Journal of Water and Environment Technology, Vol. 11, No.

2, 2013

Different Approaches for the Separation of Suspended

Solids in Aquaculture System

Thanakorn ERMUKDAKUL*, Nattawin CHAWALOESPHONSIYA**, ***, Benjaporn

BOONCHAYAANANT*, Wiboonluk PUNGRASMI*, Pisut PAINMANAKUL*

*Department of Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Chulalongkorn

University, 254, Phayathai Rd., Wang Mai, Pathumwan, Bangkok 10330, Thailand
**International Postgraduate Programs in Environmental Management, Graduate School,
Chulalongkorn University, 254, Phayathai Rd., Wang Mai, Pathumwan, Bangkok 10330,
Thailand
***Center of Excellence for Environmental and Hazardous Waste Management (EHWM),
Chulalongkorn University, 6th Floor, Room 606, Vidyabhathna Building, Phayathai Rd.,
Wang Mai, Pathumwan, Bangkok 10330, Thailand

ABSTRACT
The objective of this research is to propose the suitable suspended solid (SS) treatment process
for the wastewater of the actual aquaculture systems (tilapia ponds). Sedimentation, coagulation,
and depth filtration were chosen and applied in this study. Sand and anthracite were used as
media in the depth filtration; while alum was used as a coagulant in jar tests. The results showed
that, at the optimal operating condition, sedimentation (overflow rate of 0.8 m/hr) and
coagulation (alum concentration of 15 mg/L) can provide treatment efficiencies of 90% and
99.25%, respectively. However, several drawbacks (high detention time, decrease of pH value,
sludge generation) were observed. Therefore, the depth filtration processes with single and dual
media were applied at different media configurations. The highest treatment efficiency (92%)
and moderate filtration performance (80 minutes operating time and 12 m/hr filtration rate) can
be obtained with the combination of media between anthracite (2 mm effective size and 0.15 m
in depth) and sand (0.8 mm effective size and 0.55 m in depth). Finally, sedimentation as
pretreatment and aeration in batch mode along the media depth were proven to significantly
enhance the overall filtration performance.

Keywords: aquaculture system, coagulation, filtration, sedimentation, separation, suspended

solids

INTRODUCTION
Recently, recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) is one of the well-liked methods for
shrimp and fish cultivation farm in Thailand. Water quality management was required in
order to control the amount of suspended solids or SS (e.g. fecal matter and uneaten
feed) and nutrients (e.g. nitrogen, phosphorus, etc.) present in this system. Therefore,
the removal of SS can be considered as one of the key processes in an RAS (Chen et al.,
1993). The high solid concentrations in RAS have numerous impacts on fishes and
water quality, such as damage of fish gills, increases in biochemical oxygen demand
(BOD), reduction of nitrification in biofilters and increases of ammonia concentrations
(Wong, 2001; Zhu and Chen, 2001). Typically, the common separation processes for
removing SS in the system are sedimentation, coagulation-flocculation and filtration
processes. These processes contained different pros and cons in practical applications,
as well as, the design and operating conditions. To fulfill this gap, the objective of this
research is to study and propose the suitable SS treatment process for the actual RAS
wastewater (tilapia ponds). The processes were considered in different points of view:
treatment efficiency, design and operating factors (retention time, system dimension,

Address correspondence to Pisut Painmanakul, Department of Environmental Engineering, Faculty of

Engineering, Chulalongkorn University, Email: pisut.p@chula.ac.th
Received May 11, 2012, Accepted September 13, 2012.
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cost, etc.). The obtained results were finally compared and thus the suitable treatment
process for RAS ponds was suggested.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The influent wastewater used in this study was supplied from a tilapia pond with a
diameter of 3 m and a depth of 0.7 m (working volume of 7 m3). About 30 rigid
diffusers were installed. This pond was used for feeding one-year-old Nile tilapias, and
consisted of different treatment processes (sedimentation and filtration) as shown in Fig.
1.

