Apply HN: AutoMicroFarm – An Aquaponics Farm / Garden for Every Backyard | Hacker News Reader

Apply HN: AutoMicroFarm – An Aquaponics Farm / Garden for Every Backyard

10 pointsph0rque9 comments

Hey Hacker News,

We've been developing backyard-sized aquaponics systems for the residential market.

(Aquaponics is a system with a fish tank and soilless veggie beds. The fish waste fertilizes the veggies, and the roots filter the water for the fish. You get both fish and veggies for consumption.)

Our goal is to make it easy and simple: easy to buy, start up, maintain, modify, and expand. We would like to see every household with a bit of a backyard eventually become ~self-sufficient with AutoMicroFarm systems.

We're currently working on our fourth prototype, destined for my backyard. We also finished two experiments with using mushroom media that did were not successful, unfortunately (more on those experiments in this blog post: http://blog.automicrofarm.com/post/142436464771/mushroom-med...).

We have half a dozen friends and neighbors interested in the system, after they see the fully functional prototype. After completing the prototype, we're planning to find ~10 alpha/beta customers in my new-construction neighborhood of about 400 houses, then expand to the rest of the Triangle region in North Carolina.

Our website is http://automicrofarm.com/

We've been recording our efforts so far on our blog http://blog.automicrofarm.com/

Ask us anything, and thanks in advance!

First I really love the appeal of a symbiotic relationship like that between the fish and garden systems. It is genuinely clever and that you've gotten going in the pursuit (putting it mildly - prototype four!) is encouraging.

I see that you've noted your location - North Carolina - which leads me to a question of sorts: Have you given consideration to more heat-saturated environments?

The reason I ask is because my area of Texas can get 100+ for consecutive days, and other markets might also deal with lots of sunlight causing weathering issues. I don't have a swimming pool but I do know several owners past/present who lament how their equipment needs frequent replacements due to the baking type effect. I'm hoping this is something you could consider in advance so that you can tailor your marketing or potentially innovate a structure using materials that will address customary failure points. Hoping for the best in your project!

Thanks for your comment!

Aquaponics actually works better in hotter places. You do need to account for the heat (you'll lose more water to evaporation, and cold-loving plants and fish won't do well), but since a customer in Texas would know their climate beforehand, that can all be taken into design.

That includes minimizing potential equipment failure by correctly placing it in the shade, etc.

Super, that's cool to know. I can honestly say my backyard garden surprised me with how crazy mint, arugala, lettuce and tomatoes were able to grow. If the aquaponics system can also help conserve water - always a concern in this region in spite of last year's record soaking and lake filling - that's another great environmental and cost benefit to the user. Thanks for the info!

I've been following AutoMicroFarm for a few years now. They have some really interesting ideas and I'm really curious to see where this goes. Unfortunately my current living situation doesn't permit me to try out any of the ideas, but O hope this at least generates more discussion on the concept.

Thanks Michael!

What exactly will you sell? Will you build the projects in the homes? Will you sell the tools? The knowledge ? The support ? I would be interested if I could buy a smaller version. Your attempt with mushrooms appears to be interesting.

Thanks for the questions!

We will sell backyard system kits, as well as one-time and recurring peripherals such as fish, fish food, plants and mushroom media inserts (if we get it to work), including inserts with food growing in it already.

We did build a smaller prototype, the AutoNanoFarm (http://blog.automicrofarm.com/tagged/autonanofarm), but ultimately decided not to develop it. We realized that it didn't help us move forward with our backyard-sized systems. There are plenty of smaller versions available (from http://www.theaquaponicsource.com/product-category/full-syst... to https://grovelabs.io/).

How much do you think it would cost? Any plans to send to Africa and other developing countries, perhaps in an agreement with an ONG?

Currently, our cost to build one system is about $1200, so that comes to a price of $2k or higher.

We'd love to donate our products (in terms of 10% of profits, or something) to developing countries, but we first have to get to profitability :)

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