UNAIR NEWS – Three 东京热 students in their innovative research have found the influence of water clover to reduce聽ammonia聽in aquaponic system cultivation, so it can improve fishery production in Indonesia.
The success was made by three students of Aquaculture 东京热 , Ridhwan Hakim Mahendra, Mirda Tri Aries Chandra and Oktavia Arini Zuhriastuti.
The exacta research (PKM-PE) category supervised by Daruti Dinda Nindarwi, S.Pi., MP, lecturer at the Faculty of Fisheries and Marine , passed the Ministry of Research, Technology and Higher Education (Kemenristekdikti) funding selection in 2018.
Ridhwan Hakim as the leader of the research team, said that aquaculture market is expected to be the main contributor to improvef national fishery production to meet the food need of Indonesian population.
Population growth followed by increasing industrial activity made the field for aquaculture narrower, and farmers change their cultivation system towards super intensive cultivation to meet the existing needs.
One of the most widely used and widely used technologies is the Aquaponic system.聽This system is a technology that is based on the principle of assimilation of inorganic nitrogen聽(ammonia, nitrite听补苍诲听nitrate)聽by microbial communities in the cultivation media which can then be utilized by organisms cultivated as a food source.
Aquaculture activities using aquaponic technology with bioremediation method is a cultivation system by applying high density and utilizing aquaculture waste as an additional feed.
“The commodities that are often used in the aquaponic system are catfish.聽Why?聽Because catfish has a high selling price and market demand, but its production cost is relatively low.聽Moreover, aquaculture activities with this aquaponic system can be done by the middle class community as additional income,” added Ridhwan Hakim.
Besides, he added, bioremediation effort to reduce toxins in the聽ammonia聽for this Aquaponic system is one way to avoid the effects of accumulated heavy metal toxins that could potentially be transferred to humans who consume them.
Bioremediation is the use of biological agents to neutralize contaminated soil and water into substances harmless to the environment or human health.聽Biological agents used may be enzymes, microbial cells or plants.聽One potential plant as a bioremediation agent is water clover.
The PKM-PE team conducted a three month research using catfish and clover water as its object.聽 The water in the cultivation of catfish contains聽ammonia聽that will be absorbed by water clover plants.
The results of the research as told by Ridhwan, the number of clover as many as 40 stems in a medium plant size of 300 cm聽2聽can absorb聽ammonia聽averagely 50%.聽“So the use of this water clover is effective in reducing聽ammonia聽levels聽in aquaculture using an aquaponic system,” he said.聽(*)
Editor: Bambang Bes
