Deansies plug and play

[Deansie26]

Hi everyone, not sure if I've mentioned it previously but I've been trying to come up with a unit for keeping leafcutters that is as near to a "plug and play" as you can get, or that I can achieve! Well this is my first go, it has two large nest chambers that are connected via pipe work. There are two exit pipes from the unit, one leading to a foraging area and one to a dump chamber. The tanks are heated to a temperature of 24.5 degrees with a gradient from top to bottom of only 0.2 degrees.
There are viewing windows on both sides which are double glazed.
I'm getting a nice glass feeding vivarium built by Andrew in the near future and it will sit nicely on top.
A small Atta colony will be going in to try it out in the next few days so I'm sure lots of problems will become apparent.
Then next week I'm starting a single tank unit that will be made of plastic but will be of similar design which should be light enough to post!
Thanks for reading.

[RichardP]

Nice one.. looks great.. Good work. It'll be interesting to see how it performs....

[Deansie26]

I've had to add a heated door/ flap to the unit as the double glazing wasn't enough to keep the inner tank clear at the window. Was still drawing condensation. This addition has cleared it. Hope to have the ants in on Monday.

[Formica123]

How do you put the holes in your aquariums deansie?

[Deansie26]

Glass hold drill bit, similar to this http://uk.tools4pro.com/diamond-bits-we ... Gwodtx8B3A

[Deansie26]

Just popped an Atta colony into the unit so we'll see how it goes. Decided to leave it in the garage and we see how it comes with the winter temps. Total make shift foraging tubs at the minute. To be honest I think there is to much fungus for the number of ants, there isn't many.

[Bitterlime]

It's a great idea and it's looking good!

[Acromyrmexbob]

My God Jamie, where did that come from!! How did you get that line of ants on it. What material did you add to the front to give the textured effect. I like the commercial feel to it. Still, you cant slag Sean off any more for selling pods if you are going to produce your own! I like the internal workings. Follows the general rule we follow in commercial installs. Hide the boring workings behind an interesting facade to engage the public. Might be competition for me!

[Deansie26]

Ha ha don't think your company's in any immediate danger I remembered doing that coco fibre trick when I was making dart frog set ups, hides the unsightly glass a bit as you said, ants stickers are just of ebay- couldn't see any leafcutting
Its a work in progress but the conditions are good, the next one is going to be sweet and far less DIY to look at hopefully

[Acromyrmexbob]

It genuinely looks great. A step up from the basic pod and possibly something that is scaleable for a really large Atta. I remember how traumatised you were at the Five Sisters colony. Is this your reaction?