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Orb Farm

(orb.farm)
783 points thunderbong | 5 comments | 19 May 23 10:17 UTC | HN request time: 0.644s | source
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oersted ◴[19 May 23 20:41 UTC] No.36006619[source]▶
The balancing seems a bit off. But oh man, this thing is so mesmerizing and addictive :)

Daphnia are too aggressive eating algae and produce too many eggs when doing so, so the algae population gets constantly suppressed in most settings.

Fish also barely eat daphnia so it is hard to control their population with them.

It is also too hard for daphnia to eat grass. It slowly grows uncontrolled to fill a lot of the tank, significantly reducing mobility and blocking light. Grass also produces too little oxygen.

Bacteria always end up dying off quickly because there is not enough material for them to decompose. It's unclear where the stuff they eat comes from and how the nitrogen bacteria produce affects plant growth.

As a result of all of this, oxygen is always fluctuating at the minimum, going into the red at night often. Which means fish always die eventually, which seems to be making people sad :(

But again, really entertaining and beautiful :)

replies(3): >>36007095 #>>36007335 #>>36010820 #
1. RajT88 ◴[19 May 23 21:32 UTC] No.36007095[source]▶
You have to tinker a bit. I haven't figured out the role that the bacteria play yet, but too low of oxygen means you need more algae/grass to generate more O2 during daylight hours. (And yes, it will crash at night when there's less photosynthesis)

Don't put too many critters in there either. Mine is pretty stable for a few hours now with 3 fish, and ample grass and algae.

Side question: Is it in my head, or are the fish slowly growing?

replies(3): >>36007462 #>>36008390 #>>36019474 #
2. fishtoaster ◴[19 May 23 22:24 UTC] No.36007462[source]▶
For bacteria: I believe their role is to provide nitrogen in the sand by eating algae poop. Nitrogen in the sand is required for plants in that sand to grow.

You can test this a bit:

1. Create a new sphere and fill it with water. Add a bit of sand at the bottom

2. Add algae and fastforward.

3. The algae will multiply, causing the o2 to shoot up.

4. The algae will die off because of the high o2. Their dead bodies (purple dots) will litter the sea floor.

5. Put in some bacteria.

6. You can watch the bacteria eat the purple dots. Note that the sand changes color slightly as they do - I think that's the sand becoming nitrogen-rich.

replies(1): >>36010862 #
3. LorenDB ◴[20 May 23 00:47 UTC] No.36008390[source]▶
Yeah, they grow.
4. oersted ◴[20 May 23 11:03 UTC] No.36010862[source]▶
Yes the sand seems to darken a bit under where bacteria were eating, that might be the nitrogen, although it doesn't seem to spread over the rest of the sand, not sure if the plants are getting it.

Also you need to keep adding bacteria because the keep dying off. They don't have the mobility to find all the dead algae, so they are gone pretty quickly.

5. Areading314 ◴[21 May 23 10:14 UTC] No.36019474[source]▶
You need a nice wood tree in the tank, can increase your grass area a lot