have fun keeping ants!

Edited by honourable, July 27 2017 - 7:30 AM.

[honourable]

OK I've decided to build another one for Myrmecocystus mexicanus.

The cost seems to be under 200 bucks!

[FeedTheAnts]

Sweet! Keep us updated.

[honourable]

$130 for 20 gallon acrylic tank (same one in this thread)

$64 for 50 lbs hydrostone

$28 dollars for clay

$10 for 2.5 lbs dragon rocks 

$23 Black Sand 

 

~$300 dollars since I'm finding more dragon rock for the top layer.

Everything else I have is reusable. 

 

Compare that to other formicaria. Build it yourself is so much cheaper and fun [=

 

I'll take pictures of each step. 

Edited by honourable, August 2 2017 - 7:51 PM.

[honourable]

Pouring the mold now. Waiting overnight to cure the hydrostone. Hopefully it will come out as expected. 

[soulsynapse]

hey, awesome set ups.. mind if I ask a few questions?

 

 

do you keep Camponotus in nests that don't have hydration?

have you noticed ants spitting up water to hydrate the nest?

do you use any type of heating?

how do you go about hibernating your colonies?