ras aquaculture business plan

Fish farming with aquaculture Systems - RAS

Dr. Timmons

Learn fish farming with this complete aquaculture course. We will take you from zero to expert about raising fish. Not only that, we will also teach you the secrets of building a successful fish farming business. Enroll now to get started on your successful fish farming journey!

Recommended By Kentucky State University

Course description.

This self-paced course explains the basic engineering principles behind a successful recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) design. The objective of this course is to provide sufficient information so that you will be able to design, construct, and manage your own RAS system. Basic principles of business management and securing investment capital for the small family farm will also be reviewed. At the conclusion of the course, you will have received the essential information necessary to design your own system and have a fundamental knowledge of the principles influencing the numerous design options.

Course Includes:

• 14 modules.
• 11+ hours of video lectures.
• Reading assignments.
• Self-check quizzes
• One design workbook
• One final assessment
• Extensive supplementary videos

Topic Covered:

• Overview of recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) engineering
• Water quality objectives, monitoring and measurement
• Fish growth and system staging
• Engineering design of individual unit processes
• System management
• Fish health management
• Economic and risk evaluation

After completion you will be able to:

• Examine how to design a recirculating aquaculture system, component, or process to meet production objectives
• Determine how to best select appropriate water quality targets
• Develop a capability to design pumping systems
• Build an analytical capability to quantify costs of production
• Identify the critical factors for managing a fish farm

Who should enroll:

• The course is structured to be relevant for a wide range of student experiential levels, from novice to expert. Course expects no prior knowledge, but some background in aquaculture is always helpful. The course textbook provides more in depth treatment on a variety of the topics and there are references as well on individual topics at the back of each book chapter.
• Individuals considering starting an indoor recirculating farm and at all stages, e.g., planning stages, early years of operation, and expansion of current operations
• Consultants to the industry
• University and high school teachers that include an aquaculture component in their classes
• Entrepreneurs
• People (aquaculturalists) currently managing flow-through systems

Instructor:

Dr. Michael B. Timmons.

Michael Timmons is a Professor Emeritus & Graduate Professor in the Department of Biological and Environmental Engineering at Cornell University.

His program is centered on entrepreneurial-driven enterprise. He provides a foundation of information related to the production of aquacultured products, both fresh and saltwater, with an emphasis on sustainable and environmentally friendly engineering technologies. He works with private industry to improve technology of water recirculating systems for producing fin and shellfish. Each year for the last 15 years, he conducts a 1-week long short course on the principles of recirculating aquaculture.

Watch the First Module Below!

Introduction to World Aquaculture

Watch Fish Production Designing Recirculating Aquaculture Systems

The Importance of Sustainability

Benefits of Recirculating Aquaculture Technology

Economic Drivers to Consider Designing Recirculating Aquaculture Systems

How to Compete in Seafood Markets

Slide: 1-PTRRAS001_M1_introduction-to-world-aquaculture

Transcript:

Welcome to the first module in the first section of recirculating aquaculture systems. By the way, here is an important acronym. That’s called RAS, R-A-S. So, maybe you can RAS people now. Okay. So, we’re going to go to our first slide which is here. Okay. So, part of this introduction is to give you some reasoning and possibly why you should be excited about even thinking about studying the subject in the first place. And that is because some of the statistics here. Okay? What are they? Seafood provides essential nutrition for over 1 billion people. Two, more than 37% of the world’s fish production is traded internationally. Three, seafood is the most globally traded protein of all the commodities. Beef, pork, chicken, lamb, etc., etc. It’s the most highest volume of all those different commodities. Next, the value of the fish trade exceeds international trade and all other animal proteins combined. 75% of our fisheries are considered to be fully or overly exploited. Wow. That they’re overexploited, yeah, that means they’re not there and where is the fish going to come from to feed all these people? Okay. Next point, more than 50% of all food fish supply comes from aquaculture. Wow. 50% of all the fish are coming from aquaculture at this point as opposed to what we call wild catch, what you traditionally think of where seafood comes from. People going out boats and nets and things like that but 50% of all our seafood right now comes from aquaculture. When I started in this subject 30 years ago, that number was like 5%. So, dramatically increasing. Aquaculture should be surprising. Aquaculture is the fastest growing food production system currently in existence. 8% annual growth. Okay. Are you excited? I hope so. So, look, here’s that statistic I showed you about where the seafood is coming from. Looking out here 2015, you can see about half of it is from aquaculture. There is some distinction people make

between aquaculture product going into the food market versus fish products that go into the animal feed markets. So, about a third or so of the wild catch goes into fishmeal. Okay? So, when you subtract that off, then the aquaculture component is actually more than 50% of the wild catch component. Okay? And then you see the little red line here going up. I forgot I had this cursor and show you going up and up and up and up and up. Right? We’re going to have seven or eight, nine billion people by 2050. Right now, we’re at seven, six and a half billion, just keeps going up. And as the economies improve, which they are worldwide, that means their ability to buy higher value products i.e. proteins, meat proteins also increases. Okay. Next slide. Okay. Well, what kind of seafood do we consume? Okay. And you look across the top here. Here it states. Things haven’t changed too much. Shrimp is number one and salmon and tuna and tilapia down here so look. So, I got these things numbered now. So, one, two, three, four, five, six. Again, here’s something very interesting. Tilapia in the mid-90s, this was zero. Okay. So, tilapia has made huge inroads into supplying part of that seafood demand. The commodity products here in yellow represent aquaculture. Okay? So, yes, aquaculture. Future of marine fisheries, well, they’re in trouble. Marine fisheries is 25% of the world marine resources are overexploited. 30% of our migratory animals are under severe pressure. It’s a problem and it is actually is kind of interesting. One thing is that the Earth is two thirds covered with water but there’s not much of that water that’s actually productive for growing fish or supporting seafood life. There’s only a few hundred miles from each of the shores. So, that’s pretty much why we’re at a steady state value in terms of what the oceans are producing. So, that 90 million metric tons as a reference point. And now, we produce about 90 million metric tons of seafood product. So, here’s where the gap starts to be pretty evident. Our current world population is about six and a half billion people, by 2050, 9 billion which gives us what? An 84 billion pound gap in the need for seafood product. Where is that going to come from? Well, that’s why you’re taking the course because we think with good evidence that that is all going to come from aquaculture and you’re going to learn about recirculating aquaculture because it conserves It’s the most sustainable form of aquaculture. Okay. Here, it shows you these supplies, what was happening. So, the wild catch you see, you get different numbers here but it’s somewhere around 100 million metric tons, 90 million metric tons and with good management, we think we might be higher but this is probably an overestimate. Aquaculture keeps popping up, going up up up up up. Okay? And our percentage is about 50% at this point. Okay. So, the per capita and important number for you to realize is per capita consumption, that’s about worldwide, we think is probably in the 17. This is kilograms so it’s about 17 or 38 pounds. This is per capita and that’s an interesting number in itself because some countries, say Japan for example, might be 100 kilograms per capita and other countries might be two or three. My belief is that given a well-priced or competitively priced product against the other meats, people will choose seafood. Anytime you see numbers that are less than 15 or 20 kilograms per person for that particular country, that means there’s a lot of opportunity. Okay? Where

are these fish going to come from? Well, relative to the U.S., we import almost all of our fish. Most of these fish, the supply is going to come from low-income countries where labor and environment where regulations tend to be less stringent. The environment is going to be a concern. Are these countries able to supply products to western countries where environmental issues are of a concern, versus, just simply price. And why is it that the U.S. can’t compete? Well, maybe it’s because our products cost too much. Okay. That wraps that one up folks.

Slide: 2-PTRRAS001_M1_fish-production

Where are all these fish going to come from, you might ask? Right? Where are they coming from? Okay. This is what most people think of when they think of fishing, you know, where am I going to get the fish to eat for dinner tonight? And they think of a guy standing here, with his fly rod, or whatever, and this huge lake. Well, yeah. Okay. But, here’s a key distinction, between what people perceive, in terms where their seafood is coming from versus reality. The density of fish in such a lake like this, we live next to a lake that’s in the Finger Lakes region, the lake I lived next to Cornell University, is 60 miles long, three or four miles wide, and five or 600 feet deep. And how long does it take to catch a fish out there? Well, to catch one legally sized trout, takes like, 45 hours of fishing. Can you believe that? In other words, it takes forever, because there aren’t hardly any fish out there, and the reason is, because if there were more fish out there, they would all die. Yeah. They would all die because of disease issues. The natural environment is full of vectors, which will contribute to fish disease. You just can’t do, they’re not very dense. But aquaculture, it looks like this. Okay? And look, there’s pretty high densities. Here’s underwater sea cages. These represent raceways. These are intensive ponds. This is rope culture, anyway, very very dense. Okay. Another shot here. Here’s raceways, where the water comes in at one end. These are concrete walls, that divide each raceway. When water comes in at the top, you can see that the water coming in here, goes down through. There’s a fairly rapid exchange of water, to maintain the water quality environment necessary, to support the fish. Another shot of an indoor raceway. Okay. The thing to remember here is that, we have a term called hydraulic retention time, and that’s- if this raceway was totally empty, and I started filling it with water, how long would it take to fill it up? So it was all empty and I filled it up in 35 minutes, we say that has a hydraulic retention time of 35 minutes. Okay? So, it’s what we’ve called turning over every 35 minutes. Raceways typically have a HRT’s that are about 15 minutes, so they turn over very rapidly. And so you can imagine, if I’m turning over this raceway every 15 minutes, it takes huge, I say huge, quantities of water. The other most common thing, we see around the world are ponds. For aquaculture, here’s some munch catfish ponds. These things are typically rectangles. They’re going to be. two-three-five hectares in size, but a very interesting thing here is, you notice how the ponds are all different colors? Well, that’s because they all have different water

environments. So this is not a repeatable or a duplicate set of ponds because the environments are all different, in each one of them. So how are you going to reproduce fish on a repetitive basis? Ponds had a lot of challenges. They also used quite a bit of water just because of evaporation. That’s what I call a mature technology. And at least in the United States, the ability to produce fish on a cost competitive basis with worldwide produce fish, it’s a constraint right now. It’s difficult to do that. A lot of our ponds in South Alabama, Mississippi are being converted actually back into dry land production. So it’s kind of ironic. It went from cotton production, in the 40’s and 50’s, into catfish production in the 60’s, 70’s the 40, 50 years, and now about a third of all that acreage, has been re-purposed back into the dry land culture, soybeans typically. In here, some more of these intensive- this is net pens. So primarily, aquaculture is when these two sources, either raceways, ponds, or net pens. Net Pens have some bad publicity. A lot of bad things are said about them. Most of them not being true, such as they attract sea lice, and then when migrating, salmon swim by, the sea lice go out and attack the migrating salmon. It’s kind of absurd. Also, the net pens, produce a lot of waste material, which they do, it collects on the bottom of the ocean floor, and then has a large pollution source, and degradation of water quality. That could be true, in the case where the net pens, are not sited properly. But the key thing on net pen production is that they are sited, where the tidal exchange of water is large. So the 24-hour cycle, twice a day, you might get 5 to 10-meter changes in elevation in the ocean level, and so that causes a large amount of flushing that occurs. So net pens are- there are also mature technology. Almost 2/3’s of our salmon come from net pen production. Most of the salmon, comes from three areas: Chile, Eastern and Western Canada, and Norway, primarily. And it’s pretty well, equally spread, among those three locations. Then we have Recirculating Aquaculture Systems, and the acronym is what? RAS. So, here’s some examples of indoor, quite nicely done I would say. This actually is a big sturgeon farm. This is actually a raceway configuration; here are round tanks. Here are outdoor tanks. I think this is actually a project we did in Haiti. This is a RAS system.

