Comparison of total nutrient recovery in aquaponics and conventional aquaculture systems

Introduction - More eco-friendly aquaculture technology is required to reduce environmental pollution which has become a major issue in aquaculture industries in the last few decades. Aquaponics system is a culture technology to solve this waste issue. Thus, this study aimed at comparing growth performances, feed utilization efficiency, and nutrient recovery in aquaponics and conventional aquaculture system. Materials and methods - Twenty-four juveniles of Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) weighing 1.12 +/- 0.1 g were cultured in either aquaponics systems or conventional aquaculture systems for 30 days. Each system had three culture systems as replicates. The fish were fed the same amount with a commercial pellet three times a day. Results - The result showed that the Nile tilapia reared in the aquaponics system had a significantly higher specific growth rate than that of fish reared in the conventional system, 7.5 and 6.3% BW/day, respectively. Similarly, the feed utilization efficiency of fish reared in the aquaponics was also significantly better than that of fish in the conventional system. Furthermore, the total biomass harvested from the aquaponics system was nearly eight times higher than the total biomass harvested from the conventional system. Conclusion - Growth, feed utilization efficiency, and total nutrient recovery in terms of biomass were higher in the aquaponics system. These results suggest that aquaponics is not only an eco-friendly aquaculture system, but also could produce more biomass than a conventional aquaculture system, and therefore, could be scaled up in a commercial scale.