(117ah) Realizing a Resilient Aquaculture Environment Via Biological Processes

To realize a healthy ecosystem for aquaculture development, an energy efficient and cost saving aquaculture wastewater treatment system is required to avoid formation of excess nitrate. Here we discovered an innovative technology that applies a microbial community comprising unique denitrifying phosphate accumulating organisms and anammox bacteria to sustain high levels of nutrient removal in low carbon, nitrogen-rich aquaculture wastewater. This culture can remove ammonium, nitrite, and nitrate at rate of 2.85, 1.98, and 2.42 mg-N/L/h, respectively, which can also remove high levels of nitrate present in aquaculture wastewater under limited oxygen and low C/N ratios. Very importantly, the microbial consortia can work efficiently in high salinity (~3% salinity) environment, especially for saline fish farm waters. This leads to the development of a de-nutrient bioreactor that incorporates the anammox reaction to achieve high levels of nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus) removal without requiring aeration or carbon supplementation for a resilient aquaculture environment.