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Post by Deleted on Nov 20, 2011 21:34:27 GMT 1
Hi guys,
Just finished building my first slim colony and have purchased some glow in the dark sand. I wanted to know if sand by itself is an appropriate medium because I dont want to mix it with soil and therefore reduce the flourescence.
Cheers
Peteifer
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Post by Myrm on Nov 20, 2011 21:38:18 GMT 1
Hi guys, Just finished building my first slim colony and have purchased some glow in the dark sand. I wanted to know if sand by itself is an appropriate medium because I dont want to mix it with soil and therefore reduce the flourescence. Cheers Peteifer Hi Peteifer, and welcome to the forum. I have never heard of glow-in-the-dark sand, and to be honest I am not sure if I would use it for my ants for two reasons: 1) I would be worried about the toxicity of the luminescent stuff, especially when wet. 2) Ants often hate light getting into their nests and so may not like their whole nest being lit up from within, though, of course, I guess the photo-levels would not really be discernable for the ants?
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Post by Deleted on Nov 21, 2011 22:47:08 GMT 1
Thanks Myrm.
The sand I have is designed to be both ingestible and digestible for reptiles, even providing them with supplementary calcium. Of course this may not necessarily be the same for ants but I guess we'll find out soon enough.
Also, the sand is normal coloured unless charged up with photons from a light source which may need several hours worth of light, and will continue to glow for upto 15 minutes. However, I intend to use a UV blacklight to illuminate the sand only when I want to see the ants and the light in the sand will quickly fade after use. I read somewhere that ants are thought only to see in the red spectrum? If so they should not be disturbed by the blacklight or the sand as both will be emitting on the opposite side of the visible light spectrum.
My main point which I forgot to add earlier was about the consistency of sand and whether it will be good enough to support the tunnels the ants will build?
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Post by Myrm on Nov 21, 2011 22:58:07 GMT 1
...I read somewhere that ants are thought only to see in the red spectrum? .. It's the opposite; it's thought that they can't see the red spectrum.
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Post by Myrm on Nov 21, 2011 22:59:10 GMT 1
My main point which I forgot to add earlier was about the consistency of sand and whether it will be good enough to support the tunnels the ants will build? As long as it is kept slightly damp it should serve the purpose well.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 21, 2011 23:52:06 GMT 1
ahh ok my bad haha, should have done my research better. well I'll repost on here if it works for future interest! Also will put up a few pictures!
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Post by Myrm on Nov 22, 2011 20:49:40 GMT 1
ahh ok my bad haha, should have done my research better. well I'll repost on here if it works for future interest! Also will put up a few pictures! Hey, that's no proplem, Peteifer. This forum is all about learning about ants and even though I have been studying ants for over 30 years I still find myself being taught things I didn't know about ants by the bin lids on here, so no bad on your part. It's great to have you with us and I really do appreciate you joining up. I look forward to seeing more of you around the forum.
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