
AutoMicroFarm is now open-source - ph0rque
http://blog.automicrofarm.com/post/147448478491/the-automicrofarm-is-now-open-source
======
teach
"AutoMicroFarm is an aquaponics garden for your back yard, designed so that
your plants are automatically watered and fertilized. The fish feed the
plants. The plants clean the water for the fish.

"You get vegetables, fruit, nuts, beans as well as fish for your harvest. I
have researched and implemented the best practices of aquaponics so you don't
have to. It's easy and convenient to maintain: just plant, prune, harvest, and
feed the fish!"

For those like me that hadn't heard of this neat concept yet.

Another quote: "Like solar panels, but for your food: [imagine] being able to
produce the majority of your food in your backyard, a few dozen feet from
where it would be consumed."

Sounds pretty cool to me.

~~~
ph0rque
Thank you for the kind words. My main hurdle is educating the market on the
concept.

~~~
edanm
Just a thought - I don't know the word aquaponics. I'm a native English
speaker but not living in an English-speaking country, so I don't know if most
people _do_ know the word.

It might be worth using another word on the website, in addition to
aquaponics, to make the concept more vivd. Something like "self-" something or
"auto-" something (sorry, can't think of anything!).

I know you have other descriptions on the site, but the title in the end is
"an aquaponics farm", and this is probably how other people will describe it
to friends/etc.

~~~
ph0rque
On my website, I have, "AutoMicroFarm is an aquaponics garden, so your plants
are automatically watered and fertilized. The fish feed the plants. The plants
clean the water for the fish." Do you have a suggestion on how to change the
wording to make it more clear that this is a short definition of aquaponics?

~~~
edanm
It's a decent definition, but appears to far down in the website IMO. It's way
below the fold, which means I only encountered it after being confused for a
while, during which time I could easily have said "ok this is something that's
not relevant for me as I don't know what it is".

------
bcheung
I've built several aquaponics systems in my backyard (currently around 800
gallons worth) and have helped build out several others for other people.

I have some constructive criticism about these designs.

1) Sand does not allow water to flow quickly enough and makes it more
difficult for oxygen to get to the roots. You might end up with anaerobic
zones in the grow bed. Use a grow media that is bigger (pebbles and/or
hydroton are good options). Make sure the pebbles are not sharp though, you
want smooth or rounded. Your hands and your grow bed liner will thank you.

2) Timing circuitry adds complexity and another point of failure, just make it
run continuously. Pumps for a backyard scale aquaponics system don't consume
that much electricity.

3) Depending on stocking density you may want to aerate the water so your fish
don't die. Air stones work, but running the pump continuously and agitating
the surface of the water will do far more.

4) Don't put the pump in the fish tank. Ideally use a sump tank that the water
overflows from the fish tank into a sump tank that is lower. If you have to
put the pump in the fish tank, make sure it is not at the bottom of the tank,
put it about 1/4 to 1/2 way down the tank. That way if a tube springs a leak,
or if the grow beds don't drain and overflow, or any other unforeseen failure
comes up, you don't pump all the water out of your fish tank and kill them.

5) No need for PEX. Just stick with simple 1/2" PVC. They are cheaper and more
common. Especially the fittings. PVC is perfectly safe for aquaponics. People
bring up safety concerns but they are unfounded. The concerns for PVC safety
are when using high pressure or hot water (neither of which is a concern with
aquaponics).

6) Read up on fishless cycling to prepare the water before putting in the
fish. If you use ammonia make sure it is just ammonia (no bleach or perfumes).
You can speed up the cycling if you get something that has the nitrifying
bacterial already. You can buy solutions that contain bacteria or just get it
from an existing system / pond.

7) Get the pH dialed in before adding the fish. The nitrifying bacteria like a
pH of around 8 for optimal growth but once they are establish, move the pH to
the ideal balance for your plants / fish. The nitrifying bacteria will grow
fine at any pH once fish are introduced so setting the pH to 8 while cycling
is really only an optimization to speed up bacteria colonization.

