Hacker News Reader

Comment by ph0rque | Hacker News Reader

Thanks for the feedback!

1. In talking to other aquaponics businesses, I've heard that people are not very excited about paying for a manual/plans. If you're serious about this, let me know and I can email you a payment link :)

2. Aquaponics in general only uses ~10% of the water a normal garden, with the only water losses being evaporation and plant transpiration (and what water is incorporated into the plants themselves).

3. This is a good point. The plants that normally grow well in your garden will grow well in aquaponics, with a few extreme exceptions. For example, you would not want to grow blueberries, since they prefer a low pH.

View on HN

I love the idea, but as an Arizonian, evaporation is a serious concern - in the summertime, water evaporates out of pools at a rate several times faster than more moderate climates (pool covers are big business out here for that reason). When we water lawns/gardens, it's generally in the very early morning or late evening, when we won't lose a large chunk of the water to evaporation.

I'd also be concerned about water temperatures of a shallow pool during the summer. Water's a great heatsink, but that can be a problem when the ambient air temperature is 118F, and the intense UV out here will likely break down the pools quickly. Most anything made out of plastics is completely trashed after a year of exposure out here. PEX in particular isn't rated for continuous UV exposure, and would likely disintegrate rather aggressively out here.

I love the idea, though. Turnkey aquaponics is a really exciting prospect, especially out here where we don't have particularly rich soil. I'd love to be able to run something like this in my backyard, if I could work out the location-relevant logistics.

If evaporation is a serious issue, you could cover up most of the fish tank (but be sure to add an air bubbler so there's enough oxygen for the fish). Also, if you dig a hole for the fish tank (like I didn't) that should help with the water temperature. In your case, tilapia would be a great fish to grow, they are really happy with water above 85F.

Also, it would be a good idea to cover up the plastic, perhaps even more than my enclosure does, to ensure it doesn't degrade as quickly.

I'll help customers make these and other design considerations as part of AutoMicroFarm support.

> but be sure to add an air bubbler so there's enough oxygen for the fish

Not a serious aquarist here, but I did a lot of research before getting my little 10 gallon tank at home set up and everything I've read says the oxygen introduced by air bubbles in the water doesn't really dilute in the water well (most of it just comes up the bubble and out into the open air). In theory, as long as there is a big enough hole for a modest amount of air to be exchanged with the surrounding environment you shouldn't need any extra equipment, as the surface of the water should continue to exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide just fine as long as there is enough oxygen present.

What really matters is the surface agitation. Bubblers will do that, but so will any pump as long as the outflow is directed toward the surface.

A better idea, I feel, is to just keep a layer of air between the water surface and the cover. The key issue is that oxygen has trouble crossing the air/water boundary, so you want that to be as big as possible. Meanwhile, if you keep the air holes in the cover small enough, most of the humid air will be trapped inside, and you will minimize losses from evaporation.

Another factor to consider is the air pressure. If you cover up the fish tank, and add the air bubbler, the pressure will increase, which will increase the dissolution of oxygen into the water.

You might also need a mesh cover in some areas. In Australia, for example, magpies, crows, etc would make short work of the fish.

You should get some racoons.

We have possums. They don't go through our bins, but they scour leaves from trees (until the tree dies) and make demonic noises at night: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHulXzuc_9Y

Wish we had raccoons and squirrels!

OT I know but aren't possums just great.

They look cute but would tear you to shreds. And you are absolutely right, they sound like demons. When I was younger they really freaked me out till my parents told me that was what the noise was.

Seriously impressed by your answer to Q #1, kudos! ("I see no market there, but feel free to prove me wrong")

A bit of feedback: can I suggest including a bit of information about the project and aquaponics in general? It took me a while to figure out what this is all about. Something like "Grow your own food with minimal hassle" would help a lot.

EDIT: your answer below nicely sums it up, you might want to put it on the homepage: "Here are just a few advantages over a traditional garden:..."

Thanks! Where would you like to see that info, in the blog post or on the landing page?

Edit: thanks again for the tip, I'll add that to the homepage.

Huh, I didn't realise you had a separate landing page (which btw. displays a HTTPS certificate warning when you go to https://www.automicrofarm.com/ - you might want to fix that, lots of users still type the "www" at front of addresses). How about linking to it from blog page?

Landing page looks much better, though I would suggest replacing the top image with the photo of the system (because it takes quite a lot of scrolling until you see the solution). Also, I miss info where you ship to - EU too?

Ok, sorry, this reply looks like I am dissecting your web page... professional deformation I guess. I don't mean any harm. ;)

Congrats on your achievement and good luck with the project!

Huh, when I type out https://www.automicrofarm.com/ , I get redirected to https://automicrofarm.com/ with no warning, on Chrome. What browser are you using?

I thought about replacing the top photo with this one: http://65.media.tumblr.com/4275c7edda5220da60f629d6f7ee5824/... , but it's not immediately clear to people what they're looking at. Maybe I'll just move up the pics on the page?

I am just focusing on the US for now.

Thanks for your suggestions!

You've probably previously added an exception in your browser (or possibly have the redirect cached).

Looks like you're using AWS for your cert. See step 3 on http://docs.aws.amazon.com/acm/latest/userguide/gs-acm-reque...

You need a cert with a Subject Alternative Name for www (or *, which is still free with aws).

Yay, fixed! Thanks to my brother, license2e.

What about the soil? I'm no botanist, but does the fact that you're using sand affect the types of plants that grow well?

The whole premise of aquaponics is that you don't need soil, just something that holds the roots in place and allows fish waste to be converted to plant fertilizer by the bacteria.

Cool, thanks

Reply on news.ycombinator.com