Red Top Aquafarm
Starting in 1995 Aquagen designed a new state of the art recirculating aquaculture facility in Central California to raise largemouth and striped bass for the live fish markets in the SF Bay Area. The site chosen was a prior cogeneration facility and Aquagen used the local natural gas to generate power and heat the water for the fish farm. All water was recirculated 20 times and then discharged to irrigate orchards and vineyards.
Fish Farm Design
Our fish farm design was developed to optimize water quality using the least amount of fresh water possible. We also incorporated highly efficient oxygenation systems to achieve over 99% oxygen transfer to the water. All of our water treatment systems and fish tanks were constructed in house except for drum screen filters from Sweden. Each fish tank is monitored continuously for dissolved oxygen and power and oxygen flow rates are controlled by PLC. Each tank also has backup oxygen that automatically engages if a pump fails. After 25 years of operation, our systems are still performing well.
Fish and Almonds
10 years after constructing the fish farm, Aquagen purchased more property and expanded with a second facility and 200 acres of almonds. We have been farming almonds with our aquaculture discharge for 15 years using the same water for two crops, which has been an efficient use of water resources. At this time we also installed $1.2M in solar power generation at both facilities, moving away from natural gas to a cleaner energy source.