Aquaculture Equipment Resirculation Fish Farming

Kinds of Aqua farming Design Systems

Number of fishfarm designs and Aquaculture systems exists in order to grow fish. Round tanks, rectangular tanks, net coops in oceans or lakes, plastic or clay lined potted tanks, ponds and any other form of container in which fish can sustain can be used. Out of these tanks, one or two of them will be used for fish existing in land and usually water will be channeled in for giving life support to the fish and flushed out of it in order to clear the waste particles present in the water. The tank is designed in such a way to include diffused lake and system aeration system or mechanical type aeration system to disperse oxygen into the water. Diffused system works by converting the air into bubbles while mechanical ones include surface aerators and low speed aerators.

Fish farms in land have been quite eco friendly and technology has made it a more secured and controlled process. One among the technological advancement is Water Recirculation System or also known as RAS. The necessities for fish to a larger extent push us to develop more advanced methods for preserving aquaculture and ways to secure it.

Recirculation Aquaculture Systems

Recirculation Aquaculture Systems is one form of farming fish which is quite stimulating, unique and environment friendly method .Moving away from the traditional method of fostering fish in ponds, tanks or net coops,this is a form of rearing fish in a controlled environment which is operated properly inside the building. One of the special features of such system is that, water is flushed out to recycle, thus cleaning and filtering the fish cultured tanks. Fresh water is added to the tank in order to clean the wastes of the fish and to make up the water loss due to spattering or evaporation.

There are several RAS process designs which are prevalent, most of them use rearing with conditions having minimum water loss and heat loss with sufficient stock of fish and it is done with frequent cleaning of fish tanks and re-using the water after it has been recycled. Though you can develop RAS farms with various designs and complexity, all these water recycling system use mechanical equipment for water retention and store the wastes obtained from the tank water. Also the re-use of water along with keeping an optimum conditions like water level, temperature etc are done for fostering fish.

The old style of fish tanks that was used were called ‘flow through’ or ‘open tank system’, because water has only one passage, that is outflow and the water is never re- used. Though some sort of improvements can be done to the older systems and you can make a hybrid of it, to reduce the usage of water, they cannot be called the original water recirculation aquaculture systems.

 

 

 

Advantages of Water Recirculation Aquaculture Designs like RAS

In order to foster fish and help to keep up their growth and health proper conditions need to be maintained. The requirement mainly include clean water supply with constant flow at a temperature suitable to them and proper ratio of oxygen dissolved in it for maximum growth. The Water Recirculation farms helps for such requirements. A system which is both mechanical and take care of biodiversity is necessary in order to cleanse the water and detoxify the substances that are harmful and remove the feed that is left uneaten. The fish has to be given a complete nutritional diet in order to foster its growth and survival. Keeping these things in mind let us see the possible advantages of using Recirculation Aquaculture Systems.

Minimum water requirements

The RAS farms usually use only minimum amount of water than the other types of Aquaculture systems, because they recycle the water for re-use. This type of Aquaculture system is especially helpful for those regions where there is minimum water supply. Each species of fish will differ in size, amount of water it needs etc. and you can only grow those fish which is size wise compatible with the farm system and according to the design of the equipment used. Generally the minimum requirement of water is about 1-5 gallons for rearing a pound of fish and the amount of water piped in should be about 5-20 gallons for each minute in order to foster fish of about 50,000-75,000 pounds annually.

A well designed and controlled recirculation system requires a minimum supply of water to clean the wastes involved in it as well as to compensate or retain the water lost through evaporation. This type of system can be constructed in urban areas, mainly where there is lack of ground water and through fish farms you can de-chlorinate municipal water with the help of its operation. Such type of facility can be seen nearby market area.

Recirculation system requires water of about 4000 gallons per day and 1.5 million per year in order to foster fish equivalent to 1000 acres of size of pond, which will produce 4.8 million pounds of fish. But on the contrary, to foster fish in a pond of 1000 acres you need about 1.6 gallons of water and that too only for the initial process of filling it, not even for maintaining its level or adding fresh water in course of time.

Minimum land requirements

Fish can be reared with high densities and fish can be stocked safely with the help of recirculation system, since oxygen will be pumped into the rear tanks and wastes will be removed constantly. The goal that the designers wanted to achieve in near future is 1 pound fish for each gallon of water. However the target, 0.5-0.75 pounds of fish for each gallon is achieved somehow by many farmers. In pond usually about 0.03 pound of fish can be fostered. You can see the recirculation system, where there is limited availability of land to build ponds. Such minimum availability of land, minimum water retention in soil, in urban regions etc. recirculation system will work out, where even warehouses of building, vacant farm house etc. can be commuted to fish farms

Optimum water temperature

The recirculation system require very less water retention, opening various possibilities for economically maintaining controlled temperature resulting in major benefits which helps in stock growth rates.. By optimizing water temperature to the level, you can even rear fish species, which could not be fostered in a provided geographic area. Thus water temperature is maintained, which allows optimizing the level for converting food and providing optimum growth. Throughout the annual year, growth can be established by utilizing turn over of the product to maximize production. Thus marketing the product can be intensified, as fish will be in supply each week.

