and lettuce (pistia stratiotes)

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ASSESSING WATER HYACINTH (EICHHORNIA CRASSOPES) AND LETTUCE (PISTIA STRATIOTES) EFFECTIVENESS IN AQUACULTURE WASTEWATER TREATMENT C. O. Akinbile

a b

& Mohd S. Yusoff

a

a

School of Civil Engineering, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Nibong Tebal, Penang, Malaysia b

Department of Agricultural Engineering, Federal University of Technology, Akure, Nigeria Available online: 29 Jun 2011

To cite this article: C. O. Akinbile & Mohd S. Yusoff (2012): ASSESSING WATER HYACINTH (EICHHORNIA CRASSOPES) AND LETTUCE (PISTIA STRATIOTES) EFFECTIVENESS IN AQUACULTURE WASTEWATER TREATMENT, International Journal of Phytoremediation, 14:3, 201-211 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15226514.2011.587482

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International Journal of Phytoremediation, 14:201–211, 2012 C Taylor & Francis Group, LLC Copyright ISSN: 1522-6514 print / 1549-7879 online DOI: 10.1080/15226514.2011.587482

ASSESSING WATER HYACINTH (EICHHORNIA CRASSOPES) AND LETTUCE (PISTIA STRATIOTES) EFFECTIVENESS IN AQUACULTURE WASTEWATER TREATMENT

Downloaded by [Universiti Sains Malaysia] at 23:58 13 October 2011

C. O. Akinbile1,2 and Mohd S. Yusoff1 1

School of Civil Engineering, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Nibong Tebal, Penang, Malaysia 2 Department of Agricultural Engineering, Federal University of Technology, Akure, Nigeria Water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) and water lettuce (Pistia stratiotes) were analyzed to determine their effectiveness in aquaculture wastewater treatment in Malaysia. Wastewater from fish farm in Semanggol Perak, Malaysia was sampled and the parameters determined included, the pH, turbidity, dissolved oxygen (DO), chemical oxygen demand (COD), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), nitrite phosphate (PO43−), nitrate (NO3−), nitrite (NO2−), ammonia (NH3 ), and total kjedahl nitrogen (TKN). Also, hydroponics system was set up and was added with fresh plants weights of 150 ± 20 grams Eichhornia crassipes and 50 ± 10 grams Pistia stratiotes during the 30 days experiment. The phytoremediation treatment with Eichhornia crassipes had pH ranging from 5.52 to 5.59 and from 4.45 to 5.5 while Pistia stratiotes had its pH value from 5.76 to 6.49 and from 6.24 to 7.07. Considerable percentage reduction was observed in all the parameters treated with the phytoremediators. Percentage reduction of turbidity for Eichhornia crassipes were 85.26% and 87.05% while Pistia stratiotes were 92.70% and 93.69% respectively. Similar reductions were observed in COD, TKN, NO3−, NH3 , and PO43−. The capability of these plants in removing nutrients was established from the study. Removal of aquatic macrophytes from water bodies is recommended for efficient water purification. KEY WORDS: aquaculture, phytoremediation, parameters, phytoremediator, treatment

INTRODUCTION During the past decades, the contribution of aquaculture to the world food supply has significantly increased. In 2004, the aquaculture production reached 59.4 million tons, providing more than 38.0% of fisheries production which was expected to increase in future because fish production from natural sources is becoming limited (Ebel et al. 2007). As fish production have become privatized, the last two decades had seen fundamental shift away from ‘family’ towards ‘factory’ fish farming and a marked transition from a ‘capture’ to a ‘culture’ economy (Van Rijn 1996). According to the Department of Fisheries Malaysia in

Address correspondence to C. O. Akinbile, School of Civil Engineering, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 14300, Nibong Tebal, Penang, Malaysia. E-mail: [email protected] 201


