One of the world’s largest purpose-built Chinook Salmon research facilities, delivered for Cawthron Institute’s new Finfish Research Centre (FRC) in Nelson, New Zealand. The FRC has 6 individual systems – four large feed trial systems and two smaller physiology systems – that can be run on either freshwater or seawater. The facility was designed to conduct Chinook Salmon research from fry through to harvest size, but can also be used for multiple fish species due to the flexibility in design. Each individual system has 8,000 L or 2,500 L bespoke fibreglass tanks with dual drains and swirl separators for waste collection and analysis. The project is the culmination of many years of working with Cawthron, which included supplying a smaller existing salmon research system and a scampi research system.
Water is mechanically filtered through a Faivre drum filter into an MBBR biofilter before cascading over a degasser into a level-sensor controlled sump. Return water to the tanks is supplied via VSD-driven Waterco pumps, Ultra Aqua UVs and FBD oxygen cones with FBD automatic dosing and emergency systems. Looping off the sumps are RK2 foam fractionators with ClearWater Tech ozone generators and Oasis heat pumps. Supporting incoming water treatment supplied by FBD included storage tanks, Waterco media filters, Ultra Aqua UVs, FSI bag filters and Grundfos demand pumps. Low pressure (LPSA) Oxymat oxygen generators were included for on-site oxygen supply to the FRC and the existing systems.
The stocking and feeding rates designed into the systems allow applied research under a range of commercial, variable conditions and have significantly increased Cawthron’s capacity to carry out finfish research. Chris Blake, FBD’s New Zealand manager based in Nelson, is providing post-project support.
