Bioremediation of Aquacultural Effluents Using Hydrophytes

Abstract

Pollutant of agricultural industries constitute a threat to aquatic environment, being as a recipient of untreated or partially treated effluents, the use of conventional methods has its own problems especially in developing countries, hence the use of an eco-friendly approach to reduce pollutant load before being discharge. The study aim was to assess the performance of hydroponically grown macrophytes in aquacultural effluent the macrophytes were grown in 5 L aquacultural effluent with 21 days retention period in plastic containers. 100g, 150g, 200g and 250g of plants samples were introduce into hydroponic unit. Physicochemical parameters were measured at interval of seven days for three weeks. The parameters measured were temperature, pH, DO, BOD, COD, nitrate, ammonia, phosphate and turbidity. The mean reduction values of temperature, pH, DO and nitrate were 27.07±0.07, 6.37±0.27, 2.07±0.09, and 0.90±0.15 for Pistia stratiotes respectively. While ammonia, phosphate and turbidity values are 0.70±0.15, 0.60±0.23 and 7.00±0.00 for Eichhornia crassipes. The performance of the plants was found to be increasing with increase in weight and duration. However, the overall performance may not meet the required effluent standards laid down by the national and international regulatory bodies.