Prevention from predators and hazards of nature

With the help of fostering the fish inside the building, they will no longer be affected by climatic conditions like sudden chills and cold which can reduce production, especially larval fish which will be killed in winter and breeding of brood fish which is affected. Moreover in summer or winter culturing in pond or cage may affect the crop because of the low oxygen supply and also due to difficulty in controlling the predators. With indoor rearing of fish you can harvest even when there is heavy ice or snow, thus the market can be opened all the time for indoor farmer. RAS farms are designed indoor to avoid stock escapement which means less possibility for loss and mitigation of possible conflicts with rules administrating fish escapements and water consistencies.

Maintaining water quality

The aqua culturist has the choice of maintaining the quality of water to the benefit of live fish store to the final production and surrounding. Keeping the dissolved oxygen at the optimum level you can have better chance of food conversion reducing the stress level of fish, which render greater resistance over diseases, feed is less wasted and stock growth is quite at a faster pace. In addition to that the fish are protected from the bad odor caused by the algal blooms and pollution resulting from depletion of soil or remnants of pesticides etc, thus they are isolated from such contaminated environment. Thus these recirculation systems will deliver high quality product. Wherever the fresh water is obtained from wells, the problem of diseases is reduced heavily and medications also can be avoided.

Summary

Recirculation systems are of several designs .Most of them work efficiently, if accomplished with proper aeration and oxygen - filtrating biologically to separate ammonia and nitrate from water, removal of particulates and buffering the pH level of  water. The whole process can be achieved with the help of a combination process of filtering by simple units in small fish farms or if it is large farm, you can use several components and process units interconnected to each other. RAS are also helpful for other alternative methods of farming like ‘Aquaponics’, which is using the waste particulates of fish in water to grow edible plant crops. In fact the edible plant growth has got more value than rearing fish. Fish farms using RAS system are a substitute for pond and coop rearing systems.

With whatever new technology in hand, the operators should have both knowledge and motivation to conduct the business and be responsible for task involved daily. Thus in RAS, the staffs should not only take care of fish stocks, but also the recirculation systems. As we say, knowledge is power; one should try out the system, only with proper understanding and training of the whole system. Moreover these recirculation farms are quite complex and costly to make and maintain.

Those who are interested in RAS designs should take every step and opportunity to visit already existing fish farms, read the catalogues available and be ready to undergo training in a classroom or on a farm or both. You can review documents in ‘Aquaculture Resource Library’. If you really want to design a water recirculation system, I suggest the book ‘Recirculation Aquaculture’ written by J M Ebeling and M B Timmons which is available in ‘Aquaculture Book Store’ which will provide you sufficient details.

 

 

 

Aquaponics, to deliver food in a nourishing way

Aquaponics, modern day eco system, as it can be called is just renovating the old practices of farming vegetables, fish and herbs in a self contained environment. The quality of the food can be maintained by creating such eco friendly systems and can be used for cooking as well as sale. This type of farming method has been started as a small scale industry where they use large operations in order to produce fish and plant crops and people has renewed their interest on it.

Really a change in approach is on the movement as salmonella and e-coli contamination scares the mass and rising costs of food make us think of cropping plants in our own home. According to ‘National Gardening Association’, it has been found that, about 43 million households in US are trying their hands out in gardening including Obama family, of which 21% will be entrants who are going to be farmers for the first time. If you have limited space available, it is really worth trying Aquaponics. Many people are rearing fish and with the help of Aquaponics, growing their plants, thus enjoying the real taste of vegetables, delivering healthy food.

An intro to Aquaponics with plants and fish

Aquaponics spelled by many as aqua phonics is nothing but a synergistic combination effect between aquaculture and hydroponics (growing plants in water with added nutrients).In crossing the two activities, the negative sides of both the process is easily dealt with in a possible and sustainable way. Ultimately the combination of two has great advantages, than being carried out alone.

The waste products obtained from fish farm system is thus used as natural source of nutrient to the plants. The ingredients obtained from the fish tank are pumped out to the field where plants are grown. The field can be anything like trough tanks, NFT hydroponics tanks, drip feed, simply gravel beds etc. Whatever be the type, the plants extract all the nutrients that are formed from the fish. The plants clean the water by taking out the nutrients from the water, thus purifying the water, which is reused again along with oxygen supplied in the tank, where fish is reared .Thus organic wastes can be effectively utilized by such practices.

