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The second paper I will be reviewing is titled ‘Yield of Tomato Irrigated with Recirculating Aquaculture Water as Influenced by Quantity of Fish Waste Products Supplied‘.
This study demonstrates that the nutrients necessary for plant growth can be adequately supplied by the fish waste products in a recirculating aquaculture system without the need for additional supplementation of base minerals.
Specifically, the study noted that “All water quality variables were maintained within acceptable levels for tilapia by circulation through the biofilters,” and “Nitrogenous compounds, which frequently limit fish production in other recirculatory water systems, did not reach toxic levels and were extracted by the plants” . This indicates that the system was effective in recycling nutrients from fish waste for plant use, negating the need for external nutrient supplementation.
The study highlighted that plants assimilated an increasing percentage of the nutrient input with increasing biofilter volume (BFV), corroborated by lower nutrient concentrations in the water with increasing BFV. This suggests that the system’s design allows for efficient nutrient uptake by plants directly from the fish waste, without the necessity for additional mineral inputs.
The sand medium and system design are such that they enable the complete assimilation of nutrients by plants, making external supplementation unnecessary under normal operating conditions.
In conclusion, the claim that iAVs requires the addition of base minerals due to their absence in the system components or rapid uptake by plants is contradicted by scientific evidence.
The study by McMurtry et al. demonstrates that iAVs can efficiently recycle nutrients from fish waste, providing sufficient mineral content for plant growth without the need for external nutrient supplementation