Nitrification by stringed bed suspended bioreactors at different salinities and substrate concentrations

Abstract

<span style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family: " times="" new="" roman";mso-fareast-font-family:"times="" roman";mso-bidi-font-family:="" "times="" roman";mso-ansi-language:en-us;mso-fareast-language:en-us;="" mso-bidi-language:ar-sa"="" lang="EN-US">Stringed Bed Suspended Bioreactor (SBSBR) is a fixed film bioreactor activated with indigenous nitrifying bacterial consortia under salinity regimes of 15 and 30 ppt for rapid nitrification in brackish water and marine aquaculture systems respectively. Compared to domestic wastewater; total ammonia nitrogen (TAN) is a limiting factor for nitrification in most aquaculture treatment systems. Therefore, the nitrification by SBSBRs was analyzed at TAN concentrations of 1, 2, 3 and 4 mg/L under salinities of 15 and 30 ppt for 12 hr. Percentage TAN removal was maximum when the total ammonia concentration was 1 mg/L. There was no significant difference in nitrification rates at different salinities whereas the rates differed significantly (P<0.01) with increasing TAN concentrations. Regression analysis showed that nitrification rates at both the salinities followed a linear increase with increasing TAN concentrations. </span>