It's finally here, the moment you've all been waiting for.
Today I'm pleased to finally be able to show you what we worked on and created together,
and it's one of the most extraordinary things I've ever seen in my life!
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Guys, I can't believe the day has come.
After weeks of work and collaborating with you guys over a series of videos, today I
finally unveil the new Avatar-themed Floating Mountains paludarium habitat we’ve built
together, set to become the home of our beloved fire ant colony, the Phoenix Empire.
But guys, after the unveiling, I'll be needing your opinions and help to make a major decision,
so get your voting fingers ready AC Council, and stay tuned for the VOTE happening at the
end, as history is about to be made in our Antiverse.
Disassembling the old Selva de Fuego was a bit of an emotional task for me, and even
my house keeper, as it brought back the years of memories we shared caring for our former,
late fire ant colony, the Fire Nation, who lived its final glorious years within this
once lush Amazon-themed paludarium.
It was a total shock when the Fire Nation’s queen finally passed away and died out this
January, as we loved them dearly.
But it was time to clean up the old, and make way for a fantastic new!
Now before I show you guys the new floating mountains paludarium, let's just quickly recap
how we all got to this point, for those of you who may be new to the channel.
This is the Phoenix Empire, our massive colony of fire ants whom we’ve raised together
on the channel from just a pregnant queen ant in a test tube.
It’s amazing how quickly this colony went from just a few workers to an exploding colony
that is now outgrowing their current setup of AC ant farms.
So we decided, it was time for them to follow in their predecessor’s footsteps and live
out their lives in one giant paludarium.
And so, together with the AC Family, the awesome viewers of this channel, we made decisions
for a tank theme, voted on a design, collaborated with a terrarium engineer to draw up blueprints,
and are now gathered here to lay eyes for the first time on our collective creation,
the future kingdom for our Phoenix Empire.
The wait is finally over.
AC Family, behold!
The Avatar Floating Mountains paludarium we created together.
What do you guys think?
Not bad of a replica right?
Well, this is just the hardscape, meaning the non-living skeletal elements of our paludarium,
rocks, root system, and aquatic media.
Basically, it’s bare at the moment, and we’re going to add the details shortly to
make it look much more epic, but let me show you guys around!
Like the Hallelujah Mountains in the movie Avatar, the star feature of this paludarium
are these great floating bodies of rock attached by an intricate root system.
The initial idea was to use fake rock for the mountains, but after careful consideration,
real rock was used in fear of the fire ants being able to chew through synthetic materials,
and I’m glad we used natural rock as it looks pretty awesome, wouldn’t you say?
Now you might be wondering how all of this natural rock is being suspended?
Well, the answer to that can be discovered when viewing from other angles.
My terrarium engineer friend Ryan Jett, whom I collaborated with on this paludarium build,
convinced me that it was indeed possible to use driftwood to suspend real rock in the
air with some careful physics and optical tricks, and at first I was skeptical but,
to my surprise, it was possible.
Larger pieces of driftwood lift up the heaviest pieces of rock from behind and some mountains
are actually attached to the glass, which is made obscure because I’ve attached the
white background to the back wall of my room and not to the back of the tank.
Other smaller rock pieces are light enough to actually suspend using supporting driftwood,
which are mixed in with thinner roots to obscure them.
But the coolest part?
Check this out!
As planned, each of the floating mountains are hollow.
In these empty spaces, we’ll be adding digging medium in which our Phoenix Empire will be
creating their network of nests.
I can’t wait to see ants creating nesting sites inside each these floating mountains.
I wonder which one the queen will choose to reside in!
The paludarium also features a rock shelf which I felt the fire ants needed because
one, they’re not an arboreal species so they prefer foraging on the ground, and also,
I felt it would increase the ants’ living area, as I didn’t want to restrict them
to just the mountains.
I actually love it because the shape of the shelf creates an interesting reflection on
the water that makes the entire land structure look more like it is floating, plus it creates
some awesome caves for whatever will be living in the water.
So let’s look at the water!
The entire lower part of the paludarium is aquatic, which I hope will house some neat
creatures and plants.
As per our initial plans, the water is fed by a waterfall powered by clean water from
a tube that comes from an external canister filter that gets dirty water from this end
of the paludarium.
Another cool feature I love about this paludarium is this cool land bridge that connects the
rock shelf with the waterfall, which will really help the ants collect clean drinking
water from the fountain.
Now, as I said this paludarium is bare at the moment, and it needed some details, but
there were a few problems, that I didn’t anticipate until now that I was actually able
to see the whole thing in front of me.
Guys, hear me out.
So the Selva de Fuego was filled with tropical plants, as it was a replica of the Amazon
rainforest, but here’s the problem with this paludarium.
I felt we were limited this time with our choice of plants, because of the fact that
our paludarium here is not a replica of natural habitat, but rather a diorama.
Dioramas are tricky when you throw in plants because if we were to add medium to large
sized plants like this pothos, do you see what happens?
Suddenly, the mountains don’t look as big and majestic anymore, and the sense of scale
is ruined.
Furthermore, guys, remember how I initially wanted the paludarium to be glow in the dark
under black lights to mimic Pandora’s night time aesthetic?
Well, I tried testing the look with the glow in the dark decor I ordered, and though it
looks pretty cool in the night with all the lights off, love how it causes the whole water
to glow, it doesn’t look as impressive when the lights are on, and again the sense of
scale is ruined.
So, it’s either we choose the glow in the dark Avatar-theme or the Day Avatar theme
and well, I can’t exactly film ants in the dark much, so sadly I hate to say this but
we’ll have to shelf the glow-in-the-dark idea for now.
