Aquaculture calculators

Estimate working water volume for a rectangular pond, raceway or RAS tank. Volume drives stocking density, oxygen sizing, water-treatment turnover and daily exchange — every downstream aquaculture number depends on this one.

Total standing biomass (kg of live fish or shrimp) is the master input for oxygen demand, feed load, water-treatment capacity and stocking density. Use a fresh sample weight × surviving count for both finfish and vannamei shrimp systems.

Stocking density (kg per m³ of water) is the single biggest driver of oxygen risk, disease pressure and water-treatment load. RAS tolerates the highest density; ponds and cages the lowest. Overstocking crashes dissolved oxygen before it shows in growth data.

Dissolved oxygen (DO) demand scales with biomass, species and water temperature. Aeration, LRP oxygen cones and pure-O₂ injection for RAS or intensive shrimp ponds must exceed peak demand — typically 2–4 hours after feeding — plus a 50% safety margin for warm-water events and power failure recovery.

FCR = feed given ÷ weight gained. Lower is better. It is the single biggest driver of farm profitability.

Specific Growth Rate (SGR) is the daily % weight gain. Use it to estimate days from stocking to market-size harvest.

Daily water exchange controls waste dilution, nitrogen load and overall water-quality stability. Recirculating aquaculture (RAS) turns the full system volume over 4–24 times per day through mechanical and biological water treatment; earthen ponds exchange 5–20% per day; shrimp biofloc systems often run near zero exchange.

Quick per-cycle P&L: revenue at farmgate minus feed cost. Add fingerling, energy, labor and financing separately for full net.

Bank-ready snapshot: payback years, annual ROI% and simple 5-year return. Pair with the RAS / project cost calculator for CAPEX.

Pump selection is defined by required flow (m³/h) and total dynamic head (m). Undersized pumps starve biofilters and DO; oversized pumps waste energy and shear fish. Use this to pre-size a RAS recirculation loop, pond intake or cage top-up before contacting suppliers.

Biofilter capacity in a RAS is driven by daily feed load and the ammonia produced per kg of feed (~30 g TAN / kg feed at 45% protein). Media volume is sized to the nitrification rate of the chosen biomedia (typically 0.3–0.7 g TAN / m² / day, or 150–400 g TAN / m³ media / day for K1/K3).

Whiteleg shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei) farming economics come down to stocking density (PL/m²), survival, average harvest weight and FCR. This tool models yield, feed load and gross margin per cycle for semi-intensive, intensive and biofloc systems — matching what our sourcing engine uses to pre-qualify projects.

Recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) are sized around standing biomass, feed load and target density. This tool derives system volume, daily make-up water, TAN production, MBBR biofilter volume and oxygen demand — the five numbers every RAS engineer starts with.

Feed is 40–60% of aquaculture OPEX. This tool converts production tonnage, FCR and feed price into annual feed load, feed cost and feed cost per kg of fish or shrimp produced — the ratios that decide farm profitability.

Circular tanks are the workhorse of RAS, hatcheries and shrimp nursery systems. Working volume drives oxygen sizing, biofilter load and turnover — get this right before sizing pumps or filtration.

Solar PV cuts pumping, aeration and RAS energy bills 30–90% on well-sited farms. This tool estimates annual generation, energy savings, payback years and 10-year ROI from CAPEX, irradiance and grid tariff.

Purpose-built for solar-hybrid aquaculture: enter your daily load profile, required battery autonomy, grid tariff and diesel assumptions. The tool sizes PV + battery, computes annual grid + diesel savings and returns simple payback and 10-year ROI.

Solar-direct or hybrid pumps need a PV array sized to deliver the daily volume against total dynamic head (TDH). This tool converts flow × head into required kWh/day and PV kWp using pump and system efficiency.

Aquaculture critical loads — oxygenation, biofilter pumps, alarms — cannot tolerate outages. This tool sizes an LFP battery bank in kWh from critical-load kW, autonomy hours and depth-of-discharge (DoD).

OPEX drives profitability more than CAPEX for most farms. This tool sums the major operating costs — feed, electricity, labor, fingerlings, water and maintenance — and expresses the total as $/month and $/kg produced.

Every backup-power design starts from the same question: how many kW does the farm actually consume — and how many of those kW are critical (life-support) versus non-critical (lights, offices, processing)? This tool sums the main aquaculture loads so you can size a generator, UPS or solar-hybrid system correctly.

This tool sizes a prime or standby generator for aquaculture from the farm's critical kW load, applies motor-starting headroom and site derating (altitude, temperature), and estimates fuel burn and monthly fuel cost.

Rapid CAPEX for a commercial fish farm, shrimp farm, RAS plant or sea-cage project. Sizes total investment from target production, applies system-specific CAPEX/kg benchmarks, then breaks it into the six lines every bank wants: land & civil, process equipment, engineering & permitting, working capital, contingency and financing costs.

Investor-grade returns model for commercial aquaculture: annual EBITDA, payback, levered IRR estimate and Debt-Service Coverage Ratio (DSCR). Accounts for equity/debt split, interest, tax and a realistic 3-year ramp-up.

Energy is 8–25% of commercial aquaculture OPEX and is the single line most sensitive to design. This tool converts your connected kW load and tariff into annual kWh, annual $ and $/kg-fish so you can compare grid, solar-hybrid and diesel scenarios apples-to-apples.

Water permits are the #1 approval risk for commercial aquaculture. This tool converts system volume, exchange rate and evaporation into daily/annual make-up water and per-kg-fish intensity — the number regulators, banks and ESG auditors actually ask for.

Oxygen is life-support and typically 3–10% of commercial OPEX. This sizes total daily O₂ demand from steady-state biomass and species-specific respiration, then converts it into liquid oxygen (LOX) tonnage and annual cost at a delivered LOX price.

Feed is the single largest cost line in commercial aquaculture — 40–65% of OPEX. This sizes annual feed tonnage from harvest target, FCR and mortality, then converts to $/year and $/kg fish so you can benchmark suppliers and pre-negotiate volume contracts.

Sizes a processing plant from annual harvest input: daily throughput (t/day), gutted/HOG/filet yield, required headcount and indicative CAPEX. Use this before scoping equipment (grader, killing line, filet line, IQF).

Every commercial aquaculture project needs a chilled buffer (0–4 °C) plus a frozen store (–20 to –25 °C). This tool sizes room volume, pallet capacity, refrigeration load (kW), annual energy cost and indicative CAPEX so you can spec the cold-chain package before contacting suppliers.

Lender-side view of a commercial aquaculture loan: monthly and annual debt service, total interest paid, interest-during-construction (IDC) and the resulting DSCR at your projected EBITDA. Use before approaching a bank, EXIM agency or aquaculture-specialist fund.