In this study, three different processes (sedimentation, coagulation and filtration) were
applied and analyzed in order to propose the suitable SS treatment process for the
experiments in tilapia pond. It should be noted that these processes are conventional
methods for SS removal in water treatment processes (Qasim et al., 2000). The related
experimental set-up and procedure can be summarized as follows.

Sedimentation experiment
The discrete settling test was firstly conducted to obtain the design and operating
guideline of the sedimentation tank used in this study. The test was performed in a
cylindrical acrylic column with a diameter of 0.05 m and a height of 1.0 m (Fig. 2a).
Effluent samples were obtained at the depths of 0.55 m and 0.85 m and measured for
turbidity over time. After that, the sedimentation tank as shown in Fig. 2b was designed
and operated for the separation of SS from the wastewater at different liquid flow rates
(overflow rates).

Coagulation experiment
The jar test was conducted in order to determine the optimal pH value and chemical
dosage. Alum was used as a coagulant because of its low cost, high solubility and
commercial availability. The applied concentrations were varied from 5 to 100 mg/L.
The coagulant was added into beakers containing 1 L of wastewater and mixed rapidly
at 100 rpm for 3 minutes. Afterwards, the slow mixing with 40 rpm for 30 minutes was
applied and then allowed to settle for 45 minutes. The supernatant from each beaker was
sampled and analyzed for pH and turbidity. The experimental results in terms of
turbidity and SS were then used for determining the removal efficiency.

Fig. 1 - Diagram of the actual RAS pond used in this study.

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Fig. 2 - Detailed schematic representation of sedimentation experiments.

Filtration experiment
The experimental setup of filtration unit consisted of a mixing tank, a centrifugal pump,
and a rapid sand filtration column. Piezometers were installed in fifteen points with 0.05
m gap between each point as displayed in Fig. 3. The rapid sand filter was with 0.15 m
inner diameter and 1.8 m height. It was divided into four sections including 0.3 m of
freeboard, 0.5 m of water head, 0.7 m of filter media height, and 0.3 m of gravel layer
(Fig. 4). Moreover, gas diffusers were installed at three different points at the top,
middle and bottom of filter depths for the backwashing step and for enhancing the
filtration performance by aeration. The filter media of single media was sand with an
effective size of 0.55 mm while that of dual media filtration were sand and anthracite
with varied effective sizes or d10. The sand media were in three d10 of 0.55, 0.8, and 2
mm; while the anthracite media were in five d10 including 0.85, 1.6, 2.00, 2.36, and 2.80
mm. In this study, the filtration column was operated continuously until clogging
phenomena was observed as indicated by the experimental results of filtration rates and
piezometer values. Then, at the end of the operating system, the filter was cleaned by
backwashing. The results from these experiments were collected in terms of filtration
rates, overall treatment efficiencies, operating time, accumulated effluent volume and
headloss.

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Fig. 3 - Experimental set-up of depth filtration unit.

Influent
Free board 0.3 m
Over flow

Water depth 0.5 m

Piezometer
Gas
diffuser

1.8 m

Filter depth 0.7 m

Drainage 0.3 m

Effluent

Fig. 4 - Detailed schematic representation of rapid sand column.

In this study, the filtration efficiency equation as expressed in Eq. (1) was applied in
order to determine the depth of dual media filter; 0.15 m anthracite and 0.55 m sand
were obtained and applied as media depth in this work (Reynolds and Richards, 1996).

(1)

where the single collector efficiency (T ) can be calculated as follows:

(2)

The headloss (H) and pressure distribution along the filter depth were determined
experimentally by using the piezometers as shown in Fig. 3. Effluents were collected at
the bottom of the column and analyzed to estimate the filtration performance. In
addition, the filtration rates were calculated by Eq. (3).

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(3)

For improving the overall filtration performance, several methods were considered and
studied in this part. Firstly, the filtration process was combined with aeration at a gas
flow rate of 1.5 L/min and aeration period of 10 minutes. Air was injected intermittently
through the gas diffusers located at the middle and bottom parts of filtration media.
Another approach was the pretreatment by sedimentation process as shown in Fig. 1
(Ran et al., 2004). The overflow rate for operating the sedimentation tank (Fig. 2b) was
chosen from the results obtained from the discrete settling test as presented previously,
then applied in this part.

