Riverina Aquaculture Murray Cod Farm Overview

Recirculating Aquaculture Facility / Dam site

Location: 34°15'51.75" S 146°08'45.19" E

Design – Paul Van der Werf Ph: 0439 468 201

The proposed recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) is to be located at 34°15'51.75" S 146°08'45.19" E

just outside of Griffith NSW, Australia. The farm currently grows Murray Cod in net cages in a farm dam.

This facility is to provide up to three cohorts of Murray Cod of 60,000 each (a total of 180,000 x 100

gram fish for further grow out to 1200 grams each in net caged pond systems on the property.

Waste Water/ Recycle Dam

Proposed 5 additional dams

The design parameters for the proposed farm are based on the following species requirements

Water Quality Parameters UOM Design Range

Temperature Celsius 24 3-30

Elevation above Sea Level Meters 100 -

Dissolved Oxygen mg/L 5.0 >5.0

pH - 6.8 5.5-9.0

Ammonia-nitrogen mg/L 2.0 <3.0

Unionised Ammonia mg/L 0.01 <0.02

Nitrite-nitrogen mg/L 0.2 <0.5

Nitrate-nitrogen mg/L 200 <200

Total Hardness mg/L 300 <400

Alkalinity mg/L 100 <200

Carbon Dioxide mg/L 32 <40

Phosphorus mg/L 12 <13

Total Suspended Solids mg/L 10.0 <10

The draft biological plan for the recirculating aquaculture facility

The culture system draft of tank sizes and volumes

System production and consumption

Bio Plan UOM Nursery

Stage 1

Juvenile

Stage 2

Fingerling

Stage 3

Maximum culture density kg/m3 23 37 52

Size at Stocking grams 3.5 17 49

Size at Harvest grams 17.3 49 105

Maximum Feed Rate (% bw/day) 3.36% 2.05% 1.46%

Feed Protein Level % 52 50 50

Feed Phosphorous Level % 1.3 1.2 1.2

Number of Fish in System # 64,078 62,476 60,914

System Maximum Biomass at Harvest kg 1,110 3,037 6,371

Daily Maximum Feed Rate kg 37.3 63 95

Culture System Parameters UOM Nursery

Stage 1

Juvenile

Stage 2

Fingerling

Stage 3

Number of Tanks # 10.00 8.00 12.00

Tank Diameter Meters 2.38 3.45 3.45

Water Depth Meters 1.10 1.10 1.10

Tank Volume Liters 4,898 10,295 10,295

System Volume Liters 48,975 82,358 123,537

Tank Exchange for Self Cleaning Minutes 50 50 50

Oxgyen UOM Nursery

Stage 1

Juvenile

Stage 2

Fingerling

Stage 3

Oxygen Partial Pressure (at elevation) mmHg 155 155 155

System Partial Oxygen Pressure mmHg 90 90 90

Disolved Oxygen at saturation mg/L 8.3 8.3 8.3

Inlet DO mg/L 18.0 18.0 18.0

Outlet DO mg/L 4.8 4.8 4.8

DO Consumption Rate per kg of feed kg 0.50 0.50 0.50

Oxygen Demand per Day kg 18.6 31.5 47.3

Ozone Demand per Day kg 0.93 1.57 2.36

Nitrogen UOM Nursery

Stage 1

Juvenile

Stage 2

Fingerling

Stage 3

TAN Production Rate per kg of Feed kg 0.048 0.046 0.046

TAN Production Rate per Day kg 1.78 2.90 4.35

Passive Nitrification % 5.00 5.00 5.00

TAN available after Passive Nitrification kg 1.69 2.75 4.13

Passive Denitrification % 0 0 0

Draft System Design Parameters UOM Design

Flow Rate (for oxygen) lps 86

Flow Rate (for oxygen) lpm 5,138

Flow Rate (for oxygen) lph 308,278

Tank Volume Liters 254,871

Sump Volume Liters 25,487

Moving Bed Bio Reactor Media (840m2/m3) m3 24

Moving Bed Bio Reactor Volume Liters 38,535

Moving Bed Fill % 0.66

Moving Bed Depth Meters 3.00

Trickle Filter Volume (Divided by 2) m3 11

Culture System Retention time Minutes 50

Water Exchange per Day (for Solids) Liters 48,698

Water Exchange per Day (for Solids) % 19.11%

Feed per day kg 194.8

Nitrogen per Day kg 8.58

Phosphorous per Day kg 0.24

Carbon Dioxide per Day kg 134

Solids per Day kg 48.7

Design water flow rates and discharge water for irrigation

The draft system design

parameters are an estimate

based on mass balance

equations and information

at hand on intensive culture

of Murray cod. These details

may change slightly as the

final design formula is

worked up.

