Rapid production bioflocs by inoculation and fertilized with different nitrogen and carbon sources

Abstract

Compared to produce bioflocs in the same units with the farmed animals, producing bioflocs separately and next import to the culture units can better focus on the quality of the bioflocs. Nitrification is one of the ammonia metabolic pathways that can effectively remove the ammonia-nitrogen from biofloc technology (BFT) systems. Inoculation of mature bioflocs can accelerate the establishment of nitrification. The current study aimed to evaluate the efficiency of using different carbon and nitrogen sources to establish nitrification and explore the resultant properties of the newly cultured bioflocs. The use of ground feed or ammonium chloride as a nitrogen source and poly-β-hydroxybutyrate (PHB) or glucose as a carbon source significantly affected the establishment time of nitrification and the properties of cultured biofloc. Inoculation of mature bioflocs could shorten the establishment time of nitrification to less than 7 days. The newly cultivated bioflocs had higher protein and amino acid content and better capacity for removing ammonia-nitrogen. The bioflocs with ground feed and glucose as nutrient sources had a stronger ability to remove ammonia-nitrogen. The nutrient value of bioflocs using ammonium chloride and glucose as nutrient sources was relatively higher than the groups supplied with ground feed and PHB. The BFT system with PHB and ground feed as nutrient sources required minimum time to establish nitrification. It can be concluded that carbon source and nitrogen sources influence the efficiency of establishment of nitrification and the resultant properties of the newly cultured bioflocs significantly.