Land-based aquaculture involves farming fish and shrimp in contained tanks or ponds by pumping in water. It is usually characterized by significant land use, high water consumption and low productivity.
AquaLifeNet has developed a system of free-standing fish tanks and mini-RAS biological filters that make intensive land-based fish farming possible even in places where land and water are scarce. By filtering the water to remove pollutants and oxygenate the tanks, we can increase fish production by 50% or more, and by recycling the water, we can reduce the need for large quantities of flowing water and cut input costs.
The water in fish and shrimp farms typically becomes rapidly polluted with the ammonia that fish and shrimp excrete, which builds up toxicity in the water. Biofishency’s Mini-RAS (Recirculation Aquaculture System) is powerful enough to cleanse the water in multiple ponds with a combined capacity of up to 500 tons of fish. It acts as a mechanical filter, enriches atmospheric O2, and removes CO2, ammonia nitrates and other pollutants. This makes it possible for farmers to grow more fish in a smaller volume of water.
For example, during three years of trials at the Dor Research Station in Northern Israel, ponds with Biofishency filters produced more than twice the volume of fish than ponds without these filters. This water recycling and enrichment technology enabled production of 44 kg of bass per cubic meter of water and reduced the farm’s daily water consumption by 85%. It is the key to successful intensive land-based aquaculture.
One of the other advantages of the AquaLifeNet system of intensive community fish farms is its low investment cost. It is usually possible to utilize the existing aquaculture infrastructure and simply upgrade the RAS system to the more efficient Biofishency module. This filtration system is currently being used with great success in Denmark, Bangladesh, India, the Congo, and throughout Israel, where water-efficient aquaculture is being actively pioneered.