The water with waste matter can thus be minimized with such type of farming. Plants as well as bacteria depend upon the effluents of the fish, giving back purified water in return, which is reusable for rearing fish. Even fertilizers that are normally required for hydroponics is not needed, because of this symbiotic relationship that the plant and the fish maintains, a complete NO to chemical pesticides and medications can be exercised.

A properly designed system will use only 1/10th of the water needed for usual vegetable growing and also decreases the need of water for fish farming which is used once, by about 95% or more. The whole system is quite simple and it does not use any complex process that is carried out for high tech hydroponics and aquaculture else both.

 

Harvesting plants and fish

Using Aquaponics, leafy vegetables like lettuce, cabbage, broccoli, chives etc were raised in the initial period. Now researchers have found out that tomato, some type of peppers and cucumbers also grow healthily, using it. Rose, lilies and other flowered crops also can be grown with the use of Aquaponics

A fish called Tilapia which is stout and found in fresh waters is the commonly nurtured fish in Aquaponics. Several other fresh water fish like carp, goldfish, koi, crappie, bass, brim etc. are also raised with Aquaponics. Other commercial traders are trying their best to incorporate salmon, char, trout etc. also, along with the experiments carried out with hybrid design system, though such systems are quite costly and need higher level technology to manage the environment.

Greenhouse, sheds in home, garage etc can be used as design system for a small group or family which is much simpler and can be implemented successfully. Before raising fish, try to check with the local administrators to resolve any restrictions on the kind of fish in your region.

Aquaponics along with Aqua Farming

Aquaponic farming is one of the best ways to foster your own requirement of fresh vegetables, herbs and fish yearly. One of the simplest systems at home can be made with a tank of fish linked to one or more of the ground plot where plants are grown. It can be built with small space of garage, kitchen, home greenhouse, spare room in which it can be fitted according to the available space. You can find the instructions and ideas of developing an Aquaponics system in your home in Aqua farming ‘knowledge library’ which you can check it for free. If you want a much faster procedure, you can choose to order, the whole set which is assembled and designed by experts, to buy online from North Aqua Land and Sea Store.

Some hobby based Aquaponics are becoming popular and desired by people who wish to grow their own food in a natural way under their control. This natural way has been followed by many gardeners, land based farmers and urban groups. Several discussion forums have been formed by the discussion groups for your information and number of articles is written on this subject in magazines. Some of the information and resources on aqua farming in a small scale is obtained from Hobby Farming section.

 Aquaponics Farming on commercial basis

Using multiple crops in the available space is carried out on a commercial scale.
Larger systems could function well in greenhouse, commercial fish farms, warehouse space or existing outlying farm. At commercial farms for aquaculture, Aquaponic system can be used to minimize the requirements of water and lessen waste particulates besides producing and selling multiple crops. All the factors will aid to increase the number of locations accepted to farm establishment near market center 

You can refer the knowledge library and the reference document named ‘Recirculation Aquaculture Tank Production Systems- Integrating Fish and Plant Culture’ which can be downloaded from the site. ’. The document gives information about water retaining technology and advantages of land based farm designs for aquaculture.

The large scale Aquaponics farming also use similar temperature, lighting and environment conditions as that found in hydroponics culture. Similar to greenhouse operations which is commercially done, warm climatic condition is used in equipment, thus allowing the sunlight to traverse.

To grow fish crops several containers are used like round tanks, plastic rectangular tanks, concrete steel or wood  lined with PVC or other similar type lining, fiberglass containers etc .Even stainless steel is included to construct the component of these equipments.

 

Creating an eco-friendly world with   best farming practice

The emergence of the new method of food producing system, Aquaponics is a new concept to the society, though number of operating practices involved in it is relevant. Nowadays this practice is gaining importance due to the benefits cultivated among people globally for eco friendly sustainable agricultural methods as well as getting fresh and nutritionally rich vegetables and fruits. The technology used in Aquaponics is categorized as one of the best for organic farming in near future.

We are concluding with this short description about Aquaponics. If you want further information about the design of it, including how to rear fish and foster the growth of plants, check out the other sections of this site. You can collect information by browsing on subjects of Fish, Aquaponics as well as Aquaculture.

Ready made Home Aquaponics

Ready to deploy system of several different designs as well as sizes can be obtained from Aqua Consultant. One of the best self made-up ‘Aquaponics System’ named as ‘Aqua Consultant Farm in a Box’. The Earth Solution is obtained in six varied sizes. It is useful and interesting for both beginner as well as pro, i.e. if you are going to take the culturing of fish and plants seriously .Aqua Consultant also provide some tutorials by which some tools are provided at home as well as in classroom delivering students as well as teachers giving hands on experience in earth science, ecology, biological education and sustainability.