Abstract:
The effects of natural zeolite as a bed medium in increasing lettuce and red tilapia
growth as well as improvement of water quali
ty parameters in an aquaponic system were
investigated. An experiment with a completely randomized design was run with two
treatments in triplicates, 1) an aquaponic syst
em without use of zeolite as a control group
and 2) use of a small cotton bag, containing
10 g zeolite as a bed medium for planting a
lettuce seedling. In each experimental unit, 42 seedlings of lettuce were introduced. The
individual weight of fish and lettuce yield
in treatment 2 was significantly higher (
P<
0.05)
than treatment 1 at the end of experiment. Th
e initial mean individual weight of red tila-
pia juveniles was 6.23 ± 0.06 g and increased to 32.50 ± 2.00 and 37.50 ± 2.20 in treat-
ments 1 and 2, respectively by the end of experiment. The yield of lettuce was higher in
treatment 2 (1507 ± 445.00 g/unit) compared to
the control (275 ± 83 g/unit). The concen-
tration of total ammonia-N in th
e water was significantly lower (
P< 0.05
) in treatment 2
compared to treatment 1 at the end of experiment. The concentration of phosphorous and
potassium in the fish rearing
tanks was significantly lower (
P< 0.05
) in treatment 2. These
results indicated that the use of zeolite, as a bed medium to plant lettuce seedlings in a re-
circulating aquaponic system could increase the growth of lettuce seedlings as well as im-
proving water quality parameters.