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2008, the fisheries sub-sector produced 1,731,988 tonnes of fish valued at approximately RM7, 115 million. This total was an increase of 5.0% in terms of quantity when compared with the year 2007. The production from aquaculture increased to 243,066 tonnes, which was an increase of 36.4% when compared with the year 2007. Freshwater aquaculture had contributed 39.5% or 95,917 tonnes to the entire fish production in Malaysia in 2008 (Jabatan Perikanan Malaysia 2008). Despite the huge economic benefits of the industry, its negative impact on the environment and natural resources needed to be controlled due to its large volume of water demand and the effluent volume that is discharged into water. Deteriorating water quality has been identified as one that escalates disease outbreaks and contamination of aquaculture products, resulting in dramatic economic losses to existing aquaculture activities (Mazlin et al. 2009). The accumulation of feed residue and fish excreta during cultivation often cause water quality deterioration in fishponds, resulting in toxicity effects on fishes (Teck et al. 2010). Aquaculture wastewaters exert adverse environmental impacts when the effluents from these systems are discharged into receiving waters as organic matter (Jung and Lovitt 2010). This reduces dissolved oxygen levels, contributes to the buildup of bottom sediments and high nutrient loading impairs water quality by stimulating excessive phytoplankton production (Ghaly et al. 2005; Tilley et al. 2002). This of course, has undesirable impacts on the environment (Read and Fernandes 2003). Therefore, an appropriate wastewater treatment process was required for sustaining aquaculture development in Malaysia. Various systems had been introduced for treatment of aquaculture wastewaters such as settling systems, centrifugal systems and mechanical filters (Evans and Furlong 2003). However, these methods could only achieve partial performance with clear disadvantages of producing considerable sludge deposits, high energy consumption and require frequent maintenance (Nora’aini et al. 2005). Stabilization ponds were utilized for fish culture with simple sedimentation basins or emergency holding tanks which were successful in BOD removal only. However, the major operational problem encountered in waste stabilization pond was the excessive discharge of particles in effluent caused by algae activity (Yi et al. 2009). Sand filtration was also one of the treatments techniques for aquaculture wastewater, but it was effective for suspended solid removal only (Porrello et al. 2003). Phytoremediation was widely viewed as ecologically responsible alternative to the environmentally destructive physical remediation methods currently practiced since plants have many endogenous genetic and physiological properties that make them ideal for soil and water remediation (Soudek et al. 2007). The use of Phytoremediation was considered to be a non-polluting and cost effective way of removing or stabilizing toxic chemicals that might otherwise be leached out of the soil by rain to contaminate nearby watercourses (Meagher 2000). This changes the water temperature, reduction in water clarity, increased algae production and population shifts in both plants and animals (Stewart and Howell 2003).Metabolic waste concentration may reach high levels in wastewater coming from rearing tanks causing environmental impact in sheltered coastal areas (Gennaro et al. 2006). The objective of this study therefore was to assess the effectiveness of water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) and water lettuce (Pistia stratiotes) as phytoremediator in nutrients reduction and to characterize the wastewater before and after treatment.

MATERIALS AND METHODS Study Location and Preliminary Information The samples for this study were taken from the wastewater from the fish farm in Semanggol Perak, Malaysia, located at latitude 40 571 011 North of the Equator and


