Richards Rant

Post your builds, private or commercial set ups. This is where we will document the creation of housing or the planning and construction of projects from scratch. This differs from the Journal Section because this section does not concentrate on the Ants or the other animals that are being kept, this section focuses on the progress of the build.
Ruairidh
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Re: Richards Rant

Post by Ruairidh » Fri Feb 26, 2016 7:25 pm

God I hope I don't say anything wrong, but here we go.That designs amazing in how it can be used to kick start a colony and then provide for it once it's grown, but when you move to the stage of filling it in, does that not remove the option to view the fungus as dont they burrow into it and make a space to create the fungus inside, where you can't see it? My thought was that if you were buying it wouldn't you want to be able to see the whole infrastructure of the colony, including the fungus?

Hope this made sense D:

RichardP
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Re: Richards Rant

Post by RichardP » Fri Feb 26, 2016 7:32 pm

That makes perfect sense to me... seeing the fungus itself and moreover seeing it grow is a large part of the experience.

How could the design be tweaked to ensure that the fungus was always visible even when it was expanded?

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Acromyrmexbob
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Re: Richards Rant

Post by Acromyrmexbob » Fri Feb 26, 2016 7:58 pm

You could place a smaller tank inside so there was effectively a square donut around the outside which could be filled with soil. The fungus, no matter where it was built, would always be against the glass. And the central tank could be filled with water and heated.

Ruairidh
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Re: Richards Rant

Post by Ruairidh » Fri Feb 26, 2016 8:30 pm

what about something like this?

https://gyazo.com/e69ae046c1d55fd2083b9117fae7fc57

sorry its a link :S

Dont judge my drawing, I promis I can do better, this was a quick sketch as you can see xD

RichardP
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Re: Richards Rant

Post by RichardP » Fri Feb 26, 2016 8:40 pm

Love it... I particularly like the pipe to the outside. I'd been thinking about that myself as it goes.

If you have a pipe out you can then:

a) Allow the customer to create "walkways", through rooms etc.
b) Make the unit modular
c) Have a feeding station and waste chamber exterior to the climate controlled nest area.

Nice one...

Ruairidh
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Re: Richards Rant

Post by Ruairidh » Fri Feb 26, 2016 9:08 pm

I also thought, dont ants need a "dump" chamber bellow all the other chambers?

RichardP
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Re: Richards Rant

Post by RichardP » Fri Feb 26, 2016 9:11 pm

Good point. And does the dump chamber need to be emptied?

Thinking about it, the ants will probably dump in the moat so how would the moat be "changed"/cleaned?

Ruairidh
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Re: Richards Rant

Post by Ruairidh » Fri Feb 26, 2016 9:13 pm

I have no idea but I presume so, maybe a design could be made for an easy clean dump chamber could be made too? a removable bottom maybe, to save having to take the whole cube out?

Britishants.com
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Re: Richards Rant

Post by Britishants.com » Fri Feb 26, 2016 11:51 pm

Glass is a lot cheaper and I've approached small and large manufacturers with designs with no luck! the greatest worry is that it needs to meet a price point and be able to survive our dodgy postal service! If one in three gets damaged the next two sales are at a loss! no (small) business could afford that risk. Packaging on such items could amount to a third of the price not to mention the weight costs! Antstore make more profit because they construct them, removing the middle man as it where. It's something I'm still interested in tho!

Ruairidh
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Re: Richards Rant

Post by Ruairidh » Sat Feb 27, 2016 1:10 am

What about going down the route of reinforcing the designs with plastic rims? Also, someone mentioned somewhere that ants may eat away the silicone if they find a weak spot, well what If fibreglass or is it epoxy? was used to seal internal joints? Also what's your average price to set up an ant colony?

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