STANDARDIZED URBAN FISH FARMING

The SEAWATER Cube is the world’s first com­pact, plug-and-play aquacul­tu­re sys­tem. The tech­no­lo­gy is housed in four ship­ping con­tai­ners on a flo­or space of only around 250 m² (inclu­ding mano­eu­vring area). This makes the sys­tem per­fect­ly sui­ta­ble for food pro­duc­tion in urban are­as whe­re space is limi­t­ed. We pre-assem­ble the Cube in series pro­duc­tion and con­nect it at the cus­to­mers site in just a few steps to form an ope­ra­tio­nal unit. Mecha­ni­cal and bio­lo­gi­cal fil­ters recy­cle 99% of the water within the sys­tem and remo­ve any was­te wit­hout lea­ving  resi­dues. This helps con­ser­ving natu­ral resour­ces and the fish gro­wing up under the best con­di­ti­ons. Our Cube enables an annu­al pro­duc­tion of around 7.8 tons of fish.

ATTRACTIVE FISH SPECIES

Our farm is spe­cia­li­zed for gro­wing salt­wa­ter fish. This is tech­no­lo­gi­cal­ly more com­plex than the aquacul­tu­re of freshwa­ter fish. With our sys­tem, we are among the pio­neers in the field of mari­ne, land-based fish far­ming and see a very lar­ge mar­ket poten­ti­al in mari­ne fish. Sea fish is often pro­ces­sed in the gas­tro­no­my and due to the tasty meat and the ele­gant optics, the dif­fe­rent types are par­ti­cu­lar­ly popu­lar with con­su­mers. For each type of fish, the sys­tem has to be set up indi­vi­du­al­ly to the appro­pria­te para­me­ters for the ani­mal (e.g. water tem­pe­ra­tu­re, salt con­tent, sto­cking den­si­ty). It is the­r­e­fo­re dif­fi­cult to give gene­ral state­ments about pro­duc­tion quan­ti­ties, ope­ra­ting cos­ts, etc. across all fish spe­ci­es. We would be hap­py to dis­cuss spe­ci­fic sce­na­ri­os in per­so­nal with you.

Digitized plant operation

The built-in con­trol soft­ware redu­ces the workload in the pro­duc­tion to approx. 8 hours per week. All fish know­ledge is stored in the auto­ma­ti­on so that the ope­ra­tor acts more in a con­trol­ling than a regu­la­ting man­ner. For exam­p­le, the Cube knows when it is time to feed the fishes and how much they need. This infor­ma­ti­on will be given to the feed dis­pen­sers and the ope­ra­tor its­elf only has to fill them up regu­lar­ly. In addi­ti­on, all important water para­me­ters are recor­ded with the help of various sen­sors and are dis­play­ed on the con­trol panel. In case of devia­ti­ons, the sys­tem knows how to coun­ter­act. The cour­se of the values ​​can be view­ed via graphs. The­re is also an app for the mobi­le pho­ne, so that access to the data and con­trol of the sys­tem are also pos­si­ble from home or on the go. In addi­ti­on, the sys­tem can be acces­sed remo­te­ly, so that we can actively sup­port you with ques­ti­ons or problems.

We have lis­ted the most important steps in sys­tem ope­ra­ti­on below.

CONTINUOUS PRODUCTION

Con­ti­nuous pro­duc­tion is achie­ved through our cohort model. The pro­duc­tion tank is divi­ded into basin are­as of dif­fe­rent sizes or age groups (the cohorts). The are­as are sepa­ra­ted by nets. The fishes have their mar­ket size at around 350 to 400 grams and reach this after eight to twel­ve months. From this results a sto­cking plan in which the ani­mals spend four months in each cohort. In con­trast to the „in-and-out pro­cess“, this means that the enti­re pro­duc­tion volu­me does not have to be sold at once, but can be fished per­ma­nent­ly accor­ding to demand. If the basin of the mar­ket-rea­dy fish is emp­ty, the fol­lo­wing age groups are each moved one sec­tion fur­ther and the first area is re-sto­cked with young fish (seed­lings).

ALL IN ONE: HARDWARE, SOFTWARE & SUPPORT

After the plant has been com­mis­sio­ned, the real work beg­ins. It is important for us not to lea­ve the cus­to­mer alo­ne, but to do our part to ensu­re that our ope­ra­tors are suc­cessful. In order to ensu­re smooth ope­ra­ti­ons, we con­clude a ser­vice con­tract when sel­ling the sys­tem. This includes regu­lar tech­ni­cal main­ten­an­ce of cri­ti­cal sys­tem com­pon­ents, the repla­ce­ment of cer­tain wear parts as well as a 24-hour avai­la­bi­li­ty by pho­ne and remo­te main­ten­an­ce in the case of tech­ni­cal challenges.