Building a Small Lobster Hatchery here in the Philippines

[jamesmusslewhite]

July 24, 2016 Weekly progress YouTube video # 7

 

 

[jamesmusslewhite]

   The drawing above was just a simple rough sketch to show the configuration and spacing. These are more detailed drawings. They only show five trays to a metal rack primarily so I could show more detail. If I had added the sixth wooden tray I would have to scale down the size so it would fit the F4 drawing paper I am using for my drawings as it works well with my small deck scanner. 

   The frame I will be building to hold the Stage IV larvae trays will be using is a much heavier box-iron frame. It actually has two additional middle supports which can be easily unbolted allowing the trays to be easily removed for regularly cleaning and maintenance. You will also note the cross-bracing being used on both ends of the rack to help prevent twisting which should help them to be a bit more ridged incase of a quake. As far as roof supports that I mentioned there us a heavy concrete beam overhead which will help in supporting the tops of the racks from tipping over. There will also be additional wooden beam supports added later once the racks are in place to insure their best placement.

 

 

   The two side middle brace will be bolted in place once the plywood trays have been put in place. The racks will be bolted to the concrete floor supports 

 

   The spacers in place and the plastic egg crate sheets added inside the plywood trays.

 

   The follow drawing shows the layout of the PVC spacers, water jet wands and all the aerator lines and air stones. The water jetting system will help properly distributing well oxygenated water through out the tray insuring each larvae has adequate water flow and aeration.  

 

 

Fresh Saltwater simply enters into the front of the tray and then will exits out the back of the tray. This spent water then is channeled into one of the connecting ground sumps where it is then pumped to the first of a series of three filtration stations and will also pass through 55watt inline UV sterilizers as it is cycled five times daily. This will insure all pathogens are neutralized helping to maintain the quality of the saltwater in the closed-system and maintain a healthy environment for the larvae.

 

The spent water collected in the sump tanks is pumped to the first tank which is then pumped through the protein skimmers and then through the sand filters before it passes through an inline 55watt UV light before being pumped back into the working tanks. From there it is all pretty much just wash, rinse and repeat.

 

[jamesmusslewhite]

The facility will house over 25,347 gallons (96,000 liters) of saltwater which require being circulated 5 times a day through filtration. All tanks will also require overflow piping routed to underground holding sumps to avoid over spillages, some tanks will need to be directly connected to other tanks. two tanks housing the breeding lobsters require small pumps to circulate the water within the tanks The spent water from five different working stations (larvae pots, Stage IV grow-out racks, Shrimp tanks, algae/brime shrimp tanks, and lobster holding tanks)  must be collected in various floor sumps and returned to be filtration. Each tank also must have a water release valve connect to the outside of the facility so tanks can be completely empties to be cleaned and sterilized between crops. The plumbing looks complicated in 2d drawings but will be quite simple. Sump tanks and tank overflow piping is all run underground, water circulation and routing for tanks is above ground either running along the tops of the tanks or the concrete center beam or along the sides using the roof beams, and aeration piping runs overhead utilizing the roof beams. This keeps all the require plumbing out of the already tight working spaces

  The rack system I am building is to maximize production of Stage IV larvae with my limited floor space. Using the racks will allow me to house 57,600 Stage IV larvae using only1/5th of the overall floor space that would be needed to house the same number of Stage IV larva in a single tray setup. The Stage IV lobsters will be housed in the trays until they are entering into (Stage V) where they will then be relocated to the saltwater pond behind the facility and placed in a series of floating net cages. The floating walking platform and the floating net cages will be built early next Spring in the saltwater pond behind the facility, and will also add photos and video on this thread when the time comes to start that project. The Stage V lobsters are now fingerlings and will be housed in the nets, it is at this point they are finally ready to be sold. To take a lobster from egg to stage V is around six months of which the first four months are spent in the facility and the remaining two months they are in the first stage of floating net cages. From there they are moved to another stage of floating net cages where they will be ready for purchase. As they continue to grow in our nets they will be separated and sized and moved to other floating nets located in the waters around the facility. Their individual sale price depends on their size and will eventually range from 90php - 350php for lobster fingerlings and 450php - 850php for 1/8-1/4 kilo size. We will also be raising our own lobsters in a net platform that I will be building sometime next year. A marketable size for a lobster is 1/2 kilo size and presently buyers price is 2,200php per kilo.

