Efficient usage of land and water to achieve high density production. In this system, there is zero or minimal water exchange. The water is cleaned in-situ which means within the tank. With a small piece of land you can produce a large quantity of fish. Just as an example, on a 1 acre piece of land, with an unmanaged pond, you can get 8-10 tonnes of fish whereas with this technology, you can get between 70-120 tonnes of fish from 1 acre.
Improved survival rates this system provides high level of biosecurity and thus the chances of disease in the fish are low. It is a closed system and chances of pathogens entering the system are low. Also, it is recommended that one uses piped or borehole water as these do not have pathogens like viruses. The microbial protein that is created in the system has a immunity boosting properties. There are also other treatments that are done to ensure that the fish are protected from various diseases like fungal and parasitic diseases and other dangers such as nitrite spike.
Lower FCR this is by far the biggest benefit of this system. Because the fish waste and excess feed is converted into microbial protein, the amount feed required is reduced. In all other systems, the typical feed conversion ratio FCR is 2+ which means that you require 2 or more kilos of feed to produce 1 kilo of fish. In biofloc FCR of 0.6 has been achieved. Generally you should expect FCR of 1-1.2 which means 1-1.2 kilos of feed to produce 1 kilo of fish.
Environment benefits it is recommended that we use low protein feed because the fish are already getting single cell microbial protein from the floc and also because we need to keep ammonia levels low. So, when we reduce the amount of protein in the feed, the cost of feed reduces and so farmers can get cheaper fish feed. Because protein in fish feed comes predominantly from fish meal, the reduced requirement for fish meal in the feed will result in reduced pressure on capture fish for conversion to fish meal and that puts the fish back into the human food chain
Health benefits The biofloc process is completely organic and does not require the use of anti-biotics. This makes the fish completely organic.