Intensive aquaculture: It is not a very common practice. Cement or fiber glass tanks are used in the intensive farms that mainly grow tilapia. Intensive aquaculture in concrete tanks is practiced in desert where water renewal and/or aerations are in use. The average production in these farms is about 10 kg/m3 in the production cycle where more than a production cycle per year can be achieved. The added value to production schemes through the adoption of the integration with other agricultural crops or live stocks has been justified by the cost associated with deep well systems as well as the lack of drainage networks. Fiberglass tanks have been tried in few farms but due to durability issue, concreter tanks have been favored.
Few projects are practicing the closed system aquaculture where mechanical and biological filters are used. A new desert aquaculture project using underground salt water is farming marine gilthead sea bream and European sea bass. Most of ongoing intensive projects are either at the pilot level or lack economic evaluation.
