AirOxi® Spider – a versatile aeration device for shrimp farming

 

Shrimp farming is a very complex aquaculture system. The common shrimps farmed in India are:

·        Pacific white shrimp (L vannamei or P vannamei)

·        Giant tiger prawn (P. monodon)

 

Shrimps respond immediately to changes in dissolved oxygen levels

 

Although shrimps are scavengers and will eat almost anything, the farmed species are very sensitive to environment factors and micro- organisms. They are very susceptible to viral and bacterial infection, unlike the native fish which are a lot more resistant and hence easier to manage in a farm environment.

Even within the 2 major species farmed in India, L Vannamei is the more common species and they are very susceptible to the smallest changes in the environment like temperature, salinity, pH, stocking density, dissolved oxygen ammonia, salinity, etc.

Like all aquatic animals, the dissolved oxygen (DO) levels in the water have the highest impact on survival, immunity and growth of shrimps. Their entire metabolism changes in the presence of sufficient DO.

All other parameters remaining same, when proper dissolved is made available, feeding becomes better and faster. In shrimp farms, the difference in feeding time has been observed to reduce from 45 minutes to 10 minutes for the same amount of feed. This shows a huge difference in the health and growth of the shrimps.

 Types of aeration for shrimp culture

 There are many ways to provide aeration in an aquaculture farm. But the basic principle is the same – mix air and water together and this will dissolve some oxygen in the water.

take in air or oxygen and pass it through.

The paddle wheel aerators do it by splashing water in the air and this causes the droplets to dissolves some oxygen in the droplets as the come down. However these drops of water are very large and the surface area available is very less so the volume of oxygen that dissolves is very less

Submersible aerators like jet aerators are the other way to aerate shrimp and fish ponds. These suck in air from the atmosphere and pass it at high speed just below the surface of the water. The AirOXi®    Squid and AirOxi®    Scorpion are examples of this. These are better than paddle wheel aerators but still the velocity of air is so fast that the time available for oxygen to dissolve in the water

To get a proper exchange of air with water, and hence proper dissolution of oxygen, there are 3 things that are needed

-        Slow speed of air in water to increase time of air in the water

-        Small bubbles to increase surface area available for dissolution

-        Long distance of travel by the bubbles in the water so time available is longer

Aeration tubes are designed so that the bubble size is small and some special aeration tubes are designed so that pressure is low and the tubes work well with both, root blower and ring blower.
The aeration tubes like AirOxi®   are also designed so that they reduce the pressure and velocity of air coming from the blower, and so the bubbles rise up at a slow speed.

And finally to ensure that the distance is long enough to dissolve more oxygen, the aeration tubes must be installed near the bottom of the pond, ideally not more than 15 inches above the pond bottom.

The AirOxi®   Spider is a ready to use self sinking aeration device that is only 5 inches high and is very easy to assemble and use. It has one inlet of 0.5 inch and 6 outlets of 0.5 inch

These outlets are designed so that the high velocity and high pressure of air from the blower is divided properly and reduces the speed of bubbles in the water, and also breaks them into smaller very fine bubbles.

All these 3 conditions for good aeration in shrimp aquaculture ponds are met when one uses the AirOxi®  Spider. However if any shrimp farmer wishes to change the height of the AirOxi®   Spider, the lid is reversible and that will add another 2 inches to the height. More height can be added by tying the box of the spider with concrete blocks.

The box is hollow and weight can be put in it as per the water depth and buoyancy.

However if any farm requires customized height adjustment, then they can use just the 6 way of the self sinking aeration device and use any wooden stick to attach the tubes to this 6 way connector

AirOxi®  spider is very versatile

-        Any type and size of aeration tube with inside hole of 0.5 inch / 16 mm can be attached to it

-        The length of aeration tube that can be used with it can be changed from 1 mtr to 3 mtrs

-        The weight that is filled inside the empty Spider box can be changed as required

-        The height at which the aeration tubes are releasing air can be changed as needed

-        The pressure and velocity of air can be changed as required – slow air for high aeration, and fast air for high movement of water

-        This self sinking aeration device can be installed in any type of pond – nursery, growout, biofloc / BFT or  RAS

-        It can be installed in any type of water body – mud bottom pond, PE lined, Cement tanks, HDPE tanks, Fibre tanks.

-        The AirOxi ®  Spider will work with any blower – Diaphragm Air Pump, Ring blower, Two stage ring blower or Root blower

This versatility, ease of use and ease of assembly makes AirOXi (R)  Spider one of the best aeration devices available for aquaculture today.

You can visit the manufacturers website for more inforamtion and even buy it directly from their website

 

AirOxi is a registered trademark

 To know more call us at:

+91 – 9652122060

Email: marketing.airoxitube@gmail.com

           info@airoxi.com

           www.buy.airoxi.com