Analytical methods
The influents were collected daily for examining ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, SS, and COD
by the Standard Methods 4500-NH3 D, 4500-NO–2 B, 4500-NO–3, 2540D and 5220D,
respectively (APHP/AWWA/WEF, 1992). The turbidity and pH were also investigated.
The characteristics of the influent liquid are presented in Table 1. Moreover, the particle
sizes in the influent were evaluated using a particle analyzer; the results are shown in
Fig. 5. The removal efficiency in terms of turbidity (C) can be calculated by Eq. (4).

(4)

Table 1 - RAS wastewater characteristics.

Fig. 5 - Particle size distribution.

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RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The results in this study are divided into 3 parts as the wastewater was treated by
several processes: 1) sedimentation, 2) coagulation, and 3) filtration.

Sedimentation process
The results of the discrete settling test are shown in Fig. 6. It was found that the
penetration values (C/C0) increased, whereas the removal efficiencies (1 – C/C0)
decreased with the increases in overflow rates. Moreover, it can be observed that the
considerable efficiencies (15 to 37%) were obtained at the overflow rates ranging
between 2.5 and 7.5 m/hr. Therefore, this value was applied and validated with the
experimental results obtained with the actual RAS pond (Table 2).

According to Table 2, it can be firstly noted that the predicted values from discrete
settling model were close to the experimental ones. Moreover, the highest efficiency
was obtained at 37% from the overflow rate of 2.49 m/hr. These low treatment
efficiencies conformed to the wastewater characteristics in which the suspended
particles were approximately in the size of 100 m (Fig. 5). This particle size contains a
settling velocity of 6.15 m/hr as calculated from Stoke’s law (Eq. (5)).

(5)

Fig. 6 - Experimental results from discrete settling test.

Table 2 - Experimental results from sedimentation column.

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The density of particle size was calculated by Eq. (6) (Blake and Hartge, 1986):

(6)

Therefore, the overflow rate less than 6.15 m/hr is required in order to achieve a high
separation efficiency for the SS. This low overflow rate resulted in a large volume and
area required for the process, which was a major disadvantage of this process. From this
reason, the chemical coagulation process was applied, in the next section, to treat the
RAS wastewater.

Coagulation process
The experimental results obtained with the coagulation process (jar test) are illustrated
in Figs. 7 and 8. The coagulation process with alum dosages of 5 to 40 mg/L provided
high turbidity removal efficiencies (> 97%). However, it can be observed that the
efficiencies dramatically decreased when the alum concentration increased; the effect of
charge reversal phenomenon should be responsible for these results (Wu et al., 2007).

According to Fig. 8, the pH values decreased and remained roughly constant when the
alum concentrations increased. This should be related with the chemical coagulation

Fig. 7 - Efficiency of treatment at different alum dose concentrations.

Fig. 8 - Effect of alum dosage on alum.

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reaction and the presence of alkalinity in RAS wastewater. Therefore, the alum
concentrations in the range of 5 to 40 mg/L were concluded as an optimal condition for
this study. However, the coagulation process contained some disadvantages such as
sludge generation (approximately 150.7 to 160 mg/L for 5 to 40 mg/L of alum,
respectively) and complex system requirements (i.e. mixing tank, flocculation tank, and
sedimentation tank). At this point, a simpler process with high treatment efficiency was
required. Hence, the separation of SS by filtration process was then conducted, and the
obtained results were presented in the succeeding section.

Filtration process
The experimental results obtained with direct filtration was presented in terms of
filtration rates, overall treatment efficiencies, operating time, accumulated effluent
volume and associated headloss. Firstly, the conventional depth filtration (using sand
with 0.55 mm of d10) was operated and the results showed very short operation time (5 –
7 min) and very low accumulated effluent volume (6 – 7 L). Moreover, the increases in
sand d10 (between 0.8 and 2 mm) did not significantly increase these two parameters.
The treatment efficiencies ranging between 60 and 94% in terms of turbidity were found
for all of the filtration systems. Therefore, it can be stated that the single sand media
with 0.55 mm in d10 value was unsuitable to apply for the SS removal in this actual
tilapia pond.

