Superior Aquaculture Floating Raceways reported “ice-free all winter, after a real, old-fashioned winter” in Minnesota. While other clients using Superior Raceways in other far north environments such as northern Wisconsin, northern Ontario, and Alberta, Canada for numerous years have reported no problems with winter ice, this is the first winter that the 60,000 gal units have been “ice-free all winter”.
Super High Intensity Aquaculture Airlift
This is also the first client- reported winter test of the 60,000 gallon raceways utilizing the new Superior HDPE Rectangular Airlift™.
Interestingly, the ice-free conditions were maintained with the airlifts extending only 4 feet below the water’s surface. Thus, the results are attributable strictly to the exceptionally high flow capacity of the new airlifts. (Approximately 1 hp./raceway.) Extending the airlifts’ chutes downward can achieve additional and significant surface water temperature mediation by drawing from > 20 ft. down – in both winter and in summer.
Believed to be the most efficient water-moving airlifts manufactured today, Superior’s HDPE Rectangular Airlift™ designs are university-reported to create flow rates of about 3,300 gpm/hp. In comparison, research from the U.S.D.A.’s Aquaculture Research Service Annual Report (2011) reports on a (then) new “Active Invention” (Docket No: U0110.11) that involves injection of O2 at depths of about 20 feet to achieve exceptional aeration, but “water flow rates of (only) 1,075-1,831 gpm/hp” – which the report also suggests is better than the common paddlewheel aerators found in many catfish ponds.
The significance of this new technological advance in airlifts will have massive, positive impacts on fish health, water quality, economics, and all aspects of aquaculture.