Katronic’s ultrasonic KATflow 200 flowmeter has been used to monitor water flow between the fish tanks and filtration systems within Ocean Matters’ lumpfish breeding facility on Anglesey, Wales.
Clamped on to the PVC pipes, the battery-powered KATflow 200 operates ultrasonically, firing an acoustic pulse through the wall of a pipe using a pair of compact transducers, comparing the time taken for the pulse to reflect from the pipe wall both upstream and downstream to derive a flow rate. The hand-held and portable device can be fixed and then moved so it both monitors and logs the flow of water throughout the process.
Ocean Matters’ farm supervisor Dave Jones said: “We have been really pleased with both the simplicity of operation of the Katronic meter, and the support we received from the office in Coventry. Key for us was that the meter worked well on our PVC pipes, and it has been excellent.”
Offering a sustainable and eco-friendly approach to minimise the use of medicinal chemicals in salmon farming, Ocean Matters breed lumpfish, or lumpsuckers, a ‘cleaner’ species that pick the sea lice from farm salmon, eating up to 100 at a time. They happily coexist with the farmed salmon and significantly reduce the amount of chemicals required to successfully rear them.
