Modeling and implementing the use of aeration to increase water temperature and dissolved oxygen in greenhouse aquaculture cages

In this study, an unique bamboo floating cage was built in order to heat the water used for rearing Nile tilapia (Oreochromis mossambicus x O. niloticus) and climbing perch (Anabas testudineus, Bloch) in Northern Thailand during the colder rainy and winter seasons. This special greenhouse fish cage (SGFC) was covered with polyethylene to heat the surface air with solar energy, and insulated to prevent heat loss. The water temperature at depths of 0.1, 0.3 and 0.8 m was modeled and measured. In various trials, the cages were aerated with and without heated air from the surface. It was found that the thermal efficiency of the SGFC integrated with hot air aeration at a water depth of 0.80 m was 32.65 %. Throughout the day, the average water temperature was 31.82 ± 0.68 °C, which was 0.76 °C higher than the water temperature outside the experiment, and the amount of oxygen in the water of 11.35 ± 0.13 mg/l. The SGFC can produce one extra fish harvest per year when compared with regular fish cages. Development equations to describe the thermal model were used for predicting the water temperature in the SGFC and thus validating the model. Moreover, the economic analysis of the SGFC found that the payback period was one year, seven months and fourteen days.