Hi From Gloucestershire - Atta Colony

[Acromyrmexbob]

Richard, hi, great to see you found your way here. Warm welcome. Pipe through water works well, used that on many commercial setups. You might want to try clear pipe so the ants can be seen underwater also. Not one for the fish purists I fear but would be unusual!
Across the board, nice setup. By the way everyone, it was me who told Richard not to keep fish with the ants, had a few disasters with that in the past. I suspect a combination of types of fish and limiting ant access to water has worked here. Well done!

[Deansie26]

As long as its not expensive Discus lol

[Bitterlime]

Hi Richard, you have a fantastic setup! I just have one question, do you heat the ants by heating the water or do you heat them separately? If you do heat them using the water how do you maintain a high enough temperature without cooking the fish?
Eloise

[RichardP]

Hi Richard, you have a fantastic setup! I just have one question, do you heat the ants by heating the water or do you heat them separately? If you do heat them using the water how do you maintain a high enough temperature without cooking the fish?
Eloise

Hi, I have a standard internal aquarium heater that is set to 27 degrees. the water according to the thermometer remains at a pretty constant 26 degrees. This is enough to keep both the fish and the ants happy although I'm led to believe that the ants don't really need the higher temperature so much as they need the resulting humidity.

[Acromyrmexbob]

Great question, Eloise. I think this is coming from the fact that in setups where we use aquarium heaters to heat the nest we recommend that the water be kept at 30C which generally passes on an air temperature of around 25C. But if you have the ants at room temperature and your heater is at 27C then I expect the air in the nest will sit at 23C or so which is perfectly fine for them. The proof is in the pudding!

[RichardP]

Great question, Eloise. I think this is coming from the fact that in setups where we use aquarium heaters to heat the nest we recommend that the water be kept at 30C which generally passes on an air temperature of around 25C. But if you have the ants at room temperature and your heater is at 27C then I expect the air in the nest will sit at 23C or so which is perfectly fine for them. The proof is in the pudding!

Following on from this, I should mention that the aquarium lights (that sit in the lid) also generate a significant amount of heat and I wonder if that also contributes to an increased air temperature? I actually ended up putting tin foil on the underside of the lights above the nesting chamber to deflect heat and light away from the nest.

[Acromyrmexbob]

One thing to bear in mind, Richard, is that any source of heat that is not controlled by a thermostat is a potential risk. In the summer when the aquarium heater stat switches off at its correct temperature, you may find that your actual air temperature rises beyond what you think it should be. Anything over 30C is a danger. Also in the summer, when the water heater switches off, and the air is a higher temperature than the water because of the light (which will inevitably happen) then the heat from the light becomes a drying factor and you will find that the humidity drops dramatically within the nest tank. Not a problem now but watch for that. I always lok for any heat source to be controllable and any light source to be cold light, such as some LED's and the like.

[RichardP]

One thing to bear in mind, Richard, is that any source of heat that is not controlled by a thermostat is a potential risk. In the summer when the aquarium heater stat switches off at its correct temperature, you may find that your actual air temperature rises beyond what you think it should be. Anything over 30C is a danger. Also in the summer, when the water heater switches off, and the air is a higher temperature than the water because of the light (which will inevitably happen) then the heat from the light becomes a drying factor and you will find that the humidity drops dramatically within the nest tank. Not a problem now but watch for that. I always lok for any heat source to be controllable and any light source to be cold light, such as some LED's and the like.

Thanks for the advice Andrew. I'll keep an eye on that. I have a temperature and humidity measuring device and the air temperature remains at a pretty constant 25 degrees at the moment. The lights are of the LED variety. I also use some CPU heat sinks sat across the top of the aquarium lights that dissipate the heat (at least that is my hope). And, as I say, I put tin foil underneath the lights above the nesting area.

In other news I've added a foraging out world. I attach a couple of links to some video. I installed it yesterday. I used 18mm internal diameter pipe (I would have liked larger but space/weight restrictions made me opt for the smaller bore). This diameter is not ideal I don't think but I'll see how it goes. I can always upgrade as the cost of parts is very small.

I managed to work the route so there is never more than a 45 degree climb.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/tt6p4ar5dlp39 ... 8.mp4?dl=0

This video shows the tubing leaving the aquarium and the ants had only just started exploring it.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/wfbt77xo9w6ag ... 4.mp4?dl=0

This video is a bit blurry but shows the ants in the tube about an hour after the previous video.