BOURANI

Historically, land based aquaculture involved creating a mini-lake or a mini-ocean using soil and liners.  The system depended on pumping large amounts of new, clean water through the ponds to rinse out shrimp or fish waste.  But if the incoming water became polluted, either by other farmers or other water users, the crop was at risk.  Further, the discharge of nutrient rich water was increasingly viewed as irresponsible and unsustainable.

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Over the years, engineering improvements resulted in equipment that allowed for aquaculture wastewater to be filtered, treated and re-used over and over again. The combined use of filters, settling tanks, sterilizers and ozonators form the basis of a Recirculating Aquaculture System (RAS).  A good filter system, combined with strong aeration or pure oxygen injection, can sometimes allow very high density culture if the target species is compatible for that.