Effects of Nutritional and Culture Medium-based Approaches for Aquaponics System with Bio-floc Technology on Pak Choi and Catfish Growth Rates

Abstract

Aquaponics with bio-floc can potentially offer sustainable food production with zero waste as it allows farming plants and fish simultaneously, whereby the former use fish waste as their nutrient sources, while the latter receives cleaner water from the plants in a closed-loop system. In the aquaponics system, additional nutrients are usually added to support optimal plant growth, but it is suggested that the amount of such chemical nutrients should be controlled to prevent any harm to the fish. Furthermore, the plant and fish growth rates are influenced by the nutrients and the culture media used. This study aims to examine the effect of nutrition (full-nutrient and half-nutrient treatments) and different types of culture mediums (rockwool, rockwool-perlite, and rockwool-husk) on the growth rates of pak choi (Brassica rapa) and catfish (Clarias gariepinus) using split-plot design. Findings show that the half-nutrient treatment yielded a 17.12% higher plant growth rate and 23.87% heavier catfish weight than the full-nutrient treatment, but these treatments did not affect the fish survival rate. It was also observed that using different culture mediums did not result in any significant difference.