Comment by sbhere | Hacker News Reader

Comment by sbhere | Hacker News Reader

Realizing this touches several comments made already...

- What about pests? Will the fish control mosquito-larvae in the pool? ... and any other bugs that fall in? (Think southeastern US or other places where mosquitos can be a problem.)

- What about scavengers? Do the fish bed to be protected from raccoons out suburban/feral cats?

- Can you sell sub-kits? For example, I could use your source of kiddie pools and fish, but don't need to buy pex from you when there's a hardware store two miles away...

- What about erosion during times of hard precipitation? (Again, most places in the US do get some serious weather multiple times during the growing season.) Seeing my mature plants wash away would be rather frustrating.

I dig the idea, from one garden hacker to another, I just have a lot of questions ... and as I said: I'm not interested in a full kit, but a sub-kit with research would be really useful.

Thanks for your comments!

- In my experience, the fish do a very good job of eating any mosquito larvae and other insects that happen to fall into the pool.

- Depending on how you would want to set up the AutoMicroFarm, there would be plenty of hiding places for the fish. In my setup, I only see the fish come out of hiding when I feed them. But, if this is still a concern, you could add a simple net to deter predators.

- I thought about selling just certain parts, but that adds too much complexity. If you're serious about wanting just certain parts, email me and I'll help you out.

- We've had several hard rains and high winds, and I haven't seen any significant erosion... maybe a few grains of sand that got washed out, but that's it. The plant roots are really good about holding on to the sand. :)

Just talked to someone who also says raccoons will be a problem. I guess the best solution would be to have a lid/cover for your fish tank.

If there are raccoons in your area, you really want netting over the pond.

The standard advice for preventing fish loss to raccoons without using netting is: the water must be at least three feet deep (any less than that, and the raccoons will hang from the edge by their hind legs and grab sleeping fish off the bottom) and you MUST NOT train your fish to surface near the edge of the pond (fish have trouble distinguishing the sound of human footsteps from the sound of raccoon footsteps). Any food should be thrown into the pond at least three feet away from the pond edge.

Naturally, that advice isn't very helpful for a pond six feet or less in diameter.

Thanks for the advice. Seems like an appropriate-sized net would cost around $10.

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