Need assistance with wildlife and fish management on your ranch, backyard, or pond? Simply call your local County Extension Agent.
Traditional aquaculture production in ponds requires large quantities of water. Approximately 1 million gallons of water per acre are required to fill a pond and an equivalent volume is required to compensate for evaporation and seepage during the year. Assuming an annual pond yield of 5,000 pounds of fish per acre, approximately 100 gallons of water are required per pound of fish production. In many areas of the United States, traditional aquaculture in ponds is not possible because of limited water supplies or an absence of suitable land for pond construction. Recirculating aquaculture production systems may offer an alternative to pond aquaculture technology. Through water treatment and reuse, recirculating systems use a fraction of the water required by ponds to produce similar yields. Because recirculating systems usually use tanks for aquaculture production, substantially less land is required.
-SRAC Publication No. 451, Recirculation Aquaculture Tank Production Systems – An Overview of Critical Considerations
