Intelligence
An aquaponics teaching system was designed, built and operated by students at the University of Arizona, integrating its operation and management into the educational curriculum. This engineering design will require minimum maintenance and will last years.
Responsibility
One promising new technology for dewatering aquaculture solid waste is the use of geotextile bags: porous, sealed tubular containers constructed of high-strength, woven polyethylene material.
Innovation & Investment
Mini-boutique systems offer a low-cost introduction to recirculating aquaculture that combines fry, fingerling and grow-out phases within a single engineering unit designed for modest stocking densities.
Responsibility
Although essential, emergency backup systems do not have to be complicated or expensive. For power loss, automated phone dialers alert off-site staff. Backup electric generators provide needed power for aerators, pumps and other equipment.
Responsibility
One way to jump start biofilter operation is by adding sugar, which can provide sufficient organic carbon to neutralize the ammonia-nitrogen produced.
Health & Welfare
A boutique design project validated a land-based, recirculating production system capable of producing 50 metric tons of spotted sea trout per year.
Responsibility
For aquaculture managers, it is important to control carbon type and carbon-nitrogen ratio by feed formulation, solids removal or addition of organic carbon.
Innovation & Investment
Polyhydroxyalkanotes, or PHA, biodegradable biopolymers produced from sugar fermentation, offer a potential low-maintenance denitrification method for RAS.
Responsibility
A simple evaluation process can characterize commercial biofilter performance as a function of flow rate and ammonia-nitrogen concentration.
Responsibility
Microbead filters are an effective filtration solution that can be scaled to large production systems at a lower cost of operation than fluidized-sand bed filters.
Innovation & Investment
One solution to the problems with raceways is to convert them into a series of counter-rotating mixed cells that act as hydraulically separated round tanks.
Responsibility
Intensive recirculation systems have potential for increased production per unit volume of water, but an increased risk of equipment failures.