Phytoremediation in Sandpit Lake: Aquaponic

Abstract

Sandpit Lake in Sukabumi area is a suitable site for developing aquaculture. However due to rapid eutrophication only sustainable aquaculture should be applied. We evaluated the ability of lettuce in reducing nutrients from fish culture. This phytoremediation study was carried out using mesocosm, where lettuce as the phytoremediation agent were grown on vegetable floating raft (VFR) together with 25 fish which were grown underneath it and fed by fish feed. We built three sizes of VFR which were 20, 40 and 60% covered the mesocosm surface. The three sizes VFR were the treatment and the 0% covering served as control. Water quality sampling was carried out two times at day zero and day seven of the experiment. We collected temperature, oxygen, nitrogen, and phosphate data and analyzed them using ANOVA. Our result showed the nitrogen increased inside mesocosm meanwhile orthoposphat decreased. But the size of VFR did not give any effect to the water quality parameter change. However descriptively, we found that 40% of VFR was able to slowdown the nutrien TAN increasing and orthoposphat concentration found to be low. Moreover, it resulted in the highest lettuce survival. We recommend using 40% coverage in employing an aquaponic system in sandpit lake.