  I can use far less expensive 24V and 12V submersible pumps to lift the saltwater less than an 8 foot elevation at any one point in the piping. The larger pumps require 220/110 V pumps and each additional pump increases my load and dependency on an electrical power grid which is proving itself to be undependable at best. If this area were to experience a major storm the wind damage could damage power lines knocking out power for weeks or even months. If this were to happen then a large fuel generator would be requires and a huge logistics issue running a steady supply of fuel here to the island from the city. As I have designed it the most powerful pump needed is one used for a home saltwater spa and most pumps to be used here will be various size marine grade pumps  The tanks being on the ground makes also make the tanks easy to monitor and correct imbalances in pump flows. Everything concerning water flow must be constantly monitored   

 

The point of this project is to build as cheaply as possible a working facility that can generate the production of a commercial facility which cost generally over one million US dollars to build, while still keeping the yearly operation and maintenance costs less than the average monthly cost of these larger commercial facilities. My business concept used while designing this facility were ''work with what I can have, not with what I necessary want'', ''K.I.S.S'', ''do not spend a dollar trying to save a dime'' and ''build to produce profits sufficient to later build whatever structures or upgrades that will be needed next.'' If this venture only works half as well as I expected it will, it will still generate enough revenue to completely recover the initial startup capital used to build the facility and all operation costs to my investor in it's first year. It may be ugly, but it will do the most for the least and should be affordable for a small investor in even the more remote areas here in the Philippines. This facility will be cramp for space and stripped down to raw basics, but it should easily afford me to later build even better more spacious and more modernized facilities from the profits it will generate. And if it proves to be an utter disappointment then my investor did not have to invest anywhere near investment cost encountered trying to build the tradition type facilities and should still recover his investment costs in the first two years of operation. But this facility will probably exceed my own expectations as I tend to choose to use more mid-range predictions when trying to calculate possible output and profits. I like the realist view rather over-speculating or using pie-in-the-sky optimism. I honestly believe this 32 feet X 65 feet facility can put 172,800 lobster fingerlings consistently in the nets yearly without an upgrade and perhaps with luck I will be free-releasing twice that number into the waters in various places in this region to help stimulate natural populations. I believe a facility can be profitable enterprise while still being a benefit to the natural ecology. It is my goal to set out and prove that hypothesis to be true.  

[jamesmusslewhite]

The problem with Stage IV lobster larvae is there so cannibalistic that they must be kept separated. They also need to be fed a minimum of 4 times a day. So what you feed them is important. Dry feed has issues as does a liquid or wet mix. A liquid mix with the water flowing under the mess flooring of the egg crate cubicles, means a wet mix would quickly dissipate. Young Stage IV larvae are just developing the mouth parts needed to eat solid foods but it is best to feed a well grounded fresh feed that is rather sticky mix in a small pellet size. This serving size should be about the size of commercial pelleted rabbit feed, not the size of the rabbit's poop.  There are commercial lobster feeds on the market now and boy they make their product look really good, but if you research the papers being published by the hatcheries you see that lobsters quickly lose interest in dry feeds often consuming only 20% of the portions given at each feeding. This 80% raises your feed cost, diminishes growth rates, taxes your filtration systems, effects water pH levels, increases ammonia levels in your circulated water and start to decay becoming a unwanted contaminant.

 

So basically you want to give these Stage IV larvae a finely ground fresh high protein mix that will still maintain its shape in moderately flowing water in a size suitable for a single feeding. They have been doing this for over 100 years in commercial lobster hatcheries and still it is primarily done all by hand. Most facilities use single racks to house Stage IV larvae but this requires a large floor space needing larger structures to house them. This is why I am using elevated racks as one needs far less floor space (1/5th) which requires a smaller space helping to minimize startup costs. I just consider it as using 20 five-story lobster high-rises. These racks and individual hand feeding is only needed for one stage of the process. Egg in hatching tank - hatchlings in larvae pots (Stage I thru Stage III - Stage IV in the tray racks - Stage V and above in the floating cages.

