PRODUCT(S) Aquasend Beacon®

APPLICATION Aqua Farming

PARAMETER Dissolved Oxygen and Temperature

LOCATION Mt. Lassen

ORGANIZATION Mt. Lassen Trout Farm

Founded in 1949 at the base of Mt. Lassen in northern California, Mt. Lassen Trout Farm breeds various species of trout and is a top trout supplier for recreational fishing areas around northern California. Mt. Lassen consists of several farm locations, each comprised of a series of raceways receiving water flow from local springs sustainably utilizing natural resources and eliminating the need for recirculation or well systems.

Mt. Lassen is seeking help from Aquasend® and the Aquasend Beacon® to determine how to sustain larger trout populations while maintaining original water levels and without compromising safe dissolved oxygen levels. With the recent installation of a new supplemental oxygen system, Mt. Lassen is using the Beacon to offer secondary data to further understand if the system will allow the farm to achieve its goal of trout population growth.

Project Goals

By increasing the raceway’s biomass, Mt. Lassen farmers run the risk of overstocking, leading to fish metabolizing dissolved oxygen too quickly. The more heavily stocked Mt. Lassen’s raceways are the more sporadic the water quality levels can be. Water quality levels that are too low can result in fish kills, which are costly in both time and money.

To confidently increase the raceway’s biomass, the Aquasend Beacon® will monitor water quality data in real-time to measure exact water quality levels throughout the day and will alert farmers to prevent potential fish kills and product loss. The Aquasend Beacon® will accurately measure dissolved oxygen and temperature in Mt. Lassen waters.

Aquasend Beacon’s® Results of a Three-Month Deployment

The Beacon was deployed in a raceway for three months and continuously recorded levels of dissolved oxygen and temperature every 10 minutes while transmitting data via cellular, rather than an ethernet cable connected to their own internet modem.

Data collected by the Beacon will provide Mt. Lassen with fundamental information needed to determine if the oxygen system will permit the farm to sustain larger trout biomasses in the original amount of available water.

Why Mt. Lassen Chose the Aquasend Beacon®

The Aquasend Beacon® is designed for outdoor aqua farming raceways, ponds, tanks and lakes to record water quality data, specifically dissolved oxygen levels and temperature, and send that data to an online portal via the cloud. The buoy is programmed to alert a farm manager or owner via e-mail, text and phone calls when levels become unsafe.

Buoys can communicate with other buoys in a mesh-networked arrangement across long distances. The buoy has a series of anti-fouling options, is solar powered and designed for all weather conditions and intense farming environments. Alerts and alarms keep the farm manager informed on changing water conditions based on the Beacon’s adjustable settings. Visible exterior LED lights flash green and red for on-site visibility of alert status and water conditions.

To determine if the newly installed oxygen system will allow larger trout biomasses in the original amount of available water, the Aquasend Beacon® will monitor and measure the water quality, dissolved oxygen and temperature throughout the day and alert farmers preventing potential fish kills and product loss.