Aquaculture Monitoring

Application Background

The aquaculture industry needs to monitor the water quality as well as other water and weather parameters for large fish farms, oyster beds, mussel farms and the like.
If ambient conditions are not ideal, if the water becomes too hot, too shallow or too salty, damage to the crop will result. Fish farms may be in regions which are difficult to access, so a telemetry system to measure the conditions on the fish farm and report those conditions on a regular basis is important.

There may also be compliance issues, where the fish farm needs to report to the local authorities, that the water parameters remained within safe limits throughout the growth of the fish crop.

Application Detail

Fish farms can install pole-mounted systems to measure the Electro Conductivity of the water, to make sure it remains within safe limits. If a measuring system is being set up, a hydrostatic depth gauge and a temperature gauge may also be added to the monitoring system.
Typical systems may have a measurement station every 250 meters, in a grid, throughout the farm and have these measurement stations mounted on a pole in the water or floating on a buoy. Appropriate size solar panel and battery should be added to provide power for the system. Choice of a telemetry solution, cell phone, LoRa or satellite, will depend on the coverage available.
A fish farm seawater crop expects seawater to be typically 50,000 micro siemens per centimetre. Rivers flowing close by may dilute the seawater to a freshwater environment, typically 1000 micro siemens per centimetre, which could damage or kill the fish crop.
The water parameters, particularly the electroconductivity would be measured every 5 minutes, and stored locally, before being sent up to a central server each hour. Water depth and temperature sensor could be added so there is a regular check of level and temperature. The Neon Server would be set up to check each reading coming in from the measurement stations and to generate an alarm if there was an out of limits condition.

The alarm could be sent by text to the fish farm manager so remedial action could be taken. Regular monthly reports of the parameters’ levels could also be assembled and sent to compliance authorities to maintain licenses and the like. Fish production/quantities could also be optimised based on long term data from the fish farm environment.

Typical Configuration

Options for Application Specific Instruments / InputsUnidata Part NumberDescription
Water Electroconductivity Instrument6536EWater EC Instrument with Battery, 512K CMOS Memory
Four Electrode Water Conductivity Probe6536P-2-10/20/30/504EL Water Conductivity Probe -10m, 20m, 30m or 50m
Water Depth Probes6542D-A/B/CPT12 Pressure and Temperature SDI-12 Sensor, 3.5m, 10m or 20m
4-20mA Pressure Transmitter6548A-B/CSubmersible Pressure Transmitter 4-20mA 5m or 10m

Options for Neon Telemetry - NRL / NRT / RTU / Field UnitsUnidata Part NumberDescription
Industrial (Metal Enc) Neon Remote Logger 16 Channels3016Options Available: 3G/4G Cellular, Ethernet, Inmarsat, Iridium SBD and LoRa
Industrial (Metal Enc) Neon Remote Logger 8 Channels3008Options Available: 3G/4G Cellular, Ethernet, Inmarsat, Iridium SBD and LoRa
Industrial (Metal Enc) Neon Remote Logger 4 Channels3004/3006Options Available: 3G/4G Cellular, Iridium SBD and LoRa
Neon Remote Logger (Polycarbonate Enc) 4 Channels M Series3004M/3006MOptions Available: 3G/4G Cellular, Microsatellite, Iridium SBD and LoRa
Equatorial Orbit Satellite - Inmarsat2018F-AB0-1 or 3NRT Ethernet with single or triple Ethernet Ports with three Li Batteries
NRT Field Termination Strip2103F2018F and 2022 NRT FTS
NRT Firmware Option2303A-8M8M Extended Memory Option
NRT Firmware Option2303A-8M-CAM8M Extended Memory & Serial Camera Option
NRT Firmware Option2303A-CAMSerial Camera Option

Options for Neon Application Software - Customer ServerUnidata Part NumberDescription
Neon Application Software2302ANeon Server Software Licence Incl 5 NAL
Neon Application Software2302A-10Additional 10 NRT Access Licences
Neon Application Software2302A-20Additional 20 NRT Access Licences
Neon Application Software2302A-50Additional 50 NRT Access Licences

Options for Neon Application Software - Unidata ServerUnidata Part NumberDescription
Neon Application Software2301ANeon Data Initial Subscription Setup Fee
Neon Hosting Service2301A-01Neon Data Service Fee for 1-50 NRTs
Neon Hosting Service2301A-02Neon Data Service Fee for 51-100 NRTs
Neon Hosting Service2301A-10Neon Data Service Fee Metering

Options for Conventional Dataloggers / Field UnitsUnidata Part NumberDescription
Neon Remote Logger 16 Analog Channels / Touch Screen Display3016-00016 Ch NRL (Superseded Prologger 7001D)
Neon Remote Logger 8 Analog Channels / Touch Screen Display3008-0008 Ch NRL (Superseded Stalogger 6004D)
Neon Remote Logger 4 Analog Channels / Touch Screen Display3004M-0004 Ch NRL (Superseded Micrologger 8010C)
Starlog V4 Management Software6308A-AUEStarlog V4 Full Licence Key