Slide: 3-PTRRAS001_M1_the-importance-of-sustainability

One question that you need to ask yourself is: how am I going to sell my fish? That should be the number one question always on your head. Well, that means you need to be thinking about sustainability. What’s sustainability all about? Well, this is obviously the, most of you are aware, right? This is a big, hot topic right now for the last several years. And sustainability means a lot, to a lot of different people, but there’s this economic, and environmental, and social interaction. And, I say, there’s a lot going on here, but you need to be thinking about it, okay. And the thing we have going for us, is that we are classified as the most sustainable aquaculture system that is available to producers. So the green, what we call the green people, the environmental groups they all kind of, they kind of recognize that people have to eat food, and if you’re going to eat

food, it’s good if it can come from a sustainable source. And Recirculating Aquaculture Systems, RAS, are definitely sustainable. What is sustainability? Here’s the definition; meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of the future generations to meet their own needs. Yes, so that’s kind of the bedrock of that. And this is a little bit dated, 2011, but things haven’t changed much. In menu trends, National Restaurant Association, you can see the things that were moving, seafood. Well, what are they? Locally sourced, locally grown, sustainability, nutritious, nutritious kid’s lunches. Number seven, sustainable seafood. These things are continuing. The big things are locally produced, locally grown, and sustainable. That’s the current buzzwords. Just looking and I’m, here’s a local supermarket and just look at what you’re seeing, right; Wild caught, wild caught, farm raised, wild caught, it seems to indicate that there’s a preference for a wild caught, but things are being labeled. Farm raised, does it- Does farm raised have a good connotation or a bad connotation? Well, most people would view it as positive, but some people will view it as negative. Yeah. Walmart, okay, the big mega group, right. They made a commitment to sustainable seafood by requiring a third-party certification of their suppliers. Okay, so you’re producing a product for Walmart, you’re going to have to go out to get a third- party certification in order to certify you that you are a sustainable source. Seafood Watch, another environmental watchdog defines sustainable seafood as the following: sustainable seafood is from sources or fished or farmed that can maintain or increase production into the long term without jeopardizing the structure or function of affected ecosystems. Product types; farmed, wild seafood, fresh and frozen. There is a seafood certification program by the Marine Stewardship Council. There’s other equivalent groups doing the same thing. Farmed Seafood Certification requires using best aquaculture practices or an equivalent. So you’ll see, groups we’re looking for the Marine Stewardship Council and best aquaculture practices. That’s what we’re looking for, okay? So remember that. If you want to sell your seafood, your aquaculture product, think sustainable.

Slide: 4-PTRRAS001_M1_benefits-of-recirculating-aquaculture-technology

Why do we want to use recirculating aquaculture technology in the first place? Okay, let’s look at some of the reasons. Well, first, I got to tell you why you had to be listening to me. Okay? I’m not just an academic. With my own money and my house on the line, we put up a million pound per year indoor recirculating agriculture production system in Upstate New York, to produce Tilapia. By the way, Tilapia is a tropical species, meaning they need like 28 degrees C 80 degree water. And, Upstate New York is really really cold. Okay, so, recirculating aquaculture. Wow. How could you produce a tropical animal in an upstate cold environment? Well, that’s because we recirculate the water. Here is just a shot of the outdoors. It was about 40,000 square feet. Looks like a big

dairy barn and then, here was an inside shot round tank technology, etc, etc. okay. Okay. So, here’s a little bit about Tilapia. That farm was built back in the mid 90s and we actually programed 1996 or 97. And my business plans and such were showing like, Okay, well Tilapia is going to become really big. So, this is a disruptive technology and so, yes invest in me. Okay. Well I couldn’t get any investors. Hardly. So primarily my brother and myself financed this first farm. Anyway, my predictions came true. Producing a lot of Tilapia. Okay, everybody knows it. But back to the point of this video is, why do we reuse water? Well, the whole bunch of reasons, okay? But the primary reasons are, you reuse water so you’re not using this valuable resource. And it’s probably the most valuable resource we have. So, using it to flow through a system that uses huge quantities of water is just not sustainable. The other thing is, is that the less water you use, the less water you have to treat in terms of discharge. Okay, as an EPA and any kind of environmental regulation on what you do with this discharge water. The second big reason is, in a recirculating system, the water that you put into your tanks has to be water that you, yourself, are willing to drink. As in, there’s actually no disease organism being introduced into the water. So, when you do that, the less water you need, the more cost effective you’re going to be. Also, once you’ve started to circulate the water, you can control the temperature very closely. Which means, you can optimize that environment to the animal you’re trying to grow. Minimizing water use deals with bio-security, makes it much easier to control that in terms of keeping disease organisms out. And if you don’t need much water, that means you can put your farm where it needs to be located from a market sense. So, Water Reuse System, there’s three basic types, there’s serial reuse, that means goes down, comes back. We don’t really talk about those, it still uses a lot of water. We’re talking about full re-circulation and this then means you’re talking about something zero, which is almost impossible, but five to 15 or 20 percent water exchanges a day. So, if you had a hundred thousand gallons of water in your farm tanks, 100,000 gallons, that means 15 percent you’d be throwing away 15,000 gallons a day. If you had 100 gallons, you’re throwing away 15 gallons. This is water, this discharged which has to be replaced. It’s not the recycle. This is a reference point back to the Tilapia farm that I showed you earlier. I ran that farm on a hose, doing about 20 gallons per minute. And we circulated 30 million gallons of water a day. 30 million gallons of water a day recycled. I used to raise money with investors, and say, hey, I produced fish with no water. And they go what? No water? I go, well, a little bit. Okay, Well, this slide just kind of shows you that, what I mean by none, okay. So, here’s a big table, here is the steps on your yellow book which you all received and you’re supposed to be reading prior to this lecture. Here’s my Tilapia farm. The ratio is on itself of course is one. Okay. Wow. What if I was doing a raceway? I would use 2000 times more water than I would use in my Tilapia indoor farm. Ponds, somewhere around two to four hundred times more water than I would in my RAS and similar ratios in terms of land use. So, it doesn’t take much land

and it takes very, very little water. Okay, design. Just a brief one on that and we’re looking here. Here’s our fish tank, and are we talking Okay, there is one nice loop here, where we’ve got to remove our solids. We got a bio-filter the water from the ammonia and the nitrate, and we have a disinfection loop. We’ll probably have the carbon dioxide removal loop. We’ll have fine solids stuff that goes. This is the material that goes through a window screen. And then of course, we have to aerate and oxygenate the water. Okay, So, that leads you to, from an engineering standpoint, is that we feed the fish, say a kilogram of feed, or a pound of feed and we have all these production terms. Okay, we produce about 0.03 units of ammonia for every and in the feed about a half a unit of waste material on a dry basis for every unit we feed. In other words, most of what is fed comes out as waste product. We produce a lot of carbon dioxide, we use a lot of oxygen and will consume something called Alkalinity, which is a future video lecture. But these are the engineering numbers we need in order to design the system. Okay, just give you some ideas on what these systems look like. Generally, here’s a mixed-cell raceway, which we’ll talk about also in our future video. We will produce about we will carry. I say that, the density is 80 kilograms of fish per cubic meter of water. That’s about 0.7 pounds per gallon. While we’re turning this tank over twice per hour. Recycled, center drains, side drains and micro screens for taking out solids. Just a general idea of what a footprint might look like in a production farm. You can see here’s the building and the fish tanks. You know, I take a fraction of that footprint. If you’re if you’re growing tanks occupy 25 percent of your building footprint, you’re doing pretty good. Okay. So, the building has to be a lot bigger. And another configuration we designed, this for sturgeon, these are trying to mimic around tanks, put together in terms of a central collection area, first solid removals and recycling. And, here’s a shrimp farm that we designed, again with mixed-cell raceways. Again, just to give you a sense of what footprints might look like, you always had to be aware that you’re going to need you know an office and a lab and a break room. Areas for feed storage and restrooms and hatchery areas and purging areas etc., etc. Here’s just a quick overview. Here’s a mix-cell, what we call boutique, meaning small production. This is about 20 feet by 60 feet. This will produce probably 20,000 pounds a year of Tilapia. Okay, here’s our fingerling. Well, here’s our fries stage goes to fingerling stage and then to grow out stage again and make sure you have your lab office, crew room, restrooms, et cetera, et cetera. But this is all put down into about a 50 by 50 area to give you a sense of scale and what kind of size is needed. Okay.

Slides: 5-PTRRAS001_M1_economic-drivers-to-consider

What is your success going to depend upon? Number one, low cost production is number one. You got to produce the product so they can compete against other products in the marketplace. It’s as simple as that. Oh, produce inexpensively. You need to be sustainable. You have to have appropriate technology which gets back to your low-cost production, i.e., capital cost. Appropriate technology is going to be very country-specific, mostly related to what you are being charged for your labor, or your

cost to dispose of discharge of flood. And then, you want to match production to an appropriate market. This just shows you, again a little bit dated, apologize about that, but to put it in perspective, one access is poultry. Here, these are thousands, these are 50 millions, 60 millions. These are tons, thousands, billions. 50 billion, 60 billion, okay? Here is aquaculture. And thousands. Okay. See the difference in scale? And this is our aquaculture. Okay? Not much. Oh that’s broiler. Whoa. Okay. Where is aqua- Salmonids? Okay. Here’s Salmonids. Okay. But it is accelerated. Anyway, yeah, aquaculture is growing but compared to the other meat products, it’s just incontestable. What are consumers looking for? Quality, value, value, value. I.e., I want something really, really good. I want it to be good for me but I want it to be inexpensive. So, there’s an interesting study. The economists do this a lot. But, of all the attributes of a product that drives sales, 90% of that can be attributed to price, 90%. Okay. Here’s some challenges for you. Look at this. Okay. We’re talking about tilapia. You get about a 30% yield. Better these days, maybe as much as 35%. But, just to keep numbers around so you can follow them easily, if the farmer can produce the product for a dollar per pound, what would the retail cost end up being to the consumer? Okay. So, there’s the farmer. Farmer gets a margin. There’s yield on the fillet. There’s margin for the processor. There’s wholesale margin, distributor margin, retail margin, retail price, $7 a pound. Okay? Well, that’s pretty high. Okay. Can you compete? Okay. Back to the salmon, okay? Look at the growth. Okay, this has shrunk dramatically since then. We’re down to, probably about a 3%. Our steady growth, they pretty much maxed out the production sites. Seafood consumption. Okay, look what happened. About mid 80s, this is when I started. Okay, this was the shift in the American diet to white meat. And, this also led to the increase in seafood. But it’s pretty much stayed here. It’s still the same. Okay. 2009, it’s still about 16 pounds per capita. Okay. It just hasn’t changed. And the reason is, because the cost in the grocery store or the seafood counter, also has not changed. So remember that you’ve got to compete, you’ve got to compete, and you’ve got to compete really on price. And, the consumer demands quality, which you have to provide.

