Consultation: Farm Setup Info: Consulting Service

Consulting Service Mike Sipe is available to consult on FARM SETUP, or redesigning an existing farm for improved production or breeding of Tilapia. The cost for the first day as a walking visit $1,000 and subsequent days can be negotiated, according to the total number of days. Anyone who cannot afford this amount please call and discuss it with me. (386)454-2016 or (386)266-8981 Other Subjects which can be covered include: Oxygen management Pure oxygen use Ozone use Tilapia breeding Tilapia genetics for all male production Pond breeding Cage breeding Cage growing Intensive culture Semi-intensive culture Indoor hobby culture For a one week (5 days) consultation, the fee for the first day will be $1000. Subsequent days will be negotiated and the final cost will depend on an agreement on mutual goals for the consultation. The consultation fee will include a certificate for one-half of the total price which can be used to purchase any breeder packages or consultation packages. I will also be available to teach hands-on courses for the purpose of improving Tilapia Production, which are offered here in Florida by mutual agreement. All courses are currently available. Plans to teach a course on how to handle the elements of an intensive production system exist for the near future. For those of you that are interested in building a system, this course can save you a lot of money and allow you to gain the detailed knowledge necessary to build a functional intensive system that works This course will include the furnishing of: One set of Blueprints that show the details for construction of an intensive System with production rights included............................................$25,000 construction of an intensive System with production rights not included........................................$10,000 I plan to teach the course on how to build an intensive system here at my farm in Florida, using my knowledge and experience of the intensive systems that I have helped build in the past. In return for $25,000 I agree: to furnish blue prints to build and help to start up an intensive tank capable of producing 50,000 to 100,000 pounds of hybrid tilapia annually. Provide a license to produce and grow the f-1 hybrid pennyfish to market size and to market them under whichever trademark is agreed to. I will share as much of my knowledge about any changes that need to be made based on solving problems encountered in the building and running of any of the previous systems I have been involved in. In other words we will focus on how to make the tank do what it is designed to do and to provide the licensing and the technical, consulting to you or your contractor needed to build a tank using this design.  The actual goal is to provide good quality water that is well oxygenated for each cubic foot of growing space provided by the intensive growing system. Doing a feasibility study at your site in the United States or out of the US will cost $5000.00 per week, plus transportation cost. Expenses include housing and a "per diem" fee of $250 a day per person to cover other expenses. Feasibility studys which include Gathering of appropriate information for the preparation of spread sheets to estimate cost/benefit analysis of your expenditures at various levels and running analysis will cost $10,000 plus $50 per cost/return evaluation. Creation of a purchasing list that includes all of the needed hardware: pumps, air blowers, oxygen separation systems, valves, monitors, etc. ($5,000.00 + expenses) Plans for organization of the construction activities ($5,000.00 + expenses) Plans for construction of a hatchery capable of producing 5,000 fingerlings a week for stocking the tank ($3000.00 + expenses) Each of the above cost if added together, comes to a total of $28,000 plus expenses or more and so, it should run around $30,000 to $35,000 to get the whole job done, if you elect to do each part of the program seperatly. We will contract to deliver the TOTAL PACKAGE including all of the above for $25,000 plus expenses and per diem. Anyone who wants to schedul a visit to my farm and sign up take a course should call me at 356 454 8445 or on my cell phone at 941 545 7649. Please leave a message with a phone number and time to call. You will need to contact me to schedule one or more of the student slots for this course. SPECIAL COURSE DESIGN: FOR THOSE WHO WANT TO FOCUS ON A PARTICULARE AREA OF AQUACULTURE I AM WILLING TO SIT WITH YOU AND DESIGN A COURSE THAT WILL HELP TO GIVE YOU THE SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE YOU WANT. AQUAPONICS: IS DESCRIBED AS THE MERGING OF AQUACULTURE WITH