345 replies to this topic

[sgheaton]

Nah... You lost me at this point. Went off in a direct that I'm not interested and do not like the style or set up.

 

Good luck to ya though!

[dspdrew]

Nah... You lost me at this point. Went off in a direct that I'm not interested and do not like the style or set up.

 

Good luck to ya though!

 

You like the old one and don't like the new one? If so, that's interesting. None of the changes were about style, only functionality.

[sgheaton]

Yeaaah....I like the box-with in-box, I understand the water pipe/reservoir to hold them all..... wasn't too sure how to articulate exactly what my feelings were towards my dislike of them, and needed to start the work day so I just went with a "Nah.."

[Jelly]

I like the style of this "dirt box" so many improvements!

what's your hydration medium? Looks like a chuck of foam?

[XZero38]

the white layer at the bottom is a layer i think he said 1/8 inch of hydrostone

[Jelly]

the white layer at the bottom is a layer i think he said 1/8 inch of hydrostone

Yes, youre right.... it says it in the past post. IDK how i missed it! Thanks!

[dspdrew]

Yeaaah....I like the box-with in-box, I understand the water pipe/reservoir to hold them all..... wasn't too sure how to articulate exactly what my feelings were towards my dislike of them, and needed to start the work day so I just went with a "Nah.."

 

I'm still not following you here. You like the box within a box? That's pretty much everything in this thread. Also not sure what you mean by "water pipe/reservoir to hold them all". Did you read through the whole post?

[sgheaton]

Yes. It would be easier to actually chat about it but my chat doesn't seem to work now!

[Antking117]

The clean functional work here is amazing, I am so confused as to whether invest time into this or try to purchase crazy legs stuff. ( - _{ }_ -) <--- my head tearing in half.

[dspdrew]

Before I start setting all these new dirt boxes up, I decided to get a definite answer as to what material or substrate will hold the most water (water holding capacity). I have always just filled the inner container up with the same clay/sand mixture that the ants live in, but I would like to know once and for all what would keep these nests hydrated the longest. I did a lot of research online, but most of the information is very specific to particular hobbies, and doesn't include the materials I would like to know about. Also as always, there is a lot of conflicting or confusing information. From what I have read, clay supposedly holds the most water of any substrate, because it has the most surface area (the extremely small particles obviously). I always knew that that gave it some very strong capillary action, like Hydrostone does. I know materials like that can pull water upward a relatively long distance.
 
I like to just answers these questions for myself by doing a simple experiment. Here I just filled a bunch of cups up with approximately the same volume of material/substrate and rigged them up to be able to soak up water from some of my small water tanks. I put tape across the tops of all the cups to cut down on any evaporation; this isn't going to take very long, so there shouldn't be too much. when it's all over, whichever tank has the lowest water level will be the winner.
 
I poked holes in the bottoms of all these cups, applied some tape across the bottoms, and poured about 3mm of Hydrostone in them. This allows them to soak up water, without any allowing anything to leak out.
 

 
 
Not pretty, but does the job.
 

 
 
I tried a few different materials and substrates: clay dirt, fine sand, cellulose sponge, powdered perlite, solid Hydrostone (completely dried), clay/sand mixture, compressed sphagnum moss, regular perlite.
 

 
 
Made a few water tanks that I will be needing anyway for all the new founding formicariums I recently made.
 

 
 
The competition begins.
 

 
 
My guess is either the clay dirt, powdered perlite, or the Hydrostone will soak up the most water simply because of the particle size, but I'm not completely sure, which is the reason for this experiment. Also, some of the materials I already know are going to soak up less than the others, like the fine sand for instance, but I'm just curious to see HOW much less.

[dspdrew]

The differences between the results are too close for the margin of error in measurements. For some reason I thought the results wouldn't be so close. It is obvious however, which 3 soaked up the most water--the clay dirt, powdered perlite, and sphagnum moss.
 
Clay dirt
 

 
 
Fine sand
 

 
 
Cellulose sponge
 

 
 
Powdered perlite
 

 
 
Solid Hydrostone
 

 
 
Clay/sand mixture
 

 
 
Compressed sphagnum moss
 

 
 
Regular perlite
 

 
 
The Hydrostone actually did as bad as the sand. I guess even though it does have very strong capillary action, it just doesn't hold much water.
 
The clay/sand mixture, which I think is more sand than clay dirt, did about as well as I would imagine after seeing the results of the pure clay, and pure sand--not so well.
 
Right away I can see the hydration in these things can definitely be improved.
 
I'm going to redo the test much more accurately for the clay dirt, powdered perlite, and sphagnum moss. I'm also going to see if I can add a PVA sponge to the test as well.

[Antking117]

This is important information scientist drew. Very curious about the upcoming outcome.

[dspdrew]

Time for the next experiment.
 
I used some old collection containers this time so I could pack the sphagnum moss in better, and get more even amounts of the other substrates in each. This time I measured out the exact same amount of Hydrostone (5.5g) in the bottom of each.
 

 
 
Once fully dried, I filled them all the way to the tops, except for the one with the PVA sponge and the one with the sphagnum moss, because those need a little room to expand as they fill with water. The fine particle substrates I packed in a little bit.
 
This time I'm testing (pictured in this order) PVA sponge, powdered perlite, clay dirt, sphagnum moss, and powdered vermiculite. I weighed them each before putting them on the water tanks, so I can weight them later and find out precisely how much water each one has absorbed. You can see the dry weight written on the container.
 

 
 
Total dry weight (g):
 
PVA sponge - 26.4g
Powdered perlite - 35.7g
Clay dirt - 70.1g
Sphagnum moss - 26.0g
Powdered vermiculite - 30.6g
 
The competition is on.

[sgheaton]

Random number generator told me to put it all on 2...so come on.... sand? Go sand!

[dspdrew]

No sand in this experiment.

[XZero38]

Random number generator told me to put it all on 2...so come on.... sand? Go sand!

I'm guessing that #2 is the powdered perlite. I'm also guessing that the way they are in the picture is the same order he named them in. 

[dspdrew]

 

Random number generator told me to put it all on 2...so come on.... sand? Go sand!

Im guessing that #2 is the powdered perlite. Im also guessing that the way they are in the picture is the same order he named them in. 

 

 

Exactly. That's what the "(pictured in this order)" meant.

[sgheaton]

Fine sand
 

I meant this but didn't see test A was completed and now test B is underway.

[dspdrew]

Yup yup. I'm going to check the results right now I think.

[dspdrew]

Wow, I can't believe how long it's taking for these to saturate. Some of them, like the PVA sponge, are barely wet on the tops. Anyway, i filled the water tanks all the way up to saturate the sponges as much as possible, which should speed things up a bit. I also got some measurements while doing it.

 

Here's the rough running totals (g H2O):

 

PVA sponge - 10g

Powdered perlite - 20g

Clay dirt - 13g

Sphagnum moss - 20g

Powdered vermiculite - 23g