Slide: 6-PTRRAS001_M1_how-to-compete-in-seafood-markets

Let’s review. How’s the seafood, how are we going to compete? Why has seafood consumption stay flat? Why can’t we mimic the explosive growth of the poultry industry? Well, let’s look at the poultry industry. Well, look at marketing and scale of operation. Here’s what we commonly see where people who are marketing seafood, they’re here next to the ocean. Here’s a bay and people set up here, take fish right off the ocean, right off the boat, sell them. But the scale, there’s no scale there, so there’s no economy of scale. But back in 1943, what happened? Well, a guy named Jesse Jewell, he had this vision for how the broiler industry could become successful. And, he

successful. And it initiated a period of 20 percent growth for indoor chicken broiler businesses for the last 50 years. It’s amazing. So back in ’43, chicken was very, very, very expensive. And now, you go in the supermarket for the last 35, 40 years. And it’s one of the most economical choices of meat. Now, why is that? Also, well, one of the reasons is the broiler industry keeps adapting to the market. And way back here, this is called ready to cook, as in whole broilers. So, way back then, the ready to cut growth is going up, up, up, up and the growth percentage though eventually level up, but this is 5 percent sustained growth. And how do they do that? Well, here’s the key point. Back in the ’60s and whatever, the whole broiler was 80 percent plus of the market. Cut-up was very small. You dropped down here and has even gotten a little bit further than this is the cut-up in the further processing. Products make up 90% or 95% of the current product mix. They keep adapting. So keep that in mind. We all adapt to the market. What does the consumer want? Now, let’s look at some scale effects. Big farms, large integrated farms, and little farms. 250,000 pounds per year, that’s 20,000 pounds a month. That’s probably pretty big to a lot of you. This was the size of my farm, my tilapia farm and this is what I hoped it would grow into but I never got there. And you can see making the point, labor becomes more efficient. Feed becomes more efficient because you’re buying in larger quantities and utilities become more cost-effective because you’re buying them at different scales again also, believe it or not, particularly oxygen and heat. So this does pretty dramatic things to scale. Well, if you could get to these large farms, I’m pretty sure that you would be competitive in the fillet market. Here’s some costs.These are, again, these are also a little bit old, dated. This is not too far off. Depends upon the feed price. How big this is going to be. So, this is where we are. Here’s one of the upsides here in terms of long- term future of indoor or called aquaculture in general. Looking at the different components that make up the cost of feed in terms of the metabolic energy of the diet, the fat, the corn, the soy, fishmeal, fish oil. Different commodities have different ratios of those. But you go down here to the blended ingredient cost, dollars per ton. Hogs and broilers are by far the cheapest, salmon being very expensive primarily because of the fishmeal component and fish oil. But what’s our advantage? Our conversions and tilapia and salmon are almost one to one and conversions on hogs and broilers are around two to one. So, if you multiply these by two because it takes two units of feed for every unit of animal versus one to one, two times this equal at 300. You can see tilapia we have an advantage and salmon becomes comparable. Can RAS compete? And more particularly, why you’re taking this course, right? And we can. Out reminder, the catfish people pond side just goes up and down depending on the year. 0.70 per pound, farm, pond, meat in the whole fish, 45% yield tilapia. We would have– in order to be the same as this, because we get a lower yield, we’d have to produce tilapia for 0.50 cents a pound, which we can’t do. So we got to work on our cost of production. And brother, this is a reminder. Look at that. This is a mature industry. But look how far they’ve come in terms of productivity per person, a million–a thousand times million kilograms per person. The net ponds, this is one-tenth became

of that. And you can imagine it’s much, much worse in terms of small-scale production. And a broiler production system for the labor, the capital cost, the utilities, they’re only paying about 0.10 cents per kilogram for all of this combined. It’s dramatically cheaper than where we see in fish. Positive side is the broilers take twice as much feed as our fish do, and our productivity per unit space. For broilers, it’s only about half what we can do in indoor fish farm. So, that’s our advantage. So, let’s work with it and the future could be considered to be bright.

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Aquaculture explained

Cooking with certified seafood.

Explained: What is RAS Aquaculture?

May 24, 2021

Aquaculture is an innovative industry – it doesn’t stand still for long. Fish farming has traditionally been done in either ponds or sea cages – in fact this practice goes back many millennia .

It is still the case that the vast majority of farms today are of this variety – what are sometimes known as net pen or semi-closed farming systems. But over the past few decades, as aquaculture has rapidly expanded to provide over half of the seafood consumed around the world, it has also frequently innovated and introduced new practices. One of these has been the introduction of closed systems – more commonly known as RAS, which stands for Recirculating Aquaculture Systems.

What are these systems? As you may have guessed from the name, they are sealed off from the environment and replace the natural flow of water in a sea or a lake with a water filtration and recirculation system. As a result, they can be placed on land – and if so they might be referred to as land-based farms.

Different Methods, Different Impacts

So is this a better way to farm? At ASC we don’t usually like to make sweeping generalizations, and won’t make an exception here because the fact is it depends on how a farm is managed. Closed, semi-closed, and net pen systems are simply different ways of producing farmed seafood and each has certain impacts that need to be managed carefully and responsibly. That’s where ASC comes in.

In the case of RAS, one of the benefits we have already mentioned is that there is more flexibility where a farm can be sited. Farms could be located closer to where consumers are, lowering the economic and environmental costs of transportation. But there is a flip side to that – in many areas or countries land and water are in short supply, so taking a farm out of the water and onto dry land can have other impacts and drawbacks.

Another potential advantage is that RAS farms greatly reduce the risk of escapes or disease transmission to wild fish population by tending farmed fish in a completely separate area.

On the other hand, there are certain areas where closed systems are likely to be more impactful. One example is energy use. Constantly recirculating and filtering water to ensure conditions remain right for the fish requires much greater energy than the natural flow of water utilized by pen systems. At a time when we are all thinking more about the carbon footprints of every aspect of our lives, including the food we eat, this is important to consider. It’s worth noting that even if farmed on land, seafood still has a low carbon footprint compared to most other animal protein and the energy source used by the farm, whether it is renewable or not, will make a big difference to its impacts. But this is still an impact that RAS farmers need to think about more than other fish farmers.

New ASC Requirements

While RAS farms still represent a small minority of the aquaculture industry, their use is growing. ASC works hard to reflect the always innovative nature of the industry by adapting its standards and program to reflect the most recent changes. For this reason, we have been working on new requirements that will apply specifically to RAS farms. While many of the impacts will be common to all aquaculture, issues like energy and water use, and effluent disposal, are different for RAS farms, so specific requirements are needed. Farms will need to meet these requirements in addition to the requirements in the relevant species standards –for example, a land-based seriola farm will be audited against the ASC Seriola Standard as well as the new module of RAS requirements.

Like all ASC requirements and updates, these have been developed with our stakeholders’ input and advice through an open public consultation. The feedback we have received has been used to finesse the requirements, which are now being finalized for launch.

The requirements are interim rather than permanent. Another recently concluded public consultation is looking at the environmental requirements of a new aligned Farm Standard . This will cover all ASC certified species, and will allow ASC to adapt the program efficiently to new developments while retaining the robust nature of the ASC standards. The Farm Standard will also integrate specific RAS requirements, so when this goes live it will replace these interim requirements.

In the meantime, ASC will continue to keep an eye out on the latest trends in aquaculture so that farms can be assessed on their individual performance against the most robust standards in the global aquaculture industry.

What is RAS?

Recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) are a type of land-based aquaculture production platform utilized to raise a variety of aquaculture species, including Atlantic salmon, in a highly controlled environment.

Features include: • Water reuse to minimize reliance on water resources • Control and biologically treat fish waste to prevent discharge to the environment • Optimized environment for best fish growth and performance—control of temperature, salinity, water quality, and other parameters • Enhanced biosecurity—protecting fish from environmental pathogens or pollutants • Preventing fish escapes from the production systems. • Protecting wild fish populations and the surrounding environment (low to no impact) • Local production—lower transportation costs/carbon footprint

For the first time, RAS is making it possible for Atlantic salmon to be a local, “farm to table” option on menus and store shelves in non-coastal regions like the Midwest. 

“RAS technology offers the ability to effectively capture and repurpose wastes—reducing environmental impact—to enhance biosecurity to prevent fish escapement, minimize pathogen entry or release to the surrounding environment, and highly control the rearing environment for increased fish performance and welfare. It also increases flexibility in site selection for proximity to markets. Farming fish locally to the market improves sales, reduces transportation costs, requires a smaller carbon footprint, improves traceability and product freshness, and supports the economy in local communities.”

–Steve Summerfelt, Chief Science Officer, Superior Fresh, LLC

How does it work?

RAS requires specialized equipment and technologies designed to provide the fish with optimal water quality and control. A simple diagram by The Conservation Fund Freshwater Institute shows the general steps of RAS technology. You can access more information about each step by expanding the orange tabs at the bottom of the page.  

Step-by-step guide for RAS technology

Farmers grow and house fish in specialized tanks that account for their biological needs. The species, biological requirements, stocking rates, life stage, water supply, and overall RAS setup capacity (including pump and biological filter sizes) determine the tanks’ size, shape, and construction. Experts generally recommend round tanks with a double drain system for efficient solids removal.

Mechanical filters, such as microscreen drum filters or radial flow settlers, physically remove suspended solid waste (primarily fecal matter and some uneaten food), functioning much like a colander. While this filtration physically cleans the water, biofiltration processes must still treat it to remove dissolved wastes before fish can reuse it (see below). The solid waste is collected for removal without environmental harm. A promising approach uses marine microorganisms to efficiently convert solid waste into fuel-grade biogas. This method biologically treats solid waste without environmental discharge and generates bioenergy, which can offset the RAS farm’s energy costs.

Most RAS systems incorporate a pump sump and various pumps to collect and move water throughout the system. Freshwater replenishes the sump to replace any water lost through evaporation, cleaning, or other processes.

Fish produce ammonia as a waste product, which dissolves in the water. If not removed through biological filtration, ammonia can rapidly accumulate to toxic levels. Biological filtration cleans water at the molecular level, using healthy, beneficial bacteria to transform toxic ammonia into safer nitrogen-based compounds. In this nitrogen removal process, bacteria convert toxic ammonia to nitrate. However, nitrate can also accumulate to toxic levels unless removed. While water replacement can remove nitrate, fully contained RAS farms prefer to avoid this method. Instead, these farms employ another biological filter where beneficial bacteria convert nitrate into non-toxic nitrogen gas.

Each fish species thrives within a specific temperature range based on its unique biology. Atlantic salmon, a cold-water species, can react sensitively to temperature fluctuations outside their normal range. Heating and cooling systems maintain optimal temperatures, ensuring fish remain within their ideal thermal conditions.

Fish absorb dissolved oxygen through their gills as they swim and feed, with absorption levels correlating to their activity. As fish use oxygen (O 2 ), they release carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) into the water. CO 2 -saturated water can harm fish, so it must be removed before water recirculation. For salmon, CO 2 levels should not exceed 10 milligrams per liter of water – equivalent to less than one teaspoon of CO 2 in a typical 12-ounce can of soda.

Disinfection systems, typically UV or ozone, provide biosecurity control. The process occurs last because the water reaches its cleanest and clearest state at this point, maximizing treatment effectiveness.

Many RAS systems undergo careful and regular monitoring to guarantee optimum water quality for the fish species they rear. This monitoring combines electronic devices and hands-on techniques. Many facilities employ SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) systems to effectively monitor and control various parameters, ensuring proper conditions for fish in the system. SCADA systems are computer-based tools that collect real-time data on water quality factors like temperature, oxygen levels, and pH, allowing for precise control of the aquatic environment.

Photo credit for header photo at top: Narayan Mahon, taken at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point Northern Wisconsin Demonstration Facility.

+7-930-102-88-58

[email protected]

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We have been constructing and upgrading fish farms for 10 years, we managed to start up more than 50 farms, our customers are farming 11 species of fish, build your own recirculating aquaculture farm (ras), turn-key solution, installation all over the world from the direct equipment manufacturer, ras is a compact automated fish farm, fish grows 3 times faster . the farm consumes 100 times less water and takes 1000 times less area compared to pond farming, the farm is automated . it works around the clock and requires minimal staff engagement in the process, strong sales all year round , there are no seasonal fluctuations, organic and healthy premium quality fish without antibiotics, fed with natural granular feed, full accounting, control and security. closed area with a video surveillance, invest in a stable and profitable asset, it's easy to farm fish in ras.

