The Effect of Anaerobic and Aerobic Fish Sludge Supernatant on Hydroponic Lettuce

Goddek, Simon; Schmautz, Zala; Scott, Benjamin; Delaide, Boris; Keesman, Karel J.; Wuertz, Sven; Junge, Ranka

doi:10.3390/agronomy6020037

Cited by 61 publications

(52 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…Recently, the treatment of the fish sludge in a digester, and re-introduction of this digestate into the water system has been suggested to increase nutrient supply to plants (Goddek et al 2016). Another possible benefit of supplying the aquaponic system with organic, instead of mineral, nutrients could be a positive effect on the microbial population.…”

Section: ------------------------------------------------mentioning

confidence: 99%

Nutrient supply of plants in aquaponic systems

Bittsanszky¹,

Uzinger²,

Gyulai³

et al. 2016

Ecocycles

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-In this preliminary article we present data on plant nutrient concentrations in aquaponic systems, and compare them to nutrient concentrations in "standard" hydroponic solutions. Our data shows that the nutrient concentrations supplied by the fish in aquaponic system are significantly lower for most nutrients, compared to hydroponic systems. Nevertheless, plants do thrive in solutions that have lower nutrient levels than "standard" hydroponic solutions. This is especially true for green leafy vegetables that rarely need additional nutritional supplementation. It is concluded that in the highly complex system of aquaponics, special care has to be taken, via continuous monitoring of the chemical composition of the circulating water, to provide adequate concentrations and ratios of nutrients, and special attention has to be paid to the potentially toxic component, ammonium. If certain plants require nutrient supplementation, we consider that one based on organic substances would be most beneficial. However, protocols for the application of such nutrient amendments still need to be developed.

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Section: ------------------------------------------------mentioning

confidence: 99%

Nutrient supply of plants in aquaponic systems

Bittsanszky¹,

Uzinger²,

Gyulai³

et al. 2016

Ecocycles

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“…(3) Introduction of a rich effluent of fish sludge from the anaerobic digester into the vegetable "hydroponic reactor". Improvements in plant growth using anaerobic digestion effluent was demonstrated previously (e.g., [32]). Therefore, in this model effluents from the UASB were assumed to improve plant growth according to their nitrogen flux.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 68%

“…Thus, wasting the sludge in conventional aquaponic systems results in losing about a half of the available input nutrients that theoretically could be used for plant biomass production. Several recent suggestions to recycle nutrients from this waste have been made [32][33][34], but information is still limited, thus hindering the aquaponic system from becoming a mainstream agricultural method. The majority of aquaponic systems require a constant and reliable source of energy for continuous operation of their pump/s and aeration, and it should be noted that this issue has largely been neglected in reviewable literature.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nutrients and Energy Balance Analysis for a Conceptual Model of a Three Loops off Grid, Aquaponics

Yogev

Barnes

Gross

2016

Water

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Food security, specifically in water scarce regions, is an increasing local and global challenge. Finding new ways to increase agricultural production in a sustainable manner is required. The current study suggests a conceptual model to integrate established recirculating aquaculture practices into a near-zero discharge aquaponic system that efficiently utilizes water, excreted nutrients and organic matter for energy. The suggested model allows to significantly extend the planted area and recover energy in the form of biogas to operate the system off-grid. A mass balance model of nitrogen, carbon and energy was established and solved, based on data from the literature. Results demonstrate that a fish standing stock of about 700 kg would produce 3.4 tons of fish annually and enough nutrients to grow about 35 tons of tomatoes per year (chosen as a model plant) and recover sufficient energy (70 kWh/day) to run the system on biogas and use less water. If proven successful, this approach may play a major role in sustainably enhancing food security in rural and water scarce regions.

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“…It has been postulated that aquaponic systems supply more than just nutrients, and somehow cultivate an ecosystem of microorganisms, rhizobacteria, or fungi that are beneficial to the plants in the system [4]. It is well known that nitrifying bacteria associated with an aquaponic system reduce ammonia and nitrite nitrogen to nitrate, all of which can be harmful to fish [5,6].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Microbial Effects on the Production of Aquaponically Grown Lettuce

2017

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Abstract:In the study of aquaponics, questions have risen concerning the role of microbiota upon plant growth. This experiment compared unaltered aquaponic nutrient solution at pH 7.0 (treatment A7) with sterilized aquaponic nutrient solution at pH 7.0 (treatment SA7) to quantify effects that live microorganisms had on the growth of lettuce (Lactuca sativa). Baseline comparisons were made to conventional hydroponic conditions using inorganic nutrients at pH 5.8 (treatment H5) or pH 7.0 (treatment H7), which showed a 51% reduction in lettuce fresh weight (FW) growth, indicating a strong negative effect of the higher pH nutrient solution; a similar large difference (38%) occurred for dry weight (DW) comparisons between these two treatments. No difference occurred between the sterilized aquaponic treatment (SA7) and H5 in FW or DW. H5 produced more FW and DW than the non-sterile aquaponic treatment (A7). Responses were not different in FW and DW between the two aquaponic conditions. Reduced FW and DW of A7 compared to H5 may be related to the 50 times higher microbial community living in the A7 treatment water than in H5 at the beginning of each trial. Given that the sterile aquaponic solution SA7 and the H5 hydroponic condition were not different in performance, we concluded that the beneficial effects of the microbial community in the fish recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) occurred before the water was sterilized. An interesting implication of our findings is that an RAS can be decoupled from the hydroponic growing system, since its benefits are not dependent upon continuous recirculation between the plant and fish system and its living biotic community.

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The Effect of Anaerobic and Aerobic Fish Sludge Supernatant on Hydroponic Lettuce

Cited by 61 publications

References 26 publications

Nutrient supply of plants in aquaponic systems

Nutrient supply of plants in aquaponic systems

Nutrients and Energy Balance Analysis for a Conceptual Model of a Three Loops off Grid, Aquaponics

Microbial Effects on the Production of Aquaponically Grown Lettuce

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