8) Once fish are added, move the pH very slowly (ideally only 0.2 pH per day).
Sudden pH changes are harmful for your fish.

~~~
ph0rque
Thanks for these points, bcheung! Here are my thoughts on each point:

1) The sand-based system is based on Dr. McMurtry's aquaponics research at NC
State University. Here are a list of publications about it:
[http://iavs.info/publications/](http://iavs.info/publications/) In general,
coarse sand is a great substrate for plants. Both research and my own
experience show no problems with aeration or anaerobic zones forming when set
up correctly.

2) The timers are really no more complex than the pumps, so I really don't see
them as adding that much complexity.

3) The way the water drains through the sand means it keeps dripping and
agitating the surface for several hours after the pump stops pumping water to
the vegetable beds. Of course, if you plan on maxing out the stocking density,
you should add bubblers.

4) Because the water starts trickling through the sand seconds after the pump
starts, you only have ~10-15% difference in water height.

5) If you want to eat the fish, might as well try to eliminate anything that
might get into the fish through the plastic. It doesn't add that much cost.

6) That's a good idea, but adds the requirement of finding pure ammonia
available for sale.

7 and 8) I think most people will just add filtered tap water and go with
whatever pH that is.

------
ValleyOfTheMtns
The problem I have with these setups is that at some point you're reliant on
some kind of outside source of food. Instead of buying food for yourself, you
buy food for the fish and then harvest the food from your farm. But where does
the fish food come from? You still need to go to shops and buy manufactured
fish food.

If there was a solution to the fish food bottleneck (which is essentially a
protein bottleneck) I'd be more interested in something like this. Currently
it just shifts the problem of sustainable food production somewhere else.

Are there ways to sustainably create your own protein-rich fish food? Perhaps
some kind of insect farm? But that just shifts the problem again. Maybe an
insect trap which attracts wild insects from the environment?

~~~
ph0rque
That's the longer term goal. One practical way to do it is to feed all your
compost to black soldier fly larvae (BSFL), which self-harvest when it's time
by crawling out of the container... into the fish pond.

Here's an example of a BSFL composting bin:
[http://www.thebiopod.com/](http://www.thebiopod.com/)

~~~
ValleyOfTheMtns
That's excellent. Thanks for the info. Pretty impressive that you can regain
protein content from vegetable matter like that. I wonder if it's all
sustainable over a long time period or if it requires some kind of supplements
to sustain the system.

~~~
sgc
there will always be a nutrient issue, as with any field you pull matter out
of, but the volume is minimal compared to fertilizing an entire field. you can
make protein chains but not minerals.

~~~
ph0rque
Another thing to keep in mind is that if you have any type of closed loop,
you'll be adding nutrients by default. For example, if you have the food waste
-> BSFL -> fish -> plants -> harvest loop, you'll be adding food waste from
outside the loop, which will have the nutrients you need. If you continue
consuming bananas, banana peels will be an excellent source of magnesium and
potassium that will make its way into the plants through the loop mentioned
above.

------
SeanDav
Great idea but a word of warning to others that might try this. If you don't
want your fish to die rather horribly, please understand the Nitrogen Cycle
(and at least some fish husbandry) and test for it.

For example:
[https://www.theaquariumwiki.com/The_Nitrogen_Cycle](https://www.theaquariumwiki.com/The_Nitrogen_Cycle)

~~~
asciimo
And if you really want to optimize your system and reduce suffering, eliminate
the fish. Spend a fraction of your fish food money on fertilizer instead.

~~~
ph0rque
Hmm, I don't think the fish food is that much more expensive than fertilizer.
Also, by eliminating the fish, you... eliminate the fish harvest, which many
people would find desirable.

~~~
asciimo
Efficiency is the goal with these small systems. If you desire fish, steak, or
hot fudge sundaes, you can go to a restaurant. If you want a sustainable
system that provides the greatest amount of nutrition for the lowest resource
expense, you want a system like this without animals.

Any time you introduce animals into a food system you're adding at least one
trophic level, dropping your output by at least 90%.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScizkxMlEOM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScizkxMlEOM)

~~~
ph0rque
> Efficiency is the goal with these small systems.

Thanks for that thought-provoking line. My vision is for the average quarter-
acre lot to produce a variety of food for the family living in that house,
including veggies, fruit, nuts, beans, fish, eggs and optionally chicken (or
other small fowl), honey, mushrooms, and more.

If efficiency were the goal, you would need some kind of algal bioreactor that
could grow the genetically-modified algae that would provide for all your
dietary needs, as envisioned by Soylent:
[http://motherboard.vice.com/read/soylents-real-plan-is-to-
re...](http://motherboard.vice.com/read/soylents-real-plan-is-to-replace-food-
with-algae)

------
fernly
I support this type of project and wish the OP well, but I have to say that I
think the free manual is a bit overpriced in its present state. It leaves many
details unsaid or vague. There needs to be a detailed plumbing diagram and
many more pictures. n.b. the pictures in the blog post that is linked are not
well lit or clear -- and show a "garden" with a pathetic few seedlings in one
corner. There is no advice on what type of fish to buy, nor what kinds of
plants would be good to start with and, very important, what kinds a newbie
might think were a good idea but are not. And maybe open with a big-picture
overview: what is the steady-state you want to reach? What can you
realistically expect to reap from this setup in actual quantitative terms of
pounds of fish and vegs, based on actual experience.