SAMPLING METHODOLOGY AND ANALYSIS

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longitude1000 371 5811 East of the prime meridian. It is a commercial fish farm supplier breeding all categories of fishes such as Ikan Keli (cat fish), Ikan Puyu (Climbing Perch), Ikan Patin (River Catfish), Ikan Ketutu (Goby fish), and Ikan Lee Koh (Common Carp). The fishes were reared in land ponds, canvas, or fiber type ponds of different dimensions. The water used in the fish farm was from public water supply system and river. The fish farm produces over 50,000 fishes per month for export to places such as Kelantan, Johor and Pahang, all major cities in Malaysia. Raw aquaculture wastewater was collected from the aquaculture farm, stored, treated and prepared at 4◦ C in accordance with the procedure in the Standard Methods for the Examination of water and wastewater (APHA 1992). Sixty-five (65) liters of wastewater were collected from the farm ponds and qualitative analyses to determine the composition of parameters were carried out. The parameters analyzed included, the pH, turbidity, dissolved oxygen (DO), chemical oxygen demand (COD), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), nitrite phosphate (PO43−), nitrate (NO3−), nitrite (NO2−), ammonia (NH3 ) and total kjedahl nitrogen (TKN). These were determined within 24 hours after collection of samples. Wastewater Characterization, Hydroponics and Experimental Set-up Aquaculture wastewater samples characterization was carried out before commencing the experiments. Also, hydroponics (water culture) systems consisting of plastic growth containers (25.85 cm diameter and 30 cm high) were set up with respect to the method adopted by Pan et al. (2007). All six plastics growth containers were placed in two lines consisting of three containers each. Three growth containers were provided with aquarium pump to provide supplementary oxygen as a growth medium (two as control and one with plants) and another three without aquarium pump. The aquatic plants, Eichhornia crassipes and Pistia stratiotes were obtained from natural specimens grown in drains from Nibong Tebal (town in Malaysia) and fish pond housing were prepared. All the growth containers with 10 litres of wastewater each were added with fresh weights of 150 ± 20 grams of Eichhornia crassipes and 50 ± 10 grams of Pistia stratiotes plants respectively. Six of the containers were covered with polystyrene to reduce the probability of contamination by other microorganisms in the air. No new wastewater was added into the growth containers during the experiment so that the pattern of contaminant reduction could be identified. The experiments were carried out under a shed to prevent contamination by rainwater. Parameters Analysis and Data Collection All the parameters earlier mentioned were investigated in the aquaculture wastewater and the procedure was in accordance with the APHA standards 1992. The analysis was carried out on weekly basis after samples from the ten growth containers were collected to determine their concentration. Also, data were recorded weekly and collation was done after completion of the experiment. The Dissolved Oxygen (DO) measurement was carried out using oxygen electrode (DO probe); pH was measured using Mettler Toledo (GmbH 8603 Schwerzenbach) pH meter while Hamotte, 2020 Turbidimeter was used in turbidity measurement. APHA (1992) standard procedures were used during laboratory measurements in determining the composition of chemical oxygen demand (COD), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), nitrite phosphate (PO43−), nitrate (NO3−), nitrite (NO2−), ammonia (NH3 ), and total kjedahl nitrogen (TKN) in all the samples investigated and also the total nitrogen content in plant samples tissue before and after treatment.

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RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Characterization of the Aquaculture Wastewater


The parameters of the raw aquaculture wastewater were compared with Interim National Water Quality Standards for Malaysia (INWQS) classes IV which is for irrigation purpose to evaluate the aquaculture water quality. As shown in Table 1, the BOD, COD, ammonia, nitrate of the fish farm wastewater did not comply with the standard whereas turbidity, nitrite and phosphate did not have specific standard value. The pH and DO of the wastewater had complied with the INWQS standard. The COD concentration (205 mg/L) did not comply with the INWQS standard which was 100 mg/L. The nitrate concentration of aquaculture wastewater with 30.17 mg/L did not comply with the INWQS standard which was 5 mg/L. In this study, the BOD: COD ratio was high and found to be 1:13. Physical Parameters of the Wastewaters Temperature. Water temperature values were almost similar in all the treatments and ranged from 25.0◦ C to 35.0◦ C. For microbial process, the optimum temperature for nitrification in pure cultures ranged from 25 to 35◦ C. According to Gray (2004), Eichhornia crassipes has an optimum growth occurring between 25.0◦ C and 27.5◦ C. The optimum growth temperature for Pistia stratiotes was 22–30◦ C while growth stops in temperature range of 8–15◦ C. pH. The maximum and minimum pH for treatment container with Eichhornia crassipes (non aeration and aeration) were 5.59 and 5.52, 5.5, and 4.45 respectively as shown in Figure 1. Also, the maximum and minimum pH for treatment container with Pistia stratiotes (non aeration and aeration) was 6.49 and 5.76, 7.07, and 6.24 respectively. The average pH value for raw aquaculture wastewater was 6.72. For microbial activities, the optimum pH values for nitrification process may vary from 6.6 to 8.0. The low pH values (