Sensitivity to feed

conversion rate, daily feed

rate and survival rates.

Phosphorous UOM Nursery

Stage 1

Juvenile

Stage 2

Fingerling

Stage 3

Feed Phosphorous Level % 1.3 1.2 1.2

Phosphorous Assimilated by Fish % 0.45 0.45 0.45

Phosphorous Production per kg of Feed grams 1.296 1.196 1.196

Total Phosphorous per day kg 0.048 0.075 0.113

Phosphorous Removal Rate % 0.0 0 0

Carbon Dioxide UOM Nursery

Stage 1

Juvenile

Stage 2

Fingerling

Stage 3

CO2 Production Rate per kg Feed kg 0.69 0.69 0.69

CO2 Production per Hour kg 1.07 1.80 2.71

CO2 Production per Day kg 25.62 43.29 65.01

Solids UOM Nursery

Stage 1

Juvenile

Stage 2

Fingerling

Stage 3

TSS Production Rate per kg of Feed kg 0.25 0.25 0.25

Solids Production per Day kg 9.3 15.7 23.6

Volume per Day Liters 9,315 15,742 23,641

Solids Removal Efficiency % 90 90 90

Water Flow Rates

Flow Required based on Tank Exchange

Reuse Flow Required based on DO

Reuse Flow Required based on TAN

Reuse Flow Required based on CO2

Reuse Flow Required based on TSS

Waste Flow Required for Phosphorous

Waste Flow Required for Nitrate

Proposed Shed Site and Statement of Construction

The Proposed shed is to be of a steel construction with a 10 degree pitched web truss roof with

universal beam columns (posts) of steel construction and a concrete floor. The shed and slab will be

built in accordance with council building codes and regulations to fully engineered specifications.

Colorbond will be used on the shed walls and roof to minimize impact on the local community. The shed

will be 18m x 60m as shown on the attached site plans and will contain machinery and tanks required in

the raising of fish. The Shed will be 4m high to the eves with total shed height of 5.5m to the top of the

roof. Internal walls will be constructed of steel as well with the office and lab walls consisting of timber

and plaster stud design.

Proposed Dam Site

The site already contains one preexisting aquaculture dam growing murray cod in cages.

It is proposed to increase this to a total of 6 dams operating under the same cage systems we are

currently using.

Of these 6 production dams only 4 will be in production at any one time. This gives us two dry dams or

30% of our production volume to use for emergency water storage should they be needed.

Each dam will have a water surface area of 4390m2 or 66.25m x 66.25m and hold approximately 12

megs of water. It is assumed from figures gained from our initial dam in stage 1 of the development that

production will be around 18t of murray cod per year from each dam giving an annual production from

the whole farm of approximately 72 t.

The dams will require at least two complete water changes per year to maintain water quality and fish

health. This means we need a minimum of 96 megs of water annually at full production. This will be

supplied via our 205 meg general security irrigation license and will supplement our normal irrigation

cropping program.

Any water used in the dams will be held on farm and used for irrigation purposes growing both summer

and winter crops.

Water will be pumped from the internal supply channel into a 300mm PVC Pipe that supplies each dam

through individual valves. Similar pipe will be used to drain the dams supplying water to a raised channel

that runs back to the top of the farm and allows water to be flooded onto the paddocks for irrigation

any irrigation runoff can be caught in our 5 meg drainage/recirculation dam which can then be pumped

back for further irrigation. This drainage dam is 150m long and 20m wide and 2.5m deep. At no time will

any water be allowed back into the Murrumbidgee Irrigation drainage system.

Dams can only be emptied by gravity back to natural ground level and the remaining water can be

pumped using our pinerise pump ensuring complete drainage into a small sump constructed in one side

of the dam base.

This will be essential as it is anticipated to get around 4 years of production out of a dam before it will be

required to drain and dry it out and remove any trash fish and built up organic matter swapping

production to another dam.