~~~
hluska
I likely read that wrong. Did you say that you think the free manual is
overpriced??

~~~
fernly
heck, I forgot the <snark></snark> markers...

------
jglauche
I know that you want to sell your support, but I really find that your website
and your open source documentation is lacking documentation.

\- Purchasing a kit from the button on top of the page (I assume it's a kit -
although the sale button does not say that), it does not say anything about
the contents included (apart from the picture I've seen somewhere on the
blog), nor the required size, nor where in the world you ship it, nor if
shipping is included or how much it is extra. Way down the page I see
something about that you'll help to set it up for people in NC Suggestion:
Link to the description below where you state more information about what's
inside

\- When you make statements like " A well-run AutoMicroFarm will produce
enough vegetables and fish to pay for itself in six months." \- I want to see
data!

\- The open source documentation should include drawing and layout examples of
your product to be more complete

\- There's unfortunately no information about what if you want to expand your
construction. What's the maximum planting area size for the size of the fish
tank/amount of fish?

\- You should think about selling individual components - especially those
that are not commonly available in hardware stores

I'd offer my services for documentation and fixing the website, but I fear
that I'd need to play with it myself in order to understand things better -
and I cannot go to NC because I don't feel safe going there being a
transsexual.

~~~
jacquesm
> I know that you want to sell your support, but I really find that your
> website and your open source documentation is lacking documentation.

There has to be a way to present HN with a gift without someone going to
extremes to make it come out negative.

I'm not sure if you're doing this on purpose or not but this open sourcing of
the plans seems to be in response to the original launch of the product where
people were complaining about the price of the kit, and could they please have
the plans instead.

~~~
jglauche
Sorry, don't get me wrong: But in order get get things fixed, they need to be
pointed out (and that's the point of posting things to HN, right?).

I've worked on many open hardware projects the past 6 years. Documentation is
a huge problem with the majority of open hardware projects.

So what makes a good open hardware documentation?

My first measure for that is "is the documentation good enough so I can
acquire all the materials for building it on the other side of the world".

My second measure is "is the documentation good enough for getting me started
without wasting a lot of money on trial and error".

My third measure is "is the software or other important information still up
to date".

~~~
jacquesm
> My first measure for that is "is the documentation good enough so I can
> acquire all the materials for building it on the other side of the world".

> My second measure is "is the documentation good enough for getting me
> started without wasting a lot of money on trial and error".

[https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4SAAq6j3vXkUDU3OXh5cXk5OUk...](https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4SAAq6j3vXkUDU3OXh5cXk5OUk/view)

See for yourself, the first one seems to be covered, the second one is up to
you.

> My third measure is "is the software or other important information still up
> to date".

It appears that yes, this is the case (since there is no software and what you
consider 'important' might be a small inconsequential detail to me...).

So, can it be better? Yes, obviously, it is really fresh off the press by the
looks of it.

Maybe one idea would be to put the documentation in Github as a markdown
document, that way others could make pull requests if they have something
useful to contribute.

~~~
ph0rque
Thanks for the kinds words, Jacques, but I really do realize the documentation
can be improved, and I'll make is so.

Instead of github, I think I'll use readme.io for the documentation, at the
suggestion of Rory with FarmBot.

------
appleflaxen
This look awesome! A couple questions:

\- How big or how small can the system be?

\- are the planters/pool included in the price? (i get the impression it' just
tubing...)

\- what garden zones will this grow in? [1]

\- how much sun and/or shade is necessary?

\- does it include / can it be combined with a compost system?

[1] [http://garden.org/nga/zipzone/](http://garden.org/nga/zipzone/)

~~~
ph0rque
Thanks!

\- The system as shown is really the minimum size. You would increase the size
by buying as many systems of this size as you need.

\- Yes, the pools are included in the price. Everything is included except for
the fencing.

