aquaculture industry worldwide. Many of the farms supplied by Aquacare were designed by our team; recent examples include Dunn’s Market Fish in Lonoak AR and Tsar Nicoulai Caviar in Wilton CA. Aquacare has generally been the equipment integrator and supplier to these customers which has meant that we have been involved in much of the detailed design, value engineering, implementation and ongoing support. Aquacare also designs the controls, monitoring and SCADA packages. 

Distribution and OEM relationships with specialized manufacturers allow Aquacare to specify and ship the best value components available. Adapting equipment manufactured for the larger water treatment market to the specific needs of aquaculture provides considerable cost savings.

Tanks  Prior to establishing Aquacare, founding CEO Henning Gatz supplied bolt together steel tanks to the agriculture market for animal feed and manure storage. Aquacare introduced this industrial-scale modular tank system to the North American aquaculture market. Large circular tanks are now widely accepted in the RAS industry as the most effective option due to their low cost per volume and their ability to concentrate and rapidly transfer solids to the particulate filters. These advantages are even greater as scale increases. Glass fused to steel tanks are suitable for freshwater whilst for more corrosive marine environments we recommend epoxy coated steel.

Solids removal  Drum microscreen filters are the first line solids removal mechanism used in modern fish farms. We typically supply stainless or duplex models depending on the salinity. We have suppled a large number of these robust and reliable machines over the years. For fine solids removal we use either stand alone foam fractionators or custom low head in-sump models.

Biofiltration  Our approach to biofiltration is typically using MBBR technology. With the right combination of polyethylene media with a high surface area, correctly sized aeration grids and retention screens, these filters will carry out the essential task of nitrification 24 hours a day without any attention required. They are self-scouring and so prevent the buildup of sludge that can be a real problem in static filters.

CO2 removal Today fish farmers are much more aware of the deleterious effects of high dissolved CO2 than in the past. Reduced appetite, stress and poor feed conversion are all the result of elevated CO2. Removing it can be costly in terms of pumping and heat loss/ gain so efficient is a challenge. Our preferred solution is forced air stripping columns using structural plastic media to achieve high air-to-water surface area paired with efficient low-head turbine pumps. Our designs are scalable and cost effective to build and operate. One important aspect in the design is to provide good access for inspection of the media and when necessary to allow for removal and cleaning of biofilms.

Oxygenation  In any RAS facility, continuous supply of dissolved oxygen to the fish is a critical part of the operation. There are many designs; cones, LHO’s, PPC’s, U-tubes, in-line diffusers, etc. One design that has been gaining a serious following recently is the Oxyflow®. Designed by Bohumil Sevic, a French engineer with decades of experience, it represents probably the most efficient way to dissolve oxygen into the water. Depending on its size, Oxyflow® dissolves 1.0 to 60.0 kg oxygen/hour at >95% efficiency. In our experience, adopters of this technology become permanent converts once they see the impact to their bottom line.

Pumping Moving water is the heart of an intensive aquaculture system. In our designs we focus on low head systems where the water is pumped only once, after solids removal and biofiltration just before oxygen enrichment through the Oxyflow® and back to the fish tanks with sufficient head to create a healthy current in the rearing tank. We supply many types of pumps and are very careful to select durable and efficient models.

Feeding  Precision, computer-controlled feeding is essential for profitable aquaculture. One of the best ways to distribute the correct feed to the correct tank at the correct time is to use pneumatic feeders which deliver precise doses of feed frequently to each tank population. Frequent smaller feedings also help to maintain a balanced load on the biofilters and help to ensure optimum feed conversion ratios. Fish Farm Feeder based in Galicia, Spain manufacture what we believe to be the highest quality feeding system for large land-based farms and we have supplied a number of these to our North American customers.

Controls  Human operators cannot be replaced by machines, however knowing what the critical water parameters and the status of all critical equipment is in real time is an essential management tool. This is where customized monitoring, alarm and control systems as supplied by Aquacare provide a significant return on investment to the farm owners.