• The equipment is automated
• It does not require frequent purchasing of fry. Trusted suppliers and quality assurance
• Easy operation by personnel that does not require high qualification
• Minimal maintenance , it is possible to do it on your own

Fish farming plan, from fertilized eggs to growout fish

• Amount of fish tanks needed
• Total biomass
• Fish movement in the system
• Stages of fish farming
• Farming terms
• Stages of sorting and transferring fish

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• Choose the right fish type and farm capacity
• Choose the right site and the building
• Choose the right equipment
• Choose the optimal stages of the project implementation

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There is a lack of high-quality fish on the market

• Today, 60% of the world's fish is farmed . The volume of the global aquaculture market is growing. Its volume has already reached 300 billion dollars
• There are a lot of low-quality products and a shortage of ecological, locally (or nearby) farmed, healthy fish in the middle-price segment (6 to 15 USD per kg)
• Aquaculture provides 1/3 of the total global volume of fish food products. During the last decade the amount of farmed fish has been increasing by 7−10% annually. The capacity of existing fish farms is not enough to fully cover the needs of the market
• More than 50% of fish farms are using RAS technology

Supply customers with ecological, healthy and premium quality fish

• 100% healthy fish without parasites (mechanically and biologically treated water – disinfected 24 hours a day with ultraviolet and ozone + healthy fry)
• Natural feed without antibiotics (high quality extruded feed with optimal composition for each specific type of fish)
• The best possible muscle tone of the fish (continuous circulation of water in fish holding tanks, water circulation speed control)
• Fish doesn’t smell like mud (ozonation + purging completely remove any fish smell)

The equipment is successfully operated by 57 farms

• Trout incubation and ongrowing in the Republic of Karelia, Lahdenpohja Trout fertilized eggs incubation and larvae ongrowing and further transplanting to hatcheries. Capacity - 500,000 of fry. Area - 200 sq. m View photos
• Sturgeon RAS farm in Republic of Azerbaijan, Baku Capacity – 100 tons of growout fish and two tons of caviar Area - 8000 sq. m Full cycle "caviar to caviar" View photos
• Reconstruction of RAS sturgeon farm, Georgia, Batumi Capacity - 50 tons of growout fish Area - 2400 sq. m Cultivation of sturgeon from fry of 3 gr to growout fish of 2-3 kg. It includes 24 fish holding tanks of 40 m3 each, water treatment and recirculation system View photos
• African catfish RAS farm in Ivanovo region Capacity - up to 30 tons per year Area - 200 sq. m From fry of 3 gr to growout fish weighing 1.5 to 2 kg Includes water treatment, recirculation system and fish holding tanks View photos
• RAS farm for trout in Kursk Capacity - up to 136 tons per year View photos
• African catfish RAS farm in Yaroslavl Capacity - up to 16 tons per year Area - 90 sq. m Fish farming from fry of 10 gr to growout fish of 1.5 to 3 kg Includes water treatment, recirculating system and fish holding tanks View photos
• Sturgeon RAS farm in the Smolensk region Capacity- up to 20 tons per year Area - 200 sq. m From fertilized eggs to fry of 100 to 200 gr weight View photos
• Sturgeon incubation and fry hatchery in Krasnoyarsk Capacity - 300,000 of fry per year (10 gr each) View photos
• Circulation water supply for trout farming in Ulyanovsk View photos
• Sturgeon RAS fish farm in Krasnodar krai, Temryuk Productivity is up to 5 tons per year Area is 200 sq. m View photos
• Flow-through system for sturgeon farming in Moscow region, Mansurovo Capacity - up to 20 thousand of sturgeon fingerlings View photos
• African catfish RAS farm inin the Republic of Bashkortostan, Ufa Capacity - up to 32,000 kg per year Area - 178 sq. m View photos

We will launch your farm from the first sketches to growout fish

Specific custom solutions

Efficient use of investments.

• We effectively design farms (as compact as possible)
• We will think over technical solutions , bypassing the pitfalls. You will save time and money by avoiding mistakes and rebuilding
• The equipment has been tested at more than 50 farms. It doesn’t require any improvements and constant maintenance
• We will produce equipment at manufacturer’s prices without excess payments

Custom solutions for all major fish species

• Capacity from 5 to 10 tons of growout fish per year

• Capacity from 25 to 200 tons of growout fish per year
• Capacity from 0.5 to 5 tons of sturgeon caviar per year
• Capacity is from 25 to 500 tons of marketable fish per year
• Capacity is from 50 to 20 tons per year
• Capacity is from 1 thousand to 10 million of fry per year
• The price of technological equipment starts from 14,300 USD
• Whitefish, Atlantic salmon, Pike perch, Tilapia

German water treatment technology

Work directly with the equipment manufacturer.

• PH adjustment systems
• Drum Filters
• Fish holding tanks
• Live Feed Blocks
• Bead filters
• Swirl filters
• Incubation equipment
• Oxygen concentrators
• Ozone retention columns
• Ozone generators
• Oxygen generators
• Feeder tanks
• Thin-layer sumps
• Control panels

Become a representative

BECOME AQUAFARMER REPRESENTATIVE IN YOUR COUNTRY

A full-fledged team of more than 40 professionals

• The founder of the company. CEO
• Anton Pelcher
• Founder and owner of the Aquafarmer company;
• Leading expert in the field of RAS fish farming systems in Russia and the CIS;
• Water treatment systems engineer;
• More than 10 years of experience in designing RAS, direct-flow systems, and circulating water supply systems;
• Designed more than 30 RAS facilities and developed more than 100 projects as part of the Aquafarmer team;
• More than 20 completed projects in the examination and upgrading of existing facilities;
• Link to YouTube channel
• The founder of the company. Technical Director.
• Launched more than 50 fish farms as part of Aquafarmer team
• Developed about 100 units of new equipment
• Founder's TikTok channel

Customer Care Department

• Yana Sedunova Partner relationship manager
• Sergey Melnikov Sales Department Manager
• Vladimir Gulyaev Sales Department Manager
• Evgeniy Belousov Sales Department Manager

Alexander Protasov

Engineering team

• Maria Hetmanskaya Design Engineer
• Victor Pomerantsev Design Engineer
• Denis Mezentsev Process Engineer

Installation and service team

Our customers recommend us

We are trusted by the professional community.

• PUBLIC AUTHORITIES PORTAL Aquafarmer takes one of the leading positions in the field of aquaculture and fish farming equipment. Many years of experience in designing… READ IN THE ORIGINAL READ IN ENGLISH
• FISH UNION Rosrybolovstvo reported that according to the results of the first half of 2021, Russian salmon production in aquaculture increased by 57% from 49.2 thousand tons to 77 thousand tons. READ IN THE ORIGINAL READ IN ENGLISH
• MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE OF PRIMORSKY REGION Ministry of Agriculture of Primorsky region This company has been operating on the market of design and construction of fish farms for more than 10 years, more than 50 farms have been built and reconstructed. READ IN THE ORIGINAL
• YARNEWS ONLINE MEDIA. YAROSLAVL CITIZENS ARE PROMISED TO BE FED WITH AFRICAN CATFISH Yaroslavl entrepreneur Vladimir Salakhutdinov has launched a farm for farming African catfish The special fish holding tanks contain fry that will reach the size of growout fish in 4 to 6 months. READ IN THE ORIGINAL READ IN ENGLISH

MADE BY OUR COMPANY

VESTI NOVOSIBIRSK

• THE OFFICIAL PORTAL OF THE STATE AUTHORITIES OF THE JEWISH AUTONOMOUS REGION Aquafarmer — RusAquaTekhnika LLC, takes one of the leading positions in the field of aquaculture and manufcaturing equipment for fish farming. READ IN THE ORIGINAL

Find out more about RAS fish farming business

Local aquaculture associations trust us.

• EURASIAN AQUACULTURE ALLIANCE ​The main goals and objectives of the Eurasian Aquaculture Alliance are the implementation of effective support for fish farming and the unification of industry representatives into a single self-regulating organization. Go
• ASSOCIATION OF PEASANT (FARMER) FARMS AND AGRICULTURAL COOPERATIVES OF RUSSIA (AKKOR) Established in January 1990, it is a non-governmental non-profit organization. Go
• UNION OF STURGEON FISH FARMERS. NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION OF FISH FARMERS. Go

Our partners

• ST. PETERSBURG MARINE FISH COLLEGE St. Petersburg Marine Fisheries College is one of the oldest educational institutions of secondary vocational education in Russia. Go
• FISHLAB FISH FARMING SCHOOL Practical training of managers and fish farmers. Go

Learn more about RAS and our team, visit social networks

Our contact information, office address: moscow, volgogradskiy prospect, 43, bld. 3, office 1401business center “avilon”, phone: +7-930-102-88-58, email: [email protected], manufacturing facility address: entuziastov proezd, 5, moscow, russia.

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Here is an example. When making a pump selection, there are a multitude of options. From the more expensive and more energy efficient composite pumps to the less expensive and less energy efficient plastic or cast iron pumps. Plastic and castiron are often less expensive than reinforced fiberglass or composite materials.

However, the FRP and composite materials have a longer lifetime than straight plastic and don’t erode like cast iron. Electricity is one of the biggest expenses in a RAS system and anytime a more efficient filtration piece can be used, the better.

But does it work?

It’s easy to make things look good on paper. But does it work? That has to be something that is explored thoroughly. Does the engineer, designer or new farm manager actually have experience working with your animal.

As much as we all think we can do anything, we really can’t. I will likely upset some with this comment, BUT a warmwater marine specialist has little to no business trying to design a cool freshwater system and vice versa. The two are really only alike in that they both have water.

I honestly can’t stress this enough. There are experts for everything but no one person is an expert at everything. Please, if you do nothing else, research your experts, consultants, designers, engineers and make sure they are experienced at the applications your facility will need to be successful.

If there is no one on your team that has experience with a similar species, you need to keep looking. Please don’t be fooled by a fancy CV.

Now that I have aggravated a bunch of people, please know that after close to 30 years of working in this industry as a farmer, a technical support person at Aquatic EcoSystems and now a business owner, I wish only the best successes of those out there willing to stick their neck out and start a farm.

There is nothing easy about it. And when the team isn’t as robust as it should be, dreams and livelihoods can be shattered.

Skills, skills, skills…

A facility can have the most high-tech equipment known to the industry and still fail. Each facility should be unique in its design and include consideration on the skills of the local workforce. If the people running the system are unwilling or unable to learn how to work with it properly, it will still fail.

As the owner/manager of a facility, you can spend an enormous amount of time and money training staff . It is also incredibly difficult to hire trained staff. In many cases, facilities are starting from scratch. And while that can be a very good thing, it can also present difficulties.

“Take the time to train the staff and set expectations for success. It’s almost as important to have employees committed to success as it is to have a robust business plan/facility design. If a facility is lucky enough to have the trifecta of a great workforce, a great facility and a great business plan, the sky will be the limit.”

This is almost impossible to achieve. However, it should always be the goal . Keep in mind, your ego and preconceived notion of your own knowledge may just be the downfall of the entire project. It is critical that you question yourself as much as or even more than you question your team.

It’s easy to delude ourselves with thoughts that we really know what we’re doing all the time. I have said it a million times , if I’ve said it at all. That minute when your ego surpasses your knowledge, will be the minute that everything falls apart. We’ve all seen it. We’ve all heard it. In many cases, we’ve all lived it.

There is no shame in admitting you do not know everything. In fact, it is better to surround yourself with those who know more about the things you don’t so that you can always have a good set of checks and balances . If you sit back and watch a room, or listen to those around you, most often it’s the humble people who are winning.

“And even more likely, you never knew they were as successful as they are because, they aren’t making a big deal about it. It’s also important to listen to your team. It seems so mundane to write that we need to listen.”

Isn’t that in every management book, every self-help book and really every time we turn around, we’re told to listen? However, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve sat in a meeting with clients who are not actually listening to employees or teammates who actually know how to solve the problem .

The take home…

Keep reviewing everything as often as possible with the most critical eye you can muster. Make sure to surround yourself with people who are willing to tell you when you are wrong but also when you are correct. Dig deep and make sure people aren’t selling you a bill of goods.

The more thorough you are on the front end, the less likely you are to be bamboozled. Throughout my entire career, all I have wished for is that aquaculture be successful both in the United States and abroad. I know this is not my typical article subject, but I feel that it is important that we pull the curtain back on the things that are really holding back our industry.

Food security and availability should be our number one priority and I firmly believe successful aquaculture is a huge parts of making that happen.

Amy Riedel Stone is President and Owner at Aquatic Equipment and Design, Inc. She was formerly a Manager at Pentair Aquatic Eco-Systems, and she studied Agriculture at Purdue University. She can be reached at [email protected]

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Features Aquaponics Management Profile Sustainability The growing business case for commercial aquaponics

October 31, 2019  By  Mari-Len De Guzman

The increasing popularity of RAS is paving the way for other sustainable production models to gain traction in the industry.

What used to be a “backyard hobby farming” project, aquaponics is evolving to become a sustainable – and profitable – alternative to food production.

Aquaponics blends aquaculture and hydroponics (soilless plant cultivation) and creates a natural system of producing food, without the use of artificial fertilizers or pesticides. It’s an integrated multitrophic system, mimicking the environment of a natural ecosystem, explains Nick Savidov, senior research scientist at Lethbridge College in Alberta, Canada, in an earlier interview with this writer.

