Water quality, water usage, nutrient use efficiency and growth of shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei in an integrated aquaponic system with basil Ocimum basilicum

Shrimp aquaculture has been the fastest growing and diversifying food production industry in the world. On the other hand, basil is an important herb moderately salt-tolerant, which is among the most main crops which essential oils stand out for the quality and chemical diversity. This paper evaluates the performance of an aquaponic shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei)-basil (Ocimum basilicum) system in terms of water quality, water use, and nutrient removal. This aquaponic system consists of three units (aquaculture; water conditioning; and hydroponic) coupled in a recirculation system using low-salinity water: well water (WW) and diluted seawater (DSW). The experiment was conducted over 78 days to characterize the performance of the proposed system, which reduces -73% and 76% of the organic suspended solids, 23% and 18% of the total phosphorous (TP), and 24% and 21% of total nitrogen (TN) for WW and DSW, respectively. The reduction of TN and TP in the system implies a great efficiency in the use of nutrients, and consequently a low environmental impact. The water use by the shrimp biomass was 2.7 and 3.0 m3 kg(-1) for WW and DSW, respectively, while by the total biomass (shrimp + basil) was 0.5 and 0.8 m3 kg(- 1) for WW and DSW, respectively. These results evidence that aquaponic shrimpbasil system remove N and P from water, improve water quality, enable efficient use of water and nutrients, reduce effluent discharge to the environment, as well as increase production.