Feed trial facility installed at Tasmanian salmon hatchery
Australian aquaculture supplier Fresh by Design has completed a salmonid feed trial facility for Tasmanian salmon farmer Petuna Aquaculture.
The facility at Petuna’s Cressy Hatchery is a collaboration between Petuna and feed manufacturers BioMar and Skretting and will be used to trial salmonid diets using the same water, fish, and staff that Petuna use in their commercial runs, enabling real world testing.
Fresh by Design said in a social media post that this represents an exciting opportunity for the Tasmanian aquaculture industry to have further refinement of commercial diets tailored to local conditions and practices.
The feed trial facility includes the ability to run 18 x 1,000-litre tanks on flow through. Each tank features an automatic feeder with individual dosing control.
Emergency oxygen
In addition, each tank has air diffusers for normal conditions with an emergency oxygen dosing system that will supply oxygen to each tank in the event of a low dissolved oxygen (DO) reading or power failure.
The system is monitored and controlled via a unit that measures parameters including DO, temperature, and sump water level.
Water exiting the facility is returned to Petuna’s larger recirculation system where the water is filtered then reused. Water return is managed using an automated set-and-forget system that self-adjusts to changing water flow rates.
Fresh by Design, which has several locations across Australia and New Zealand including a head office in Moss Vale, New South Wales, a projects officed based in Hobart, Tasmania, and a New Zealand office in Nelson, recently signed a deal to become the Asia Pacific region distributor for Dundee-based technology supplier Ace Aquatec.
