The effect of different type of bio filter non-organic media on ammonia removal of aquarium wastewater

Abstract

Recirculation aquaculture systems (RASs) is a systems in which water is re-used after undergoing treatment. Biological filtration is a process that uses living organisms to remove unwanted substances from the culture system water. In this research they were three type biofilter media which were gravel, plastic bead and charcoal were determine by ysi Multi-parameter Water Quality Meter. In this research, the concentration of ammonium ion (NH4+) and the concentration of ammonia (NH3) of these three biofilter media were collected 4 times per week and it took 4 weeks. In first day the average concentration of ammonium ion (NH4+) of both media is high, then the concentration of ammonium ion of both media was reduce gradually until it became stable .Beside that at first day the concentration of ammonia in plastic bead is higher than gravel and charcoal which was 0.31 mg/l due to nitrification process. Meanwhile the concentration of ammonia in charcoal had lowest average concentration of ammonia due to efficient of denitrification process. After that the concentration of ammonium ion (NH4+) and concentration of ammonia (NH3) was added to determine total ammonia nitrogen (TAN) which .From the result, it show that the time needed for gravel and plastic bead to remove ammonia from 1.3 mg/l to 0.5 mg/l which was safe level for agriculture was almost one month but charcoal just need 25 days.represent the ammonia removal rate of each media. After the result is analysed by one way-ANOVA. In conclusion, plastic bead was most suitable to become biofilter media because it had large surface area and it could be reusable.