FARM LAYOUT
The layout of your farm should be properly considered before embarking on any construction. It should be done holistically for the entire farmland but could be constructed in phases. Moreover, the layout would help in the design of your production practice.

a. Hatchery Design
The design of your hatchery is first considered on the basis of:
i. Available land space
ii. Source of water supply (if different from bore hole) and parameters.
iii. Target fingerlings production capacity per month
iv. Materials to be used for pond (vats, plastic, fiber, glass, tarpaulin or concrete)

A good hatchery should operate on recirculatory water management system to ensure stable hatching environment for the fish. This ensures that the temperature, PH, oxygen level is fairly stable and the water is devoid of pathogenic organisms.

The least method that should be used is a flow through system. Partial discharge method of water management does not favour hatchery operation.
Requirements of a complete recirculatory hatchery:
i. A hall, factory or enclosed canopy setting
ii. Brood stock fish tank
iii. Hatching tank with recirculatory facility (sedimentation, filtration, aeration, biofiltration and sterilization)
iv. Nursery tank
v. Fingerling / juvenile tank
vi. Mari-culture unit (where fish food are cultured or hatched out from eggs)
vii. Reservoir tank
viii. Bore hole with water pump
ix. Water text kits
x. Feed store devoid of moisture
xi. Waste water treatment plant (especially in an environment where there is no free flowing drainage).

b. Grow-out Pond Design
In designing a grow-out production farm, you need to determine the
i. Type of pond to be used (concrete, earthen, tarpaulin, plastic etc): This depends on your capital, land ownership, ground water table, scale of production
ii. Production capacity and schedule: what quantity of fish are you producing and for what period? What is your stocking or selling interval? Is it weekly, forth-nightly, monthly or quarterly?
iii. Pond water management method: what system of water management are you adopting? Is it partial discharge, flow-through or recirculatory system
iv. Waste water management method: are you installing a waste water treatment plant which treats the water before discharging to the public drain or are you discharging directly to the public drains or water body behind your farm.
v. Stocking density: what quantity of fish do you want to stock per pond?