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Aquaculture Systems

.At present there are many different systems in use ie: cages, ponds and raceways with many variations of all three. There is no one perfect system as location, specie, size and climate play a role in determing the ystem most suited. What we will explore is technology one can "bolt" onto an existing system or develop a completely new model.

II. Introduction

Successful aquaculture requires practical and sustainable production methods. In warmer climates with a longer growing season, intensive fish production in outdoor ponds is feasible and has been practiced throughout the world. In areas of relatively cool climates, the growing season is too short for outdoor production and is usually down in hothouse or well insulated buildings.

Indoor recirculating aquaculture systems give the advantage of raising fish in a controlled environment. In addition, they conserve heat and water through water reuse after clean-up by biological filtration. It is, however, still an immature technology. Although recirculating systems have generated much interest in recent years little information is available to compare different systems under controlled laboratory conditions either on technical merits or for economics. This study examines the technical merits of some of the most promising recirculating systems presently available for aquaculture production complimented by an economic analysis of these systems.

The most crucial component of a recirculating aquaculture system would be the removal of solids from the system and then the biofilter where ammonia and other metabolic wastes are removed or detoxified. Biofilters also come a variety o f "FLAVOURS" and each has it's merits be it Trickle tower, Fluidized bed filter. Bead filter or submerged filter.

Figure 1. Trickling filter System Layout

THE SYSTEM CHALLENGE

There is no "ONE" perfect design on the market although there are many that claim they have the perfect system. If they do the first question to ask is where one can see the facility in operation. Essentially the system has one major focus, to work well and that is to remove the waste products from the water as soon as possible. As the biomass increases so does the systems need to remove solids from the container used for culture purposes. This requirement is relevant with closed systems/recirculation and is fast becoming a reality in open systems where aquaculturists have to be more considerate about the environment. The INTERNET will also not supply the final solution but a good start is one of many universities which supply very good courses on the subject of aquaculture. Aquaculture is an extremely dynamic environment and requires considerable knowledge ranging from choice of specie through to site selection and system design. There are numerous abstracts on the subject but very few good working models. The fastest way one can gain knowledge on the subject of aquaculture is to visit as many farms as possible. You will learn more on observing a aquaculture facility in operation in one morning then you would learn surfing the internet for a entire month.