\- If you can grow a conventional garden in your zone, you can grow in an
aquaponic garden. It's just a matter of what plants/fish are suited for your
area. Really, your lower temperature bound is 50F, when the bacteria
converting the fish waste to plant fertilizer start slowing down their
activity. Of course, a well-insulated greenhouse mitigates this concern, but
adds cost. Practically speaking, I would say that zones 3 and above work well
without some kind of insulating structures or heating mitigation.

\- This depends on what plants you are trying to grow. But practically
speaking, you probably want full sun at least six hours per day.

\- It doesn't include a compost system, but would work well paired with
[http://www.thebiopod.com/](http://www.thebiopod.com/) to produce black
soldier fly larvae that will self-harvest into the fish tank and provide the
fish with supplementary feed.

------
eitally
I live in Cary -- would you be willing to show me your setup in person, and
have a chat?

~~~
ph0rque
Absolutely! I'm about 15-25 minutes away (depending on where you're located in
Cary). Email me (andrew@automicrofarm.com) and we can set up a time to meet.

------
unethical_ban
There was a constructive criticism which got deleted; assuming it was
accurate, I thought it was respectful enough.

The project itself is very interesting, and I wish I owned a backyard in which
to set up a garden like this.

~~~
dang
When comments are deleted (i.e. disappear altogether even if 'showdead' is
'yes' in your profile), it means the author deleted it.

------
spectrum1234
I want to make an open source version of this for making an entire house eco
friendly, when being built from the ground up. Pm me if interested.

~~~
ph0rque
You mean a larger version of this in greenhouse, with enough food to provide
90% of a family's food needs? If so, that's my long-term vision, too.

Check out Open Source Ecology's (and now, Open Building Institute's) work in
that area: they have a house with an attached aquaponics greenhouse, the
designs of which are all open source.

[http://opensourceecology.org/aquaponic-greenhouse-
workshop/](http://opensourceecology.org/aquaponic-greenhouse-workshop/)

[https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/622508883/open-
building...](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/622508883/open-building-
institute-eco-building-toolkit)

------
x0x0
Hi ph0rque, could you discuss (or did I miss it on your site?) roughly how
much food / fish this produces? Thanks!

~~~
ph0rque
My previous prototype produced 10 lbs / ft^2; I think this will produce more.

~~~
x0x0
My apologies for being dense, but over what time range?

What air temperature ranges does the fish pool tolerate?

Thanks again.

~~~
ph0rque
That was my mistake. I meant 10 pounds per square foot on an annual basis.

The minimum temperature is 50 degrees Fahrenheit, but that is a limit for the
bacteria, not the fish. The maximum temperature is whatever can be found the
natural bodies of water, practically speaking probably around 100 degrees
Fahrenheit. Of course, it all depends on the fish you are raising.

------
iambateman
This is awesome. I'm a garden newb...what is this doing that is better than a
conventional garden bed?

~~~
bcheung
Aquaponics has numerous benefits compared to traditional gardening.

Plants have plenty of water being on the obvious ones.

Also, they tend to be fairly low maintenance once set up correctly. Just add
food (most fish can go up to a week without feeding without any negative
consequences if needs be).

Water usage is much lower (evaporation and what is absorbed into the plants is
the only loss).

Plants grow better (they have easier access to nutrients and plenty of water).

The negatives are that the upfront costs are much more and you have to have
some knowledge of the Nitrogen cycle and creating a comfortable environment
for your fish.

~~~
ph0rque
Thanks bcheung, you got them! I'll post what I had in a previous comment:

Here are just a few advantages over a traditional garden:

* You get fish

* Better yield, due to items mentioned below

* The optimal watering cycle, followed by a drain cycle, means the plants get the air, water, and nutrients they need multiple times a day.

* The water being reused means you need only 10% of it

* Going organic is really easy: just feed the fish organic fish feed

* No soil diseases

* Virtually no weeds (I’ve picked ~3 weeds over the course of the 1.5 years I ran my initial proof-of-concept prototype)

* Minimal maintenance: only need to plant, harvest, prune, and feed the fish

~~~
iambateman
Thanks, this is helpful!

------
cia48621793
But will it makes it easier in maintenance and lesser cost of illegal
substances? I can sure grow weed/420 or tobacco on that.

~~~
ph0rque
See [http://potentponics.com/](http://potentponics.com/)

~~~
cia48621793
It's a good idea to sell organic weed and sell for a superior price!