“The natural ecosystem does not have waste,” he says. “Everything is getting utilized, so that waste product of one component – such as fish manure – become feed stock for another component, which are beneficial microorganisms such as bacteria, fungi, protozones, so forth… and then of course the plants are fed by the water, then the water goes back to fish. So, the cycle is complete.”

Regarded as Canada’s “Yoda of aquaponics,” Savidov has been involved in aquaponics research for well over a decade. He says one of the most important features of aquaponics is that it does not produce any waste.

“Recirculating is the key word,” Savidov points out. “Water becomes not just a habitat for plants, fish and the nutrients and microorganisms. Water becomes a carrier, a link which ties together all those components. That is why water is so important.”

Aquaponics has huge potential over traditional methods of farming, says Savidov. “It’s naturally produced, no chemical used, environmentally friendly, sustainable.”

Bottom-line Any fish species that can be grown in RAS can be reared in an aquaponic system, but everything boils down to the business plan, says Ryan Chatterson, founder and president of Aquaponic Engineering and Design based in Florida, U.S.A.

“Can you line up the eggs? Can you line up the harvest schedule, and everything that it takes to do that? Can you maintain water temperature? These are all just numbers on a table: you pick the fish, you set the requirements, and then if you have to do a 30-degree change in the water (temperature) from the fish to the plants, then in that plan you add kilowatt hour. It’s going to tell you whether it makes sense or not,” explains Chatterson.

Before starting his own aquaponics farm and then launching his aquaponics engineering company, Chatterson worked for 10 years at Aquatic Ecosystems. Seeing the potential for aquaponics, he eventually set out on his own, establishing first a R&D farm in Florida serving as a test bed for his designs and to evaluate various crops in different growing conditions.

The bottom line, when selecting the species and the crops, is the bottom-line. Choose a fish that would be profitable in a RAS and that has a good market demand in the area where you are choosing to locate the aquaponics farm, Chatterson advises.

Location, location One of the most attractive features of aquaponics, both from a sustainability and profitability standpoint, is the ability to build these farms closer to market. This eliminates the huge expense of long-haul transport and reduces the products’ carbon footprint.

In St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada, a 120-acre family farm is reaping all the benefits of aquaponics farming, providing farm-to-table fresh produce to the local community. Lester’s Farm has installed an aquaponics system to grow lettuce and other leafy greens alongside tilapia fish.

Rearing warm water species in an area where temperatures can go down to double-digit degrees below freezing is not an easy feat, according to Wasiim Kader Bathia, aquaponics specialist and managing director at Aquaflora Aquaponics in Vacoas, Mauritius. Bathia worked with engineering firm Silk Stevens Limited, in New Brunswick, Canada, to design and install a facility that will house the aquaponics farm, including a greenhouse.

“At the time when we were designing the project, we had very few design data regarding aquaponics, especially with regards to… the design of the system itself, managing the greenhouse environment, and especially the temperatures,” Bathia recalls.

“In Newfoundland, it can get to minus 30 degrees Celsius… and we were using warm water species so we had to heat the water, heat the air inside the greenhouse and the fish building, and insulate everything.”

The farm currently uses conventional coupled aquaponics, where the fish and vegetable are produced in a single loop system. This system works well when both fish and plant species generally require the same level of water temperature, explains Onassis Sanchez, civil engineer at Silk Stevens, who worked with Bathia on the Lester’s Farm project.

“The plants require high temperature in the water and this is the main reason why tilapia was chosen because tilapia can grow at high temperatures, around 25 to 30 degrees Celsius, which is what that plants need to grow,” Sanchez says.

Some modifications have been made to the design of the Lester’s Farm system, however, to allow for future conversion to a decoupled aquaponics system, in case the farm’s operators decide to grow a different species of fish that may require lower water temperatures that may not be conducive to growing healthy plants and vegetables, Sanchez says.

Decoupled aquaponic is an integrated system that involves separate functional units for fish and plants, with individual water cycles that can be controlled separately.

Now in full operation, Lester’s Farm delivers year-round produce to the local community, including lettuce, Asian vegetables and various herbs, as well as fresh tilapia every week.

Survey data Commercial deployment of aquaponics around the world has been gaining ground over the last decade. An international survey published in the journal Aquaculture in 2015 looked into the profitability of commercial aquaponics over a 12-month period. According to the survey, 69 per cent of aquatic animals commonly raised in commercial aquaponics is tilapia, followed by ornamental fish (43 per cent), and catfish (25 per cent). Other species raised, according to the survey, are perch (16 per cent), bluegill (15 per cent), trout (10 per cent), bass (7 per cent), and other aquatic animals (18 per cent).

The most frequently raised plants among commercial aquaponics producers, on the other hand, are basil (81 per cent), salad greens (76 per cent), non-basil herbs (73 per cent), tomatoes (68 per cent), lettuce (68 per cent) and kale (56 per cent). Other plants raised include chard, bok choi, peppers and cucumbers.

Based on 257 respondents surveyed – 81 per cent of which are from the U.S. – the median quantity of fish harvested by respondents was 23 to 45 kg/year. And the median quantity of plants harvested was 45 to 226 kg/year.

Thirty-one per cent of respondents reported that their aquaponic operations were profitable in the previous 12 months, while more than half (55 per cent) predicted profitability in the next 12 months.

Superior scale While most commercial aquaponics operations in the world are in the small to medium-scale range, Superior Fresh in Wisconsin, U.S.A., is proving the business case for large-scale investment.

The farm sits on a 720-acre native restoration property and is the largest facility of its kind, raising Atlantic salmon and steelhead from egg to about 4 kilograms, and a variety of leafy greens.

Using a proprietary decoupled aquaponic system, Superior Fresh’s current operations include nearly six acres of production facilities. Plans are underway to expand production capacity, according to Steven Summerfelt, chief science officer at Superior Fresh.

“Right now our Atlantic salmon and steelhead production is just about 200 tons (per year), and we are between 5 and 10 times that in leafy greens, depending on what we produce,” Summerfelt says.

The company is currently adding new grow-out facilities that would expand its fish production output to 600 tons or approximately 1.3 million lbs. New greenhouse facilities are also being added to expand its production footprint to 14 acres by next year.

With continued daily harvest for leafy greens, and weekly harvest for fish, Superior Fresh is able to bring its produce to local markets within a 400-mile radius.

As the former director of aquaculture systems research at the Freshwater Institute, Summerfelt knows first-hand the power of aquaponics to produce food sustainably.

“Aquaponics is being focused on as a more sustainable production (method), and it really is because we are able to have zero discharge from our production and processing systems,” the Superior Fresh chief science officer says, adding that by having the plants remove nutrients from the water and returning clean water to the fish tanks, the farm is able to recycle 99 per cent of the water.

“That is incredible; instead of having zero waste capture from net pens, we have 100 per cent waste capture. And we are actually reclaiming it so that 1.1 tons of fish food produces 1 ton of salmon and 5 to 10 times that of leafy greens.”

Summerfelt explains the advantages of having a decoupled system – and much of it has to do with scale.

“In our case we have a fully functioning state-of-the-art recirculating aquaculture system for salmon, and another for steelhead. We also have a fully functional recycle system for the plants – and these two connect,” he says.

“We are focused on revenue stream from the fish, separate from the revenue stream from the plants. They are both critical for the economic performance of our business, and with the decoupling and the ability to focus on salmon RAS, we are able to scale to very large RAS facilities.”

One of the significant advantages of an aquaponic system over a traditional aquaculture RAS, is that by adding leafy greens to the production output, profit margins can increase significantly. While Atlantic salmon takes two years to grow to harvest size, it only takes about seven weeks for leafy greens to grow and be ready for harvest, Summerfelt points out.

Costs and complexity Despite its significant promise, aquaponics is still a relatively expensive investment at this point. A small to mid-size scale aquaponics farm would entail an initial investment of between $100,000 and $300,000, according to Chatterson at Aquaponic Engineering and Design. But, he adds, the return on investment can be achieved in about two to three years.

According to that 2015 survey, greenhouses are the most popular building facility used for aquaponics. However, getting the services of your friendly neighbourhood greenhouse contractor may not be as easy you think, Chatterson says.

“I find there is a lack of greenhouse construction companies,” he says. “You’d think any general contractor would be able to take that job up, but that’s not the case. I’ve been dealing with this for years now. It seems like people are scared when you say the word ‘greenhouse’ and they run the other way.”

Because of that, he says, the price of getting a greenhouse installed can skyrocket.

Sanchez of Silk Stevens Limited agrees that the most expensive portion of the initial capital cost is the physical structure. So he is an advocate of the principle of starting small and then scaling up.

“Some aquaponic systems are very complex,” he says, and that means likely sourcing materials and equipment outside of your local vicinity, which does not promote the concept of ‘buying local’ and can have a significant cost attached to it – defeating the spirit of aquaponics, says Sanchez.

“That, in my opinion, is the beauty of aquaponics – where you have local products that can be built locally, and can be consumed locally, and it can be handled and operated locally.”

For aquaponics to grow mainstream, the industry also needs to produce a fresh breed of aquaculture experts with the skilled knowledge of aquaponic systems that are specifically designed for large-scale, complex operations.

“I don’t think the traditional aquaponic training is adequate in preparation for a large, decoupled, cold water aquaponics facility,” Summerfelt says. “It’s breaking new ground in every way, and it’s not easy to implement.”

Chatterson agrees, and he is helping to build a future generation of aquaponics experts. Through his company, he has helped install an aquaponic demonstration unit at a community college in North Carolina. An upcoming project is also underway to install a similar unit in a middle school in Virginia.

“If we are going to have an aquaponics industry, we have to have people going to school and getting motivate to get careers in those areas if the industry is ever going to have long-term viability,” he says

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Recirculatory Aquaculture System (RAS) is a technology that efficiently uses water by recycling and reusing it after filtration. Unlike traditional aquaculture methods, RAS involves high-density fish culture in indoor/outdoor tanks, providing a controlled environment. Water is filtered and cleaned using mechanical and biological filters, with minimal new water added to compensate for losses.

Efficiently utilizing the system’s capacity is crucial for economic viability. The success of RAS depends on factors like feed quality, filtration type, and overall water quality. While large-scale RAS is capital-intensive, promoting Backyard Recirculation Aquaculture Systems can enable small-scale farmers and entrepreneurs in urban and semi-urban areas with limited land and water resources to engage in fish production.

The Recirculatory Aquaculture System (RAS) recycles and reuses water through mechanical and biological filtration processes. In RAS, water undergoes filtration to remove suspended matter, metabolites, excess nutrients, and solids, ensuring good water quality for the fish. This technology allows for high-density fish culture in tanks within a controlled environment, reducing the need for extensive land area.

Only a small amount of fresh water is added to minimize losses due to evaporation, splash-out, and waste removal. Less than 10% of the total water volume is typically replaced daily. RAS maximizes water efficiency while maintaining optimal conditions for fish growth and productivity.

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• Extended durability of tanks and equipment, resulting in long-term cost savings.
• Reduced dependency on antibiotics and therapeutic agents, leading to high-quality fish production.
• Lower direct operational costs associated with feed, predator control, and parasites.
• Potential elimination of parasite release into recipient waters, reducing environmental impact.
• Risk reduction from climatic factors, diseases, and parasites.
• Flexibility in a farm location, allowing proximity to markets.
• Capability to farm a wide range of species, regardless of temperature requirements.
• Improved feed management with 24-hour monitoring in RAS.
• Reduced stress on fish due to adverse weather, temperature conditions, pollution, and predation.
• Secure production of non-endemic species.
• Efficient utilization of water and land areas, promoting sustainability in aquaculture operations.
• A continuous and uninterrupted power supply requires backup electricity in case of power failures.
• The initial capital cost of establishing a recirculating aquaculture system is higher than traditional pond or raceway systems.
• Barramundi/Asian Seabass/Bhetki (Lates calcarifer)
• Cobia (Rachycentron canadum)
• Silver/Indian Pompano (Trichinotus Blochii/Trichinotus mookalee)
• Tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus)
• Pearl spot/Karimeen (Etroplus suratensis)
• Pangasius (Pangasianodon hypophthalmus)
• Rainbow Trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) suits hilly or cold water regions.