HYDROPONICS. TO PRACTICE AQUAPONICS, KNOWLEDGE MUST BE GAINED ON HOW TO FEED FISH AND KEEP THE WATER QUALITY HIGH WHILE KEEPING THE FISH HEALTHY AND WELL FED. We must learn how ALLOW THE PLANTS to REMOVE THE CORRECT amount NUTRIENTS and how to add to these nutrients the exact amount of balancing nutrients so that THE SYSTEM will SUPPORT good GROWTH of the PLANTS AND VEGETABLES while providing CLEANER WATER to flow BACK TO THE FISH SO THEY also KEEP GROWING WELL. WHEN THESE TWO SKILLS ARE COMBINED we will HAVE THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS One little appreciated fact that I have found to be true with aquaponic systems is that a system that is carrying and feeding properly 2 pounds or more per cubic foot of total tilapia biomass will easily supply nutrients to grow 2 to 3 times the square footage devoted to growing the fish. This means that if you have a controlled system of intensive culture that is capable of producing 3 per cubic foot or more of hybrid tilapia the nutrients given off by the fish in this system will easily support the growth of 2 or 3 pounds of marketable plants that can be grown in an area that is only three times the size of the fish production area. This is assuming that there is at least 3 feet of water depth in the fish production area. Thus, using our fish to provide fertilizer and nutrients FOR OUR PLANTS being sure to harvest FISH AND VEGETABLES IN SUFFICIENT QUANTITIES We can FEED OURSELVES a well balanced diet AT LOWER COST than with any other known method. If you are interested in having the experience of taking a course, call me to discuss your interest to take the course; I am willing to make financial arrangements with you if necessary to allow you to come take the course. Each participant of this special course will receive a credit of 50% of all of their fees as a Useable certificate which can be used as a 50% payment for any purchase of breeders. This means that when you are done you will, with my help, have both the knowledge and the breeders to pursue building and running an intensive tank to grow tilapia. The tanks that we design and furnish the blueprints to build will allow you to stock up to 80,000 tilapia and to grow them to produce up to 100 metric tons a year. We encourage you to produce between 4,000 and 4,500 fingerlings a week and grow them to between 3/4th of an ounce and 60 grams each before stocking them in the growing tank. After 16 weeks of growth, under proper conditions, these fingerlings will be averaging 1.25 pounds each. Please call me at (386) 454-2016 and be sure to read my book at http://www.cherrysnapper.com/The+Story/0.html to understand a little of what I have gone through to develop this growing system. You can also read the Hatchery Manual (pdf format) to gain a better understanding of the level of information provided as you consider becoming involved in aquaculture.    Hatchery Manual - PDF format 966202 bytes Sincerely, Mike Sipe President & Research Director

 

Consultation: Farm Setup Info: Intensive Culture

Intensive Culture CONSULTATION SERVICES cover the installation & guidelines AND contract for right to use this this growing system as it was designed to operate. We consult to make sure the operator understands our specific process of pond and tank construction and operation, known as the Cherry Snapper® Intensive System. CONSULTATION PACKAGE -for Hands on Training Program at our facility on how to choose the breeders and set up breeding programs to produce f-1 hybrids that are all male and grow uniformly from 10 grams to 1,000 grams in 10 months. PRICE = $5,000.00 FOR TRAINING PROGRAM NOT INCLUDING HOUSING. Time Required: Approximatly one week (5 days of class work 5 class & Lab hours a day. These pictures show some of the layout of the intensive tank. The BIOFILTRATION SYSTEM is to the LEFT between where I am facing and the other gentleman who is facing me. THE GROWING AREA for the fish is just to THE right and goes down to the curve seen at the far end of the tank and turns at the curve and comes back to the wall where The gentleman in the orange shirt is standing. The center wall simply seperates the right half of the race-way from the left half. This causes the water to travel to the end of the tank go around the curve and return to next to where it started thus creating inexpensive water movement throughout the tank. The treated water (now cleaned up and reoxygenated to over 100 grams per cubic meter,) by the U-tube enters from a point to the right at the bottom of the purging tank and travels the length of the tank and back and then enters the biofilter area from the bottom just below the standing gentleman. The water then