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Orb Farm

(orb.farm)
783 points thunderbong | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.304s | source
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oersted ◴[] 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 #
imakira ◴[] No.36007335[source]
I figured out you can limit the living area of Daphnia using glass and sand, and then feed the fishes with only grass.
replies(1): >>36009915 #
eric-hu ◴[] No.36009915[source]
I tried this out and it works, but it felt like cheating. The algae production counts towards o2 balance, but that doesn't make sense if their water is sectioned off.
replies(1): >>36011406 #
1. imakira ◴[] No.36011406[source]
Yeah it's like cheating, and I cheat myself by thinking O2 can exchange through sand :D