They can thrive in high-density culture systems and exhibit good growth rates while maintaining water quality requirements. Barramundi, cobia, and pompano are popular for their taste and market demand. Tilapia is known for its resilience and adaptability. Pearl Spot and Pangasius are valued for their taste and fast growth.

Rainbow trout, with its preference for colder waters, is ideal for RAS in hilly regions. Choosing the right species for RAS is crucial for successful aquaculture ventures, considering market demand, environmental conditions, and the capability to thrive in a recirculating system.

• Insulated shed/building: A facility that serves as a store cum office for feed and accessories, as well as housing the pump house and other system components.
• Grow-out tanks: Circular cement or FRP tanks with inlet, outlet, and major drainage for rearing fish.
• Settling tanks: Used for separating sludge from the water.
• Water storage tanks: Sump tanks for storing water and overhead tanks for maintaining water pressure.
• Mechanical filters include drum and glass wool or muslin cloth filters to remove solid particles from the water.
• Pumps and motors: Essential for circulating and maintaining water flow within the system.
• Power generator: Provides backup electricity in case of power failures.
• Sludge collectors: Used to collect settable or dissolved solids.
• Biofilters and UV units: Help in the biological filtration of water to remove excess nutrients and maintain water quality.
• Electrification: The electrical wiring and connections required for the system.
• Automatic feeders: Used to automate the feeding process in certain cases.
• Aeration system: Provides air or oxygen to the water for maintaining proper oxygen levels and a carbon dioxide trapper system (degasser).
• Water testing kit: Used to monitor and assess water quality parameters.
• Water supply system: Includes sources like bore wells to ensure a continuous water supply.
• Inputs: This includes the necessary inputs such as fish seed, feed, additives, supplements, electricity or diesel for power, and human resources.

These components collectively create an efficient RAS setup, enabling the sustainable production of fish while maintaining optimal water quality and environmental conditions.

In case you missed it: Fish Farm Operations Management: Month-wise Maintenance for Better Profits

Proper feed management ensures the fish receive the nutrients for growth and development. Fish farmers can promote healthy growth, efficient feed utilization, and overall profitability in a RAS fish farming operation by using high-quality, species-specific feeds and providing appropriate feeding quantities and frequencies.

• High-quality feed: Use a high-protein feed that contains all the minerals and vitamins necessary for the fish’s nutritional needs.
• Species-specific feed: Different fish species have specific dietary requirements. It is important to choose feed formulations tailored to the specific cultivated species.
• Feeding quantity: Feed the fish at a rate of 3-5% of their body weight, depending on the quality and protein content of the feed. Adjustments can be made based on the growth and appetite of the fish.
• Feeding frequency: More frequent feedings, preferably several times daily, can lead to better growth rates and improved feed conversion ratio. Regular and consistent feeding schedules are essential for optimal fish growth and health.

Project Report of RAS Fish Farming

• Initial Investment: The cost of setting up a RAS fish farm can be higher compared to traditional pond-based systems due to the infrastructure required, such as tanks, filtration systems, and electrical installations.
• Operational Costs: Operating a RAS fish farm involves expenses like feed, electricity, water, labor, maintenance, and periodic equipment upgrades. These costs can differ depending on the scale of the operation and the species being cultivated.
• Revenue Generation: Profitability on a RAS fish farm comes from selling the harvested fish. The market demand, selling price, and production volume are crucial in determining the revenue potential.
• Risk Management: Like any business venture, RAS fish farming involves risks like disease outbreaks, market fluctuations, and environmental challenges. Adequate risk management strategies should be in place to mitigate these risks.
• Project Viability: Conducting a thorough project report is crucial for assessing the financial viability of a RAS fish farm. It involves estimating costs, projecting revenues, and conducting a comprehensive analysis to determine profitability and return on investment.

In case you missed it: A Guide to Sustainable RAS Fish Farming Practices

The cost of production at a RAS (Recirculatory Aquaculture System) fish farm, specifically for Nile Tilapia (GIFT), involves several components. 

• Tank Size and Volume: The fish tanks used for Nile Tilapia (GIFT), in this case, have a size of 6.7m x 6.7m x 2m, with a total volume of 90 m3.
• Stocking Size and Density: Fingerling-sized Nile Tilapia (GIFT) with a stocking density of 6000 fish per tank.
• Survival Rate : A survival rate of 90% of the stocked fish survives throughout the culture period.
• Feed Conversion Ratio (FCR): The feed conversion ratio is 1:1.3, indicating that it takes 1.3 kg of feed to produce 1 kg of fish.
• Culture Period: T he culture period or crop duration for Nile Tilapia (GIFT) is six months.
• Cost of Seed and Feed: Each fingerling (seed) costs Rs. 4, while the feed cost is Rs. 30 per kilogram. The total feed required for the culture period is estimated to be 3.51 metric tons (MT).
• Size at Harvest and Expected Biomass: Nile Tilapia (GIFT) is expected to reach a size of 500g at harvest, with an estimated total biomass of 2.7 MT.
• Sale Price: The expected sale price for Nile Tilapia (GIFT) is Rs. 140 per kilogram.

In case you missed it: Sustainable Fish Farming: Zero Waste Fish Farming Practices 

• Total Capital Cost : Rs. 1.75 lakh + Rs. 5.00 lakh = Rs. 6.75 lakh 
• Total Input Cost : Rs. 0.20 lakh + Rs. 0.82 lakh + Rs. 0.10 lakh + Rs. 0.45 lakh + Rs. 0.10 lakh = Rs. 1.67 lakh
• Total Cost (A+B): Rs. 6.75 lakh (Capital Cost) + Rs. 1.67 lakh (Input Cost) = Rs. 8.42 lakh
• Total Cost (A+B) : Rs. 8.42 lakh (Capital Cost + Input Cost)
• Gross income from the 1st crop : Rs. 4.78 lakh
• Gross income at the end of the 1st crop after deducting recurring cost for the 2nd crop : Rs. 3.28 lakh
• Gross income from the 2nd crop : Rs. 4.78 lakh
• Gross income at the end of the 2nd crop : Rs. 11.06 lakh
• Depreciation cost at 15% of the capital cost: Rs. 0.90 lakh
• Net Profit = Gross income – Total Cost (A+B) – Depreciation cost
• Net Profit = Rs. 11.06 lakh – Rs. 8.42 lakh – Rs. 0.90 lakh
• Net Profit = Rs. 1.74 lakh

Net Profits indicate that the RAS Fish Farm has shown profitability and economic feasibility, with a positive net profit. Costs May vary depending on market conditions, operational efficiency, and other production costs. 

Submitting the Project Report (PR): The beneficiary must submit a project report and required documents, including proof of land availability (owned or registered lease document), to the concerned District Fisheries Office for further processing. In the case of leased land, a registered lease document for seven years from the submission date of the Self-Contained Proposal is required.

Self-Contained Proposal (SCP): The beneficiary must prepare a Self-Contained Proposal with full justification and technical-economic details, including the species/variety to be cultured, capital cost, and recurring costs involved. The project report should also provide information on anticipated employment generation, fish production enhancement, specific project implementation timelines, etc. This proposal needs to be furnished to the District Fisheries Office.

Restriction on Governmental Assistance: Governmental assistance for subsidies will be limited to one large, one medium, or one small RAS unit for an individual beneficiary. For a group of fishers and fish farmers, assistance will be limited to two large, three medium, or four small RAS units per group or society. However, a cluster or area may have multiple groups or societies. The concerned authority will decide the implementation modalities and upper ceiling for total eligible area support for FFPOs/Cs.

In case you missed it: Fish Hatchery Business Plan: How to Start, Cost, Profits, and a Great Way to Make Money

Availing subsidies for RAS fish farming requires proper documentation, including the project report and justification for technical and economic aspects. The restrictions on governmental assistance aim to ensure the equitable distribution of subsidies among beneficiaries. It is important to adhere to the guidelines and procedures set by the District Fisheries Office and other relevant authorities to avail of the subsidy successfully.

Conducting a cost and profit analysis for a RAS fish farm is needed to assess the venture’s economic feasibility and profitability. A well-prepared project report and accurate financial evaluation are essential for making informed decisions and maximizing returns.

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United States’ RAS sector gets a leg up

February 23, 2021 By Liza Mayer

A   consortium of experts that aims to advance the United States’ fledgling RAS salmon industry has officially launched and its website is now live.

The Recirculating Aquaculture Salmon Network (RAS-N) comprises institutes and private sector entities that will look into role of recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) in addressing US seafood deficit.  

They plan to identify technological and scientific gaps and prioritize research that will help advance industry development. Those efforts will be published in the RAS-N’s website at www.ras-n.org.

A $1.2-million grant from NOAA’s National Sea Grant Office in October 2019 got the initiative started.

Maryland Sea Grant and University of Maryland, Baltimore County, are lead partners in the initiative. Industry collaborators, which matched the fund from NOAA, include Superior Fresh, Whole Oceans and Riverence.

“Together, the private and public sector have invested more than $2 billion into land-based salmon aquaculture, and its technologies and knowledge base are rapidly advancing.   Our partners and collaborators represent a broad approach in nurturing and supporting sustainable, land-based RAS Atlantic salmon production in the United States,” said RAS-N.  

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RAS Farming Project Report, Economics, Business Plan

Table of contents, benefits of the ras system, water supply unit, the fish culture tank, biofilter design, size and type of filters, starting a biofilter and the recirculation rates, feed recommendations for ras fish farming system, oxygen management of ras fish farming system.

• Temperature management in RAS fish farming system

Cost and profit analysis of RAS fish farming project report

Future of ras fish farming in india, introduction to ras farming project report and ras fish farming business plan.

Let us get into details of RAS farming project report and business plan.

These Recirculating Aquaculture Systems (RAS) are a new form of fish production systems, which actually bridge the gap between fish demand and supply. It is an intensive mechanism where the culturist has to provide the biological needs for the organisms to grow and develop.  This new system encourages fish farming in a controlled environment unlike the traditional method, where fish are farmed in open ponds and raceways. The water used in these systems is recycled regularly for a better environment for the fish. Sometimes the tanks are supplied with fresh water other than the recycled water to compensate for the loss due to evaporation and splash out.

The traditional raceway systems grow fish and discard the water thereafter, which is generally termed as open or flow-through system. The RAS systems create a proper environment for the fish such as clean water, optimum temperature, adequate dissolved oxygen content, etc. These systems clean water using filters at various levels and also have an exceptional way of handling the waste.

The RAS fish farming project report describes the structure of the farming system and also at the end gives a rough estimate of the investment and profits associated with the system.

These systems are considered very advantageous over open pond systems because of the following reasons:

• Intensive production
• Both water and land are conserved
• The flexibility of the location
• Choice of species and harvest flexibility
• Facilitate polyculture and monoculture at different growth stages

Read: Fish Farming FAQ .

Components of the RAS fish farming system

The system consists of several parts such as the tank for growing fish, a sump for removal of particulate matter, filter, oxygen injection tube, a pump for water circulation and ozone or ultraviolet sterilization unit. Each of the component and its functioning is described below.

The enterprise should have a proper and adequate supply of water from resources like ground, wells or springs, etc. The water should be free from pollutants and should have relatively high hardness levels. The water from the municipal water supply unit can also be used but should be treated to remove the chlorine, fluorine and other chemical substances.

The water quality and quantity should be tested before the entire set up process to ensure an adequate supply of high-quality water. The RAS fish farming unit needs or consumes less water when compared to other techniques of fish farming. The general recommendations are 1-5 gallons of water for every pound of fish and around 10-25 gallons of water should flow every minute to grow fifty thousand pounds of fish each year.

The shape of the fish tanks can be rectangular, circular or oval in shape. The tanks with central drain and circular in shape are easier to clean and circulate water than the rectangular tanks. The design of the tank should be compatible with other components of the RAS system like the biofilter and sump.

