SirJet: Add water to sand loam mixture? (24. Jul 2008 20:07)

Hello,

I've bought some natural sand loam mixture (from antstore) and have added to my nesting box. Do I need to add any water to it or does the mixture come already prepared ready for the ants?

I've heard that I need to add one part of water for eight parts of sand.

At present I have added some water but the soil/mixture doesn't look right.... lots of waterr bubbles and condensation in the mix. I have more fresh loam if I need to start other.

Many thaks for your help.

SirJet: (24. Jul 2008 21:14)

One more quick question, I bought a nesting box and foraging tank and got a packet of reddish stone things. Is this for the foraging tank or is it the clay for the bottom of the nesting box?

JimmyVe: (24. Jul 2008 21:29)

Hello SirJet and welcome.

What do you mean, putting water with the loam ? You can just put the loam into your farm. After putting the loam in you need to keep it moist for you ants.

The small reddish stones or clay, you need to put them at the bottom of your farm (nest area). Than you can put water in there and the sand can suck it up. That is the best way to keep it moist.

miszt: (24. Jul 2008 22:04)

Read the Caresheet for Lasius niger SirJet, it will answer most of your questions :)

SirJet: (24. Jul 2008 23:37)

Many thanks

gabranth: (25. Jul 2008 02:14)

i didn't put clay into my first 2 ant colony's basin :( there still alive though luckly ive done some reading since then and now the basin i got from antstore has 600gs of Seramis granulate at the bottom of it

SirJet: (25. Jul 2008 09:30)

I guess I was too quick to get started instead of reading up here first, lol.

I'm removing the loam mix today, placing clay at the bottom with a drinking straw leading down to it and refilling with fresh loam mix. The mix inside the farm at present doesn't look right since I added the water, lol.

Thanks for all the comments.

SirJet: (25. Jul 2008 13:05)

One last question, Do I need to pre-back the sand / loam mix in the over to kill any bacteria that may be in it? Or is it ok as it is?

I purchased the loam from Antstore.

miszt: (25. Jul 2008 14:02)

i'd recomend putting it in the oven, not that I would expect Antstore to be selling dirty sand, but its a good habit to get into, and also it is impossible to know for sure that theres nothing in the sand, unless you cook it

SirJet: (25. Jul 2008 17:13)

Redid the ant farm today based on the info here and it's looking a lot better :)

I've added water through the straw which leads down to the clay at the bottom. At first the water flowed through fairly quickly, but during the last 2 hours the straw has remained full of water and it seems to be very slow to seep through, if at all. Only 2/3 of the clay has soaked up water so far and I haven't noticed any change in the loam.

Did i put too much cotton wool in the bottom end of the straw or does it normally take a long time to work through?

Many thanks again for all the advice. Hopefully I will create a fitting home for the new arrivals in the next few weeks.

http://img513.imageshack.us/img513/5892/picture001at6.th.jpg

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