WATER QUALITY STABILITY AND NUTRIENT DYNAMICS IN RECIRCULATING AND FLOW-THROUGH AQUACULTURE SYSTEMS
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.67772/20nqgt75Keywords:
aquaculture systems, water-quality stability, nutrient dynamics, recirculating aquaculture, flow-through systemsAbstract
The two types of aquaculture recirculating and flow-through have opposing water-management approaches which can affect environmental stability and nutrient buildup. This research compared water-quality conditions and nitrogen dynamics from repeated measurement data collected from two recirculating tanks and two flow-through tanks from 2023 to 2025. The dissolved oxygen, pH, temperature, alkalinity, ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate were analyzed for the samples in which no zero was coded. Descriptive statistics, coefficients of variation, matched-date Wilcoxon tests, the effect of rank-biserial, temporal trends, and Spearman correlations were used. Dissolved oxygen and pH were higher in recirculating tanks, and alkalinity was slightly higher in flow-through tanks and was more stable in temperature in flow-through tanks. The concentrations of ammonia, nitrite and nitrate were significantly higher in the recirculating systems, which signify greater nitrogen keeping and accumulation. In both, temperature was positively correlated with nitrate, while system-specific correlations were found for the relationships between dissolved oxygen and ammonia or nitrate. The results show that the recirculation system had the ability to enhance control of certain physicochemical parameters, although nitrogen management needs to be more carefully executed. The following measures are suggested for optimization of the system: Integrated monitoring, Adaptive aeration, Effective biofiltration, Calibrated water exchange, Nitrate removal.
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