The fish rearing tanks can be made of materials like plastic, concrete, metal, wood, glass, rubber and plastic sheeting. The main aim of the material used for the construction of the tank is that it should not leak, corrode and become toxic for the fish in it. The surface of the tank on the inner side should be smooth to avoid skin abrasions and infections to the fish and facilitate proper cleaning and sterilization.

The lightweight tanks when used in the system are durable and convenient to move and manage, but extra support is to be provided to prevent them from stretching while filling water. Tanks made of stainless steel are also considered good but are a little expensive. The plywood of the marine grade is inexpensive, but leak when not properly sealed. Tanks made of concrete are immovable structures, but economical to build. Generally, non-plastic materials are used as rubber liners for tank structures made of metal, wood, and concrete.

A simple biofilter consists of a wheel, barrel or box, filled with media that facilitates a large surface area for growing nitrifying bacteria. The biofilter can be made of materials like plastic, wood, glass, metal, concrete, etc. Very small fish farming units make use of plastic garbage cans or septic tanks. The size of the biofilter is directly related to the fish carrying capacity of the system because larger biofilters can assimilate more ammonia and help in higher fish production.

The main idea of the biofilter is to colonize nitrifying bacteria such that the water flowing through the biofilter when gets in contact with the bacteria on the surface media for a certain period of time converts NH₃ (ammonia) to NO₂ (nitrite) and to NO₃ (nitrate). The time of water contact with the media in the filter along with the depth and volume of the filter should be carefully calculated before the setup is made.

The biofilter media used in the RAS systems are generally made of corrugated plastic, Styrofoam, glass beads, lava rock, sand, gravel or any other similar material with large surface area. The efficiency of the biofilter depends on the quality and quantity of the surface area of the media within the filter. The basic properties of the biofilter media should be:

• High surface area
• A large number of pore spaces
• Clog-resistant
• Easy to maintain
• Lightweight
• Inexpensive

The size of the biofilter within the RAS system must suit or set well with the other components in the system and therefore three factors that should be considered while designing the filter are:

• The surface area of the media in square feet for the attachment of the bacteria.
• Ammonia loading, which implies the amount of ammonia required to convert one square foot of media in one day.
• Hydraulic loading, which indicates the quantity of water required per square foot of the media each day.

Generally, the configuration of biofilters is done in two ways i.e. through immobile media (called the submerged filters) and the emerged bed filters. Most commonly used submerged filter is the fluidized bed reactor (FBR), which consists of fine particles like sand dense plastic and glass beads in a container. Water flows through this media and fluidizes the suspended particles. It is believed that FBR offers greater surface area and helps in higher nitrification. These filters need to be dissolved oxygen to help the nitrification process. If the amount of dissolved oxygen is low, then the amount of ammonia converted reduces gradually.

Emerged filters are again classified into two basic types such as the trickling filter (TF) and rotating biological contactors (RBC). The advantage with these filters is that they do not need the addition of oxygen before or after the nitrification process because the filter itself supplies the required oxygen to support fish respiration. The trickling filter is designed such that water slowly comes down through the media column to help the process of nitrification. This waterfall process adds or aerates the water in the tank.

The entire colonization of bacteria within the filter may take around one to three months. A new tank inoculated with a new seed bacteria from an existing system can shorten the startup time and provide high efficiency. The addition of bacteria obtained from commercial business dealers named under the specially selected strains of bacteria has not shown signs of faster growth. If the water is cool, then the bacterial activity slows down and makes the filter inefficient.

Every time the water is exchanged is termed as recirculation and its rate is defined per unit time. For example, the recirculation rate for a tank with 2500 gallon capacity supplied with a water pump of 45 gallons of water per minute is 25.3 tank volumes a day. The recirculation rate increases the Biofiltration and helps in greater nitrification with reduced ammonia levels.

Fish excreta and leftover waste food has to be prevented from accumulation and a sump is a part of the system which helps in the removal of all waste products from the tank. The presence of waste in the tank reduces the biological oxygen demand, decrease the dissolved oxygen content in the water and lower the carrying capacity of the tank. A sump is a form of the settling basin, the purpose is to concentrate and remove solid waste before the clog the biofilter. This sump is a separate tank kept in isolation from the fish tank and biofilter such that it can be cleaned regularly. The efficiency of the sump or clarifier is increased by using various filters made of plastic, sand, metal etc.

The size of the sump is decided on the basis of the size of the fish tank and biofilter. It also depends on the turnover rate of the system. To obtain maximum sedimentation of suspended particles, the volume of the sump and the flow rate through the sump should be adjusted properly.  The average flow rate is estimated to be 90 gallons per minute.

The feed for the fish should contain essential minerals and vitamins and is specially formulated for the fish species in the RAS systems. Other animal feed should not be used for fish and also the feed has to be chosen appropriately for the specific species in the fish tank. The recommended feed for fish in RAS systems is dry feed or floating pellets so that the health of the fish can be observed at the surface level. The feed should be stored properly in a dry place free of insects and rodents. Generally, cultured fish need feed that is 3-5% of their body weight. If fish refuse to eat, then it is an indication of a problem, so fish culturists should immediately check for the ammonia levels in the water. It is considered that low feeding happens in very high or very low water temperatures.

Oxygen levels in water help in higher production and addition of oxygen to water are essential for the following reasons:

• Respiration of fish in high-density tanks.
• The existence of aerobic bacteria on the biofilter.
• Decomposition of organic waste.

Oxygen has to be supplied to keep the fish and bacteria healthy and also it helps to maintain the biological oxygen demand within the water for the fish waste and unconsumed food. The demand for oxygen depends on several factors and is directly related to the density of the fish in the tanks, feeding rate, the temperature of water, nitrification etc.

Oxygen from the atmosphere is added to the tanks through surface agitation with aerators or large blowers. Surface agitators do not evenly distribute the oxygen in large commercial tanks, but blowers are effective in supplying oxygen evenly throughout the tank and also rotating the RBS mechanically.

Read: Aquaponics FAQ .

Temperature management in  RAS fish farming system

The temperature within the tank should be regulated properly because the water temperature influences the feeding and growth rate of the cultured fish. The ideal temperature for bacterial nitrification activity is 85˚F. The temperature of water within the tank is maintained depending on the type of fish being reared. The water is heated by heating the entire building with space heaters or directly heating the water. High temperature and humidity in the room are controlled by ventilation with an electric fan. Heating water directly is an expensive process so generally solar heaters or heat exchangers are recommended.

The estimation of the RAS fish farms is given in USD, just for reference and should be always analyzed according to the location of the farm and its related currency structure. It is always recommended to have thorough market research before making a final analysis of the investment structure. The cost and profits may vary depending on the country of the farm and on the species being cultured. This report presented here is only to give a rough estimation of the project structure.

Initial investment (cost/hectare) for ponds with the RAS fish system installed =

• Small Size RAS farm: $280,000 (USD)
• Medium Size RAS farm: $330,000 (USD)
• Large Size RAS farm: $340,000 (USD)

Apart from these, there could be some fixed costs involved like land charges, etc. during the project, which should also be considered accordingly. The cost of pond preparation mentioned above in the table indicates the cost of lime, salt, fungicides, etc. and the cost of fingerling include the treatment of the fingerlings also.

Due to lower sludge discharge costs and high fish density of RAS compared to traditional fish farming, RAS can fetch more yield of fish hence more profits.

The average annual profit is expected to increase to $230,000 USD/ha and $300,000 USD/ha for medium & large farms with an implementation of the RAS fish system.

Profit is not observed during the initial years of investment, but slowly as the production improves profits start coming in.

The RAS fish farming technology was launched in India as a pilot project and is considered as the most advanced method of producing high-quality fish around the year in a small area of land. This method is believed to be costlier than the traditional method and needs some extra advanced equipment like the mechanical and biological filters. In India, the fisheries department is planning to rear Genetically Improved Farmed Tilapia (GIFT) that is a breed of tropical fish. It is assumed that 40 cubic meters of the tank can produce about 4,000 fish in six months. Generally, this figure is estimated by considering the fact that normal fish farming produces 40 fish per 1 cent of the land. With RAS fish farming, the culturists can obtain two crops a year of about 1.5 tonnes of fish yield during each crop.

The minimum investment for a small RAS fish farming in India is estimated to be around 4.8 lakhs for a tank measuring 1 cent. The price of the fish in the market is considered to be around Rs 250 per kg, depending on the quality. The department of fisheries working under the Government of India provides half the amount of investment as a subsidy to the farmers or also facilitates banks to provide loans to RAS fish farmers. Farmers would also have to locate their farms in areas where there is a continuous supply of power, which is extremely important for the functioning of the RAS system.

Read: Goat Farming In India .

14 COMMENTS

This is srinivas, I am very much interested in RAS , Please provide me in detailed estimation.

Dear sir/madam,

Please provide the estimated cost for RAS fish farming in Hyderabad, India and more details of farming and requirements.

Also, in case of taking loan how much it will be provided by the government and subsidy provided by the government.

Check this: RAS Fish Farming Equipment, Cost, Training .

I am interested in setting up indoor RAS fish farm in Patna. Have got 1 acre of land.

Check this as well: RAS Fish Farming Equipment, Cost, Training .

Sir I’m interested in RAS system, I have my own land but please tell me how to apply for subsidy

I am interested in ras farming pls tell details

Hi, I am Nitin . Wants to go for ras. so please send me full details .

We want to start this ras fish farming I need full project report

I interested ras fish farming sir all machine cost and details tell me sir

I’m interested in Ras fish farming, equipment,cost and training.

I am interested in starting in Adelaide kindly let me know the entire project report with cost

I am Intersted in starting in Mediam Size (6 Pound)RAS Fish farming project. Can you Send me project Reports With Cost of 25 lakh.

Looking at viability of setting up an RAS fish farm near Chandigarh Punjab. Need the complete economics, machinery suppliers, latest technology viz Scada/ AI complete solution suppliers, type of fish for area based on weather conditions and market preferences

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Billund, Syddanmark , Denmark-based Billund Aquaculture, a specialist in the design and installation of recirculating aquaculture systems, plans to declare bankruptcy.

The Covid-19 pandemic and economic fallout from sanctions imposed following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine exacerbated the company’s financial troubles, according to Billund Chairman Jon Refsnes.

“The company deeply regrets having to take the decision but that, unfortunately, there are no other options,” Refsnes said in a press release.

Billund has not published its 2023 financial report, but in 2022, it lost DKK 97.3 million (USD 14.1 million, EUR 13 million), marking its fourth consecutive annual loss. In 2021, it reported a loss of DKK 1.5 million (USD 218,000, EUR 201,000), while in 2020 it lost DKK 18.7 million (USD 2.7 million, EUR 2.5 million) and in 2019 it lost DKK 14.6 million (USD 2.1 million, EUR 2 million). It posted a profit of DKK 8 million (USD 1.2 million, EUR 1.1 million) in 2018.

The company’s revenue had hovered between DKK 408 million (USD 59.2 million, EUR 54.7 million) and DKK 515 million (USD 74.7 million, EUR 69 million) in those years, but in 2022, it sank to DKK 268.7 million (USD 39 million, EUR 36 million). Its equity dropped from DKK 115.9 million (USD 16.9 million, EUR 15.5 million) in 2021 to DKK 39.1 million (USD 5.7 million, EUR 5.2 million) in 2022, and it predicted a loss of DKK 3 million (USD 436,000, EUR 402,000) to DKK 7 million (USD 1 million, EUR 938,000) in 2023.

“The main contributor to the negative 2022 result has been significant reductions from the expected to the realized contributions margin on a number of projects being finalized during 2022. These are projects that were entered into prior to Covid-19 and the war in Ukraine, and which significantly was impacted by external factors such as Covid-19, inflation, and high volatility in project cost input,” it said. “The group has experienced a lower-than-expected turnover, as several projects in 2022 were postponed as a consequence of significant macro uncertainties, especially relating to high inflation and extensive volatility in cost input to the industry.”

Previously owned by Broodstock Capital, the company was sold in 2022 to Havbruksparken Utvikling, Stoksund, and the Sørensen family.  Ownership includes the Refsnes family, which owns Columbi Salmon and part of the salmon producer Refsnes Laks; the Lofsnæs family, which owns the salmon producer Bjørøya; and the Rasmussen family, which has investments in real estate and the software industry.  

