Use of treated mine water for rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) culture: a production scale assessment

Abstract

In previous proof-of-concept work, it was shown that the use of treated coal mine water for rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) culture in a cage was technically feasible, though only a 50-fish bioassay was grown and no work on production-related issues was conducted. To further advance the use of treated mine water, an under-utilized water resource throughout Mid Appalachia, work was conducted to assess the effects of using treated coal mine water for the intensive production of rainbow trout in a flow-through system. During this study, comprehensive water quality data were collected to supplement fish weight and length data taken during routine monthly sampling events. The 8000 fish grew well in the raceway system over the 9 months of production, where a feed conversion ratio of 1.4 and a condition factor of 5.1 × 10−4 were measured with stocking and harvest densities of 26.4 and 50.2kg/m3, respectively. Further, total net production was 3275kg (7220lb) with 98.6% survival. Throughout the study, dissolved ion concentrations (Fe, Al, Mg, Ca, and SO4) often exceeded recommended tolerance limits. Further, elevated ammonia nitrogen concentrations generated from a component of the mine water-treatment process were identified as a potential limiting factor for aquaculture development. However, when the non-ideal effects of high ionic strength and the speciation of dissolved metal–ligand complexes were taken into account, the concentrations of free metal ions were within recommended tolerance limits.