enters the bottom of each of the four chambers of THE BIOFILTER and is thus divided into four sections each of which travels up though the biofilter at a very slow rate (which allows the sedimentation of particulates into the underwater tubes which transport it out of the tank) and spills over just in front of the seated man. This allows a total area where the water makes contact with the biofilter on over 65,000 square feet of biocontact with the bacteria. Ceramic beads can be added in bags on top of the chambers so that the water is forced to come through them and can add an additional 64,000 square feet of biocontact. Just behind the man can be seen an aluminum rod that is attached to a stainless steel slide that allows Each of the chambers to be shut down individually and cleaned so that only a fourth of the total biofiltration are is down for cleaning for one day each week. From there the water is sucked into the pump and oxygen is added in the U-tube and the water is brought up to 100 to 200 parts per million before being pumped back into the system just in front of the purging tank. This photograph shows the four biofilter entries. Each entry has a sliding door in front that can be closed by dropping the control rod that is show sticking up just in front of where the man in the orange shirt is standing. Each chamber has biofilter material set on blocks inside the chamber and held up off the bottom by 2 x 4 s running the length of the chamber. The biofilter material fills each chamber and the water must go through the material to spill over into the area where the pump sucks it up and sends it down the u-tube where it is oxygenated. Just inside of each chamber there is a 6 inch pipe cut in half and cemented in that runs the length of each filter. THE "D" ENDED TANK: This is a picture of a Cherry Snapper® Intensive System. The tank is 110 feet long and consist of a 10 foot wide chamber that goes from the left foreground and goes all the way to the right and curves around to go back to the other end. The total width then is 20 feet when the raceway doubles back and extends to the biofilter area.   The taking of a straight raceway and bending it more or less in the middle so it curves back on itself so the water ends up after traversing the tank virtually adjacent to the original entry point allows for the use of a high volume low pressure pump to move all of the water around the system with less energy. When this configuration is viewed from above it can be seen that a "D" is created and so that is why it is called a "D" ended tank. A solids movement system is built into the concrete floor of the tank and pushes any solid waste that falls to the floor around in into the biofilter chambers where it is removed. The tank ends where the bio-filtration and re-oxygenation occur. That is the four parallel chambers seen on the upper left. The water then leaves these chambers having dropped all of the solid waste and having been biofiltered through the media and scrubbed of co2, and is pumped into the re-oxygenation chamber. From the re-oxygenation chamber the water is then re-injected into the raceway with a dissolved oxygen level of 100-200 parts per million, below the surface so it will mix quickly with water already in the tank. The oxygen is furnished from a pure source of oxygen, either pure oxygen delivered as a liquid or relativelly pure oxygen from a seperator system such as those made by Airsep. This 95-100% oxygen can be dissolved by the special equipment known as a U-tube that requires very little energy to dissolve the oxygen. A 100 foot u-tube can deliver water to the entry point of the growing tank at levels of 100+ parts per million to 200+ parts per million of dissolved oxygen. The entire system runs on 7-10 kilowatts per hour and produces up to two metric tons a week of hybrid tilapia. Most of the water is re-circulated. By delivering water with 100-200 grams of dissolved oxygen per cubic meter of water significant progress can be made toward having total control over the safety and growth of the fish in the system. The market size fish are harvested each week by moving a special grader system around from the bio-filter around the right side then back up to the front left. The tank at the front left is the purging tank, and fish that remain in the grader area are picked up and moved into the purging area. These harvest size fish are lifted over the wall into the purging tank and kept in clean pure spring water with no feeding for 7 days. Test have shown that no body weight is lost during this period except for fat which surrounds the gut, the purged Hybrid tilapia are then taken lifted out and taken to processing.