But, we do need to add plants to this system because they help feed on toxic nitrates produced
by the ants’ decaying garbage, waste, and dead bodies; essentially plants are great
for cleanup.
So, I had a solution, and it was now time to add the details to our Avatar-themed paludarium
to really tie the kingdom together.
And AC Family, after some reworking, this was the new Avatar-themed floating mountains
paludarium.
Behold, a dioramic recreation of the Hallelujah Mountains of Pandora within five panes of
glass.
Isn’t it spectacular?
The first thing you’ll notice is the fog.
An automatic fogger turns on several times a day to up the humidity of the paludarium
which the fire ants will appreciate, plus it looks so darn cool, as if our paludarium
is truly situated in the clouds!
I’ve added some living moss at key locations of the rocks, the rock shelf, and also in
the water.
In terms of plants, I knew I needed some very small plants with tiny leaves, so I turned
to the paludarium which actually exists next door, and houses no animals but does house
a few plants I’ve been growing just for fun.
I don’t know the species of this plant but they kind of pop up everywhere where I live,
and they spread quickly, but they’re so pretty.
It’s also awesome because they grow epiphytically without soil onto rocks and decor.
So I’ve planted a few in some key places around the lands to start growing and spreading
around over time as they please.
Another thing you might notice is I’ve added a back light to light up the white backdrop
a bit more to really make it seem like a sun-lit sky.
I love the look of it all now!
Now guys, there’s something else!
The best part of all this is coming up in 5 - 4 - 3 - 2 - 1.
Rain!
Once a day the lands are misted to ensure the moss stays green, the nest media of the
ants won’t dry out, and plants watered.
And there you have it, AC Family!
Our new Avatar-themed floating mountains paludarium that we worked on together and am actually
so proud of.
It’s a paludarium that I’ve never tried on the channel and had I not left it to your
votes, I probably wouldn’t have even considered attempting such an ambitious project, but
oh am I glad we went for it!
How about you guys?
Do you think the Phoenix Empire will like the home we’ve made for them?
Alright, guys so here’s the part where I will need your very important votes.
Guys, keep calm and let’s proceed to the voting polls to give this future kingdom of
the Phoenix Empire an official name.
A total of five name suggestions have been chosen by myself and the AC Senate.
If you don’t know what the AC Senate is, it’s a new powerful body of channel supporters
that have special voting rights, decision-making rights, and inside information on the workings
of the Antiverse.
You’ll see who the AC Senate members are among you in the comments, as they sport badges
with various colours next to their names.
Watch this video after watching to find out how you can join the AC Senate, if you would
like to become a channel supporter yourself and avail of these special powers.
So, to vote for a name, in the comments you’ll find a pinned comment under which I’ve replied
with five other posts which bear the top 5 five names for this paludarium, as chosen
by myself and the AC Senate.
To vote for a name just hit the LIKE button under your choice to cast your vote.
The option with the most number of votes will win!
Be sure to read each option carefully, as whatever we end up naming this paludarium
will be written in the history books of the Antiverse forever.
Go vote now, and don’t let me down guys (you never do) and let’s choose the best
name, and also feel free to leave your reasons why you voted for the option you did!
If you can’t decide on one option, do feel free to vote for more than one option if you
like.
Thank you AC Council for your input!
As always, the power and fate of our beloved ants are in your hands.
The lights went down on our paludarium’s first day home in our Ant Room, and I couldn’t
help but stare at how marvelous our collective work was.
I couldn’t wait to finally see our Phoenix Empire living within its gorgeous floating
rocks and trailing across its network of roots.
And, so AC Family, I think you guys know what’s coming up next!
It’s now time for us to officially proceed to the next phase: Brace yourselves, guys,
the moment has come to populate this Avatar-themed floating mountains paludarium, and officially
bring it to life!
Ac Family, did you guys enjoy this week’s episode featuring our new floating mountains
paludarium?
I can’t wait for you guys to see next week’s episode, so if you haven’t yet, do SMASH
that SUBSCRIBE button and BELL ICON now, and hit ALL so you get notified at every upload,
because I think notifications are broken again.
Also don’t forget to hit the LIKE button every single time including now.
It would really mean a lot to me, guys.
Thank you!
AC Inner Colony, I have left a hidden cookie for you here, if you would like to see extended
play footage of our new paludarium all to the sounds of relaxing music!
Go check it out!
And guys, did you know that it’s anting season in the Northern Hemisphere, and you
don’t even need to leave your home to start an ant colony?!
You can catch pregnant queen ants from the safety of your own backyard, balcony, or open
window starting this month!
Be sure to visit AntsCanada.com for all your ant keeping and collecting gear shipped to
you in a special package from our ant-loving facility in the USA, so you can get the most
out of your ant keeping experience.
We ship worldwide and also offer full email support if you need our help!
We also have a helpful forum and ant colony trading marketplace on the site.
Visit AntsCanada.com today.
And now it’s time for the AC Question of the Week.
Last week, we asked:
What is a gamergate?
Congratulations to Jessie Comer who answered:
A gamergate is a mated worker ant that is able to reproduce sexually.
Congratulations Jessie, you just won a free Ultimate Ant Keeping Handbook from our shop!
In this week’s AC Question of the Week we ask:
Why are little plants with small leaves preferable for this paludarium?
Leave your answer in the comments section and you could also win a free Ultimate Ant
Keeping Handbook from our shop!
Hope you could subscribe to the channel as we upload every Saturday at 8AM EST.
Please remember to LIKE, COMMENT, SHARE, and SUBSCRIBE if you enjoyed this video, to help
us keep making more.
It’s ant love forever!