Broodstock retained a 75 percent stake in Billund Aquaculture Norway, which was split off from Billund Aquaculture and subsequently renamed VAQ . VAQ will not be impacted by Billund’s planned bankruptcy.

Billund Aquaculture has installed more than 130 plants in over 20 countries, and more recently projects it has been involved in include a striped bass RAS for Pacifico Aquaculture , a joint venture shrimp RAS with Aquapurna , and numerous salmon hatcheries in Norway, Chile, Australia, and the U.K. It was removed from its work on Atlantic Sapphire's Bluehouse salmon farm in Miami, Florida, U.S.A., after Atlantic Sapphire deemed it responsible for problems that led to  a mass mortality incident , as well as other biological issues. It has 250 employees and offices in Denmark, Chile, Norway, Australia, and the U.S.

Billund CEO Kristoffer Lund said his firm had positive results in 2023, but could not overcome financial issues he blamed on the company’s previous ownership. Lund was hired as CEO in April 2024 , and is a specialist in organizational transformation .

“Unfortunately, there have been too many challenges from previous operations, which made it difficult to find sufficient capital for further operation. Despite good operational progress, the company’s efforts to secure its capital needs were ultimately hampered by disputes from before the 2022 changes,” Lund said in a press release, according to Kyst.no . “Based on this, the board has concluded that there is no basis for further operation. Efforts will now be made to find the best possible solutions for all our employees, customers, and creditors.”

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Cliff White has been the executive editor of SeafoodSource since 2016. Previously, he worked as the senior business reporter for the McClatchy-owned Centre Daily Times in State College, Pennsylvania, where he won state and national awards for his coverage of the development of the Marcellus Shale natural gas deposit and the Jerry Sandusky scandal. 

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Meet the farmer Meet the farmer: Yit Tung

Yit Tung – who farms mud crabs, shrimp and tilapia in Malaysia – has no regrets about swapping a steady job as an engineer in the oil and gas sector for starting up his own aquaculture venture, RAS Aquaculture.

“Within three months of working in oil and gas I knew it was not a job that I could do for my whole career. But aquaculture – I can easily imagine doing this for 30 or 40 years,” he muses.

Tung moved into aquaculture in 2017, shortly after graduating from university, when – together with a few friends – he was looking to invest in a business.

“We bought an RAS from China and tried to use it to produce mud crabs. But the system didn’t work,” Tung recalls of his early efforts.

The experience was typical of Tung’s first forays into aquaculture and he freely admits that moving into a new field without either sufficient research or a business plan was a little unwise.

“We took the restaurant price of mud crabs and multiplied it by our projected yield. We didn’t factor in manpower, margins, or logistics. We lost money for a whole year – it was a disaster from the start,” he says with a wry smile.

However, despite the naivety of Tung and his friends, they were able to successfully create a market for their crabs.

“Within a few months we had 10 to 15 restaurants buying from us – they all liked the quality and steady supply of our crabs – and we realised that we really might have a viable business,” Tung recalls.

It was encouragement enough for Tung to make a radical decision.

“I was still working in oil in the UAE when we set up the farm and was trying to run it remotely via WhatsApp. It wasn’t working so I spoke to my employers, who said I could work six week shifts on a rig in West Africa, followed by three weeks off in which to run the farm. After a year I decided to quit my engineering job and concentrate completely on farming,” Tung explains.

He was joined by Rachel Heng, a marine biologist, and they have been running the farms, a consultancy business and a growing team of employees at RAS Aquaculture ever since.

The evolution of RAS Aquaculture

While Tung started off growing mud crabs from wild-caught juveniles, he has since diversified, and now produces shrimp and tilapia too – at different locations, using different production techniques, suggesting an impressive desire to keep learning.

“We started up on-growing mud crabs in 1,000 individual boxes to prevent cannibalism. It was a hybrid/dual model – we created a production and trading operation where we would grow them from juveniles and also bought larger crabs that had been rejected by buyers, due to lack of meat or perhaps because they were missing a claw, and kept them until they were A-grade crabs, which could be sold for premium prices,” he explains.

As Tung’s confidence and experience grew, he began to consider closing the mud crab lifecycle, by adding a hatchery to his operations. However, he felt that doing so in an RAS facility would be too expensive, so began to investigate other options.

“In 2019 we came across a biofloc system and decided we should try it on crabs. After a four-month trial we’d figured out how to make it work for crabs, growing them successfully up to the size of matchboxes, but we also realised that it was going to be difficult to make the business profitable – too much energy was needed to run the aeration systems,” Tung recalls.

First foray into shrimp

True to form, Tung decided to pivot again.

“Within five to six months we realised that producing vannamei shrimp in biofloc systems had better business potential and within a year we were farming shrimp effectively. We’ve always tried to learn from our failures and also ensure that we are operating in a sustainable manner,” he emphasises.

Tung is currently looking to increase his shrimp production to a commercial scale, and recently leased a 5-acre pond site to add to his production portfolio.

“Indoor shrimp farming is still largely for the US and EU markets, and most of these farms are still on a semi-commercial scale. As we’re based in Asia, where there’s less demand for premium, sustainably farmed shrimp – we need to look to ways to reduce our production costs, so we are looking to find a balance between indoor and outdoor production models,” he explains.

Leasing the ponds, and implementing a more professional approach than was used by their previous occupants, will – Tung hopes – optimise the opportunity to grow a successful business there.

“Two attempts to farm the site by previous operators failed, due to disease outbreaks, but we’re going to retrofit the site with useful tech like solid removal systems, nanobubble technology for the oxidation of organic matter and beneficial microbes to promote gut health and assist in sludge removal. We also introduced standard operating procedures to ensure good management practices,” Tung explains.

According to Tung, the ponds will allow RAS Aquaculture to grow 20-25 tonnes of shrimp a year, on top of the 10 tonnes they produce from their indoor site (up from 1 tonne last year) and the 12 tonnes of mud crabs they produce from their original farm. They also have a joint tilapia farming venture with a 10 to 15 tonne annual capacity.

Popular products

The thing that Tung has perhaps been most consistently successful in to date has been finding a market for his produce. And shrimp are proving no exception to this rule.

“We’re based in a fairly small town, of about 300,000 people, which is dominated by home-grown SMEs like us. We’re also about 100 km from the coast, which means we have a unique product. This has helped us achieve rapid market penetration and we now supply over 50 restaurants,” Tung reflects.

“It also helps that we are happy to do low volume deals with restaurants, which helps to minimise waste, and we also offer very stable pricing, in contrast to the fluctuating seasonal pricing of many seafood products. This means that the restaurants can concentrate on doing what they do best – making sure the dish is cooked right,” he adds.

Consultancy

As well as the production side, Tung has always dabbled in consultancy – initially to ensure that others don’t make the same mistakes that he first made.

“Lots of people who invest in aquaculture or go into farming do so in their late 50s as a form of semi-retirement. But if they buy the wrong system, like we did initially, then they could lose all their savings,” Tung notes.

“We had that experience, and we had our skin in the game, so we started to deliver free courses to anyone who wanted to visit the farm, to help ensure that they didn’t make the same mistakes as we had,” he adds.

Since then, the consultancy side of RAS Aqua has grown considerably – the company has helped over 1,000 farmers to rear mud crabs. However, the lessons they teach still focus on the same areas.

“The most important thing is that everyone understands the basics in terms of capex, opex, minimum production and profitability,” Tung observes.

Tung currently spends about 30 percent of his time as a professional consultant, passing on his hard-earned wisdom.

“I spend another 30 percent in operations – running the farms and the remaining 40 percent on team building,” he explains.

“We have to grow the business by increasing production, but to do this we need to have good managers – you need to have at least a year’s farming experience to effectively work with clients,” he adds.

Skills shortage

Tung now employs 8 to 10 people, but believes that this figure could swiftly treble – if only he was able to recruit the right people.

“The equipment has improved so much since I started farming five years ago and equipment suppliers are much more responsible too. But finding quality manpower is an ongoing challenge – probably the biggest challenge that we now face,” Tung reflects.

“We try to recruit from aquaculture, marine biology and biotech courses in the top universities in Malaysia, but only 6 percent of the graduates actually go into the aquaculture sector. Most of them prefer to go find desk jobs, but I want people who are truly passionate about the industry – the sort of people that culture fish at their own homes,” he adds.

Looking ahead

Five years into his aquaculture career, Tung’s enthusiasm is undiminished, and he believes that the hard work and the setbacks of his trial-and-error era are finally beginning to pay off.

“Lots of people didn’t take us seriously to begin with but we’ve shown we can produce crab, shrimp and tilapia. The team has done well and we’re now getting enquiries from bigger and bigger clients,” he reflects.

It was the same with his parents, who couldn’t understand why he wanted to leave a respected engineering job to move into what they viewed as “the lowest possible industry” – the farming sector.

Now that RAS Aqua is showing signs of promise his parents are less sceptical – indeed his father has started his own aquaponics system at home – but Tung sees the stigma attached to farming as symptomatic of a wider malaise in how the aquaculture sector is perceived.

According to Tung, in Asia farming is seen as a low net worth occupation and – equally – farmed aquatic produce is not given the recognition it deserves in most countries in the region.

“Only Japan and Taiwan really appreciate farmed seafood, all other countries have a preference for wild-caught. I think that has to change,” Tung reflects.

As for the development of RAS aqua itself, Tung is content to remain self-financed and scale slowly.

“Investment isn’t always the best thing – I’ve seen some spectacular failures. We have managed to self finance our operations and scaled organically up to this point. We have brought other partners into the firm and want to keep our options open for future M&A or investment. We're in this for the long run and will continue to scale this business to the best of our abilities,” he reflects.

However, while the farming side might be his passion, he is aware of the potential benefits of branching out along the value chain.

“Thinking strategically integration is important for our growth and I’d particularly like to integrate downstream and develop a sustainable shrimp brand. While the demand for sustainably produced seafood is still fairly small in Asia, the rise of the organic food sector shows that there’s a growing appetite for it,” Tung notes.

As for species, Tung sees vannamei and tilapia as being the most sensible ones to back, but he’s keeping an open mind.

“We started our business by farming a hard species [mud crab] with zero support, but sometimes the biggest challenges can be the biggest goldmines,” he concludes.

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RAS specialist Billund Aquaculture files for bankruptcy after almost 40 years in business

Billund Aquaculture team members pictured at AquaSur in Chile, March 2024.

Photo: Billund Aquaculture.

Billund Aquaculture , a specialist in the design, implementation, and service of recirculating aquaculture systems ( RAS ) for land-based fish farming, has filed for bankruptcy, the company has announced.

The land-based aquaculture technology specialist, which was founded in Denmark in 1986 , has been unable to secure sufficient capital to continue its operations.

The company took a financial hit during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, and has also been further affected by uncertainty over projects following the war in Ukraine, Billund indicated in a press release announcing the decision.

“Unfortunately, there have been too many challenges from previous operations, which made it difficult to find sufficient capital for further operation," said Billund CEO Kristoffer Lund , who joined Billund as CEO in April 2024 , taking over from previous CEO Christian Sørensen .

“Based on this, the board has concluded that there is no basis for further operation. Efforts will now be made to find the best possible solutions for all our employees, customers and creditors," Lund said.

High hopes for future RAS projects dashed by financial pressures

The company was founded by the Sørensen family in 1986, who later sold a major stake in the company in 2022 to Norwegian investment companies Havbruksparken Utvikling AS and Okapi Salmon, representing three Norwegian families "with significant and long-standing interests in the aqauculture industry", Billund said at the time: the Refsnes family, which owns part of the salmon producer Refsnes Laks and is the founder of Columbi Salmon; the Lofsnæs family, which also owns the salmon producer Bjørøya; and the Rasmussen family, which also has major investments in real estate and the software industry.

However, despite Billund Aquaculture's hopes for significant growth, and involvement in high profile projects such as Pacifico Aquaculture's striped bass nursery in Mexico , the financial pressures on the company left it unable to continue.

“The company deeply regrets having to take the decision but, unfortunately, there are no other options,” said Billund Chairman, Jon Refsnes .

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