Juvenile Tank
Under these environmental conditions Recirculating Aquaculture
Technology can be used to great
benefit because the environmental
conditions in the water can be controlled and manipulated to suit the
preferred husbandry conditions of
the particular fish species to the
best in order to get optimum performance from the animal in return.
Advantages from Recirculating
Aquaculture Systems (RAS):
Conservation of water, heat &
land
Higher degree in management
of stock
Higher yields per unit water usage (Murray cod 250 kg m-3;
eels-400kg m -3)
Advanced waste management;
facilitates regulatory monitoring
Less labour intensive
Independent of climatic changes; stability of growth environment; production through the
year
Provide “bio-security”
Planned marketing (no season or
sporadic harvesting)
Mechanical Belt feeder
Larval Tank
Improved profit potential
Environmental sustainable (build
closer to consumer)
Only potential method to ensure
100% safe source of seafood
Allow effective economies of
scale
Design Description:
The science and engineering of recirculating systems is well developed. A successful water reuse system should consist of tanks, filters,
pumps, and instrumentation. The
technologies that support tank
based culture must address five key
issues; clarification, biofiltration,
circulation, aerations, and degassing. Solids must be removed from
the recirculating system through a
clarification process. Dissolved organics and ammonia are then removed through a biofiltration process. The system must provide for
circulation between the tank and
filtration components. And finally,
dissolved gases (oxygen and carbon
dioxide) must be brought back into
balance by aeration and degasification processes. These five processes
Liquid Oxygen
Marine Experimental Tanks
are essential to RAS success and
should be viewed as links in a
chain, the weakest link controlling
the overall RAS capacity to hold or
produce fish. Failure to address any
of these five issues will ultimately
lead to the downfall of any commercial RAS venture. The different
components of a RAS facility are
not a secret. There is a lot of information available on RAS technology
in Aquaculture. The difficult part is
to get the flow and pipe dimensions and scale and capacity of the
different filtration components like
your bio filter right. A typical recirculating aquaculture system consists of several systems and subsystems, which can be switched off
when not in use. A recirculating
aquaculture system is normally designed by engineers who work with
a biologist and an aquaculturist.
Recirculating Aquaculture System Economics:
While considerable resources have
been expended on recirculating systems in the private sector, there is
very little data available on the economics of fish production in comNursery Units