Inorganic nitrogen control in a novel zero-water exchanged aquaculture system integrated with airlift-submerged fibrous nitrifying biofilters.
This work examined the feasibility of applying shrimp diets to establish nitrification on submerged fibrous biofilters. It also investigated the performance of a proposed zero-water exchanged aquaculture system, which integrated growing of aquatic stocks and operation of acclimated biofilters in the same environment. Addition of shrimp diets fully established nitrification within 3 weeks as indicated by continuous increase of nitrate and trivial levels of ammonium and nitrite. A series of batch experiment revealed an average ammonium degradation rate of 24.1mg Nm(-2) day(-1). Zero-water discharged tilapia cultivation could be carried out in the proposed aquaculture system for at least 44 days when daily inorganic loadings increased from 1.24 to 10.78mg Nl(-1) day(-1). The corresponding daily growth rates of tilapia from the proposed aquaculture systems integrated with acclimated biofilters varied from 3.01 to 3.35g day(-1), which was approximately 7-16% better than numbers from the systems using non-acclimated biofilters.
Sesuk
Thanathon
T
Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Chulalongkorn University, Phrayathai Road, Prathumwan District, Bangkok 10330, Thailand.
Powtongsook
Sorawit
S
Nootong
Kasidit
K
D000818:Animals; D017756:Aquaculture; D003445:Crustacea; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D005374:Filtration / Q000295:instrumentation*; D007287:Inorganic Chemicals / Q000737:chemistry*; D009584:Nitrogen / Q000737:chemistry*; D017210:Tilapia; D014867:Water
D007287:Inorganic Chemicals; D014867:Water; D009584:Nitrogen