In this work, the dual media filtration system (sand – anthracite) was then applied in
order to enhance the overall filtration performance. The filtration efficiency equation
(Eq. (1)) and the single collector efficiency (Eq. (2)) were applied to theoretically select
the d10 of filter media used. The filtration efficiency of 90% was assumed as the design
criteria. Various combinations of sand media with 3 d10 (0.55, 0.8 and 2 mm) and
anthracite media with 5 d10 (0.85, 1.6, 2.0, 2.36 and 2.8 mm) were obtained and
examined in this study. The results are summarized in Table 3.

According to Table 3, it can be noted that the d10 of sand and anthracite selected in dual
media filtration system can affect the filtration performance in different points of view
as follows:

Table 3 - Overall performance of dual media combined with anthracite and sand.
Media size A B C D E F G H I
Media size Sand 0.55 Sand 0.8 Sand 0.8 Sand 0.8 Sand 0.8 Sand 2.0 Sand 2.0 Sand 2.0 Sand 2.0
(d10, mm)
Anthracite Anthracite Anthracite Anthracite Anthracite Anthracite Anthracite Anthracite Anthracite
0.85 1.6 2.0 2.36 2.8 1.6 2.0 2.36 2.8
Filtration rate 4.8 – 11.0 2.7 – 12.4 3.4 – 12.74 2.4 – 9.0 6.3 – 8.5 12.8 – 22.7 6.3 – 18.9 7.2 – 19.6 6.9 – 19.6
(m/hr.) (8.2 ± 2.3) (7.4 ± 3.6) (8.4 ± 3.5) (6.1 ± 2.1) (6.4 ± 1.8) (19.6 ± 4.5) (13.4 ± 4.1) (14.7 ± 4.5) (14 ± 4.6)
Turbidity
77.6 – 92.8 84.7 –92.7 83.9 – 93.1 91.2 – 95.0 85.6 – 93.0 68.9 – 88.8 57.7 – 81.1 60.8 – 85.6 61.1 – 87.3
removal
(89.5 ± 5.4) (89.9 ± 3.3) (89.7 ± 2.6) (93.2 ± 1.6) (90.7 ± 2.9) (78.2 ± 7.4) (75.5 ± 9.0) (73.8 ± 8.7) (71.2 ± 10.3)
efficiency (%)
Turbidity of
5.9 – 18.4 5.9 – 12.5 5.7 – 13.2 3.6 – 5.8 5.8 – 11.8 10.3 – 28.6 14.6 – 32.6 13.0 – 35.4 12.3 – 37.6
effluent
(8.6 ± 4.4) (8.2 ± 2.7) (8.7 ± 2.3) (5.0 ± 1.1) (7.4 ± 2.3) (20.1 ± 6.8) (18.9 ± 7.0) (23.7 ± 7.9) (27.8 ± 10.0)
(NTU)

Operating 30 74 80 57.2 54 27.3 54.4 80 96.2

time (min.)

Total volume 65 130 180 100 100 150 210 300 350
of effluent (L)

Headloss (m) 0.451 0.416 0.412 0.410 0.409 0.141 0.137 0.134 0.132

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 The operating time (filtration period before backwashing) and accumulated effluent
volume were enhanced by using this dual media filtration compared with single media
ones. These values depended on the d10 of both media used in the filtration system;
 The highest (350 L) and the lowest (65 L) effluent volumes were obtained with the
combined media with sand 2 mm and anthracite 2.8 mm (set I) and the combined
media with sand 0.55 mm and anthracite 0.85 mm (set A), respectively.
 The highest filtration rate (19.6 m/hr) was observed in the case of sand media with 2
mm in d10 and anthracite media with 1.6 mm in d10 (set F). However, this operating
condition provided the shortest operating time (27.3 min); this value is close to that
obtained with the smallest size of combined media used in this study (sand 0.55 mm
and anthracite 0.85 mm ; set A) .
 The headloss obtained experimentally at the beginning increased when the d10 of both
sand and anthracite decreased. Moreover, it can be stated that the anthracite layer
caused smaller headloss than the sand layer; the difference of filtration depth (15 cm in
depth of anthracite media against 55 cm in depth of sand media) should be responsible
for these results. It should be noted that these results relate with the Carman-Kozeny
equation (Reynolds and Richards, 1996):