Edited October 2, 2016 by jamesmusslewhite

[jamesmusslewhite]

Well the guttering in the facility is in, nailed, ValcoSealed, painted and a bead of liquid nail applied to where the metal gutters are nailed directly to the wall. The nepa roofing is over 80%, there are I,000 pieces up so far but we still another 200 nepa sheets to complete the roof. Now I have to scavenge all the local hardware store to find all the fittings and pipe to put in the gutter drains which should be lots of fun. You have to sort of approach it like being in a scavenger hunt game, this helps maintain your sanity and help you from going postal, breakout in hysterical laughter or pull all your hair out. With this project I am sure this will become a hobby. 

 Now come the real fun. The coral/broken shell flooring has to now be leveled to grade which we have started the first step towards that goal today. The crew has begun the digging of the trenches for the French drain system which will channel any overflow spillage from the gutters out the front of the facility. This will probably take a few days to finish and then I have to purchase the PVC pipe, drill the individual lengths (14) full of holes just to bury the pipe again. With luck this bit of the project will never be used, but if there is a catastrophic failure with the gutters these drains will prevent the rain overflow from flooding over into the saltwater sump tanks which will be embedded in the floor. This not an easy dig by any measure.

 

Plus we will have to break up, punch and bore through some of the old preexisting concrete work as we go. It would be akin to digging a 160 foot French drain in the middle of a caliche road with crap for digging tools.

 

and as a side note, the second raised garden bed is now ready to add the topsoil and end pieces. I do tend to love my gardens...

[jamesmusslewhite]

We also moved a preexisting lumber pile to make way for my next fun new project.... CHICKENS! I also do tend to love my chickens too...

I will be building a chicken coop and chicken run for 80 layer hens. In fact I sat down a drew the design this afternoon.  I based the design on this older design. It was basically two rectangular bamboo enclosures which faced each other under one roof. The feed troughs were made of bamboo. The enclosure was covered with chicken wire which were then covered with bamboo strips. It was easy to feed and easy to maintain.

   

The space above can be easily be converted into laying births.

later I will add rows of 5gal buckets as laying births filled with rice straw. They are easy to work with and very easy to wash and clean regularly.  

and my chicken run will be a PVC pipe hoop setup that is covered with chicken wire and tarpaulin which protects them from varmints and foul weather days. But this one will be about a quarter of the size of the one pictured.

  Now I made some adjustment in this design below as I want a three sided open design to allow the hens more freedom of movement and can be designed to be a little wider and less length.

[jamesmusslewhite]

   Now to give members who are not familiar with filtration systems used for large capacity aquariums I found a decent Youtube video showing the equipment being built for a 1,550 gallon unit.

 

   I will be building the filtration system for a slightly larger capacity. My total volume of my combined tanks will be approximately 25,347 gallon (95,999 liters) of saltwater  which must be circulated, collected, returned, filtered and recycled 5-times daily. This will be done using three collection tanks 2 protein skimmers and 20 sand filters. The drawing I did below is merely to be used to easily explain the filtering process and as such only shows 1 protein skimmer and I rack of sand filters, the actual setup that will be used is a bit more complex. 

 

 

   The first tank on the left is merely used to house all spent and overflow saltwater collected and pumped from the various below floor level sump tanks located throughout the facility at the different stations. A submersible pump located in the bottom of the first tank will then lift the collected water it through one of two large protein skimmers. These protein skimmers will be housed directly above the second collection tank, and this second tank will collect the water being discharged through the two protein skimmers. A submersible pump will then pick up this water and run it through a rack of 20 multiple-stacked sand filters. These sand filters will be housed directly over the third collection tank which will collect the water discharged from the sand filters. A submersible pump in the bottom of the third tank will then pick up this water and send it through two inline UV sterilizers before being sent to the large secondary working tank. This will be a continuous process that runs 24/7 and will require the monitoring and constant replacements of spent sand filters in the racks. I have designed the rack and sand filters so that the sand filters can be quickly and safely replaced as needed without effecting the operation of the closed-circulation system. 

    I will always have 10-20 fresh sand filters on standby at any given time. The spent sand filters will be emptied, washed, sterilized and refilled as part of the daily maintenance routine. The material from the contents of the spent sand filters and the collected discharge from the protein skimmers will be bagged and transported back to our farm to be used in our gardens and grow beds. The whole process will be quite green and clean. Which is in keeping with the overall concept used when designing this facility. It is my intention to make this facility the standard upon which any following will be measured by.

[jamesmusslewhite]

28 July 2016:

Well it been officially eight weeks since I first started the move over here to the island and reflecting back I can say it has been a busy eight weeks. We got settled into the house, built a dirty kitchen, put vinyl tiles in the house and started clearing the inside of the facility. This how things looked just eight weeks ago. 

and this is how it looks as of 2pm this afternoon.

We are close to having all the ditches dug which will be used to install a French Drain system inside the facility. This drainage system will run along the whole of the back wall and down both side walls of the facility. This is to channel any possible overflows from the rain gutter or rain water that might flow down back wall during heavy rains and channel this rainwater out through the front of the facility. This will prevent any rainwater from mixing with the saltwater in my below floor level sump tanks. The French drains must be installed before I can start measuring and staking out the areas where we will be pouring all the concrete foundations used for the various saltwater tanks. Once the foundations are poured I will start digging the trenches for the floor sumps and all their associated plumbing and electrical wiring. As all the necessary materials must be all loaded into my boat in Surigao City and then transported here to the island, I really can not complain at the pace of the progress. And I have a good crew that listens and does things as I request them to be done.  

And with luck tomorrow or the next day I will be receiving the 15 lengths of 3"' PVC pipe so I can drill them full of holes and get them laid out in the trenches and glued so I can run a string line to re-grade the bottom of the trenches to the proper slopes. then we are finally off to the races and full steam ahead on building the inside of the facility. I should also be receiving the wooden poles that I will need to build my chicken coop I posted earlier on this thread. It has been a good eight weeks.

[jamesmusslewhite]

 

 

 

[jamesmusslewhite]

Today it rained most of the day which was nice as we were able to top off all the rain barrels. I hope to be pouring concrete in the next two weeks so the collected rain water will be needed for that. 15 lengths of 3'' PVC pipe and fittings was delivered this afternoon which will be used to make the French drains. so I broke out the old drill and started drilling out the holes in the lengths. I finally stopped when it got too dark to see what I was doing. But I got more than half of the pipe drilled so it turned out to be a productive day despite being a dreary drizzly day.  So in the morning I punch out all the rest of the pipe lengths and with luck I can start gluing the drain pipe together. Once I have the pipe laid in and leveled with the proper downgrade tilt I can then start building the chicken coop, finish the second raised garden bed and stakeout the location for all the concrete forms for the saltwater tanks.

But tonight I rest a bit, type a few posts on the forum than go take a nice cold bath, which should get the old blood flowing so I can get out on the web and research 24v and 12v water pumps. I have a list of them I need to locate for my saltwater circulation and sump returns to and from the various saltwater tanks. All the pumps but two are submersible These pumps must be as close to the per minute or per hour flow rates listed below. Sump or bilge pumps are the best bet and I find them on the net, but locating each of them here in the Philippines will be a bit of a task. I really want to avoid having them shipped to the Philippines due to not knowing what custom fees will be imposed upon entry, much better to find them here.

1 12v or 24v (salt/certified) Inline pump - 70 gpm /4,200 gph (264 lmp/15,840 lph)

5 12v or 24v (salt/certified) submersible pump - 70 gpm /4,200 gph (264 ipm /15,840 lph)

1 12v or 24v (salt/certified) submersible pump - 60 gpm/3,600 gph (227lpm /13,620 lph

1 12v or 24v (salt/certified) submersible pump - 16 gpm/ 960 gph (60 lpm/ 3600 lph)

1 12v or 24v (salt/certified) submersible pump - 6 gpm/ 360 gph (22 lpm/ 1,320 lph)

1 12v or 24v (salt/certified) submersible pump - .173 gpm/ 10 gph (.655 lpm/ 40 lph)

Tracking these pumps down in the Philippines will be a task but perhaps in Cebu, Manila or Davao where there are larger boat building infrastructure I can locate some shops that sell them there. Have pumps will travel....    

Edited October 2, 2016 by jamesmusslewhite