(7)

 The treatment efficiencies (60 – 95%) were obtained by using the dual media filtration
system; these values were close to those obtained with the single media system.
Moreover, it can be noted that sand with 0.8 mm in d10 and anthracite with 2 – 2.36 mm
in d10 should be applied in order to achieve a higher efficiency.

In conclusion, two suitable sets of combined media in dual media filtration system were
selected in this study: 1) sand 0.8 mm and anthracite 2.0 mm (set C) for the quality
(treatment efficiency) and 2) sand 2 mm and anthracite 2.8 mm (set I) for the quantity
(operating time and effluent volume). In the following section, different techniques are
applied in order to enhance the first combined media set in terms of quantity. This
should be useful and applicable in real operating conditions.

Enhancement of dual media filtration system

In this part, the pretreatment (sedimentation) and aeration inside the filter media were
applied for improving the overall filtration performance (operating time and
accumulated effluent volume). The overflow rate of 2.5 m/hr was chosen according to the
results from the sedimentation process as shown in Table 2. The reduction of turbidity
(from 81.7 to 67.9 NTU) and SS (from 158.5 to 99.8 mg/L) in liquid phase were thus
obtained. Moreover, the gas flow rate of 1.5 L/min and the aeration period of 10 minutes
were applied. The overall results obtained in this part can be summarized in Table 4.

According to Table 4, it can be expressed that the pretreatment by sedimentation and

aeration can successfully improve the overall filtration performance, especially the
operating time (from 80 to 110 – 120 min) and effluent volume (from 180 to 250 – 270
L). Moreover, the variation of accumulated effluent volume and effluent turbidity with
operating time for different filtration systems (dual media, dual media with
sedimentation and dual media with aeration) are shown in Figs. 9 and 10, respectively.

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Table 4 - Enhancement for the overall performance of dual media combined with
anthracite and sand.

Fig. 9 - Variation in the volume of effluent in dual media.

Fig. 10 - Variation in the turbidity of effluent in dual media.

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In the case of filtration with sedimentation as a pretreatment, the accumulated effluent

volume obtained was greater than the conventional dual media. It can be stated that the
large particles (> 100 m) were effectively removed due to the selected overflow rate.
This corresponds with the calculated particle size for the overflow rate value chosen in
this work. Therefore, this can provide the reduction of particle deposition at the surface
of filtration media, and thus increase the effluent volume, operating time and filtration
rate. Moreover, the effluent turbidity was slightly lower than those obtained with
another system (Fig. 10).

Regarding the filtration system with aeration, the particle deposited, especially at the
surface of the filter media, can possibly be removed due to the gas flow rate injected
intermittently and thus augmented the overall filtration performance. However, due to
the increase of turbidity during 2 aeration times (at 60 and 85 min) as shown in Fig. 10,
it can be noted that the modification of filter media occurred due to mixing or turbulent
condition and the relative porosity. Therefore, this phenomenon should be considered as
one of the important drawbacks of this technique in real operating conditions. In the
future, the effects of the injected gas phase on the increased media porosity () and thus
on the reduction of headloss (H) should be locally analyzed to provide a better
understanding on the mechanism of dual media filtration system combined with aeration.
In conclusion, sedimentation as pretreatment and the application of aeration can be
considered as simple techniques for improving the combined media set (sand 0.8 mm
and anthracite 2.0 mm; set C) in terms of quantity (operating time and effluent volume).

CONCLUSION
The objective of this work was to study the different approaches for the separation of SS
for tilapia ponds with RAS. For this purpose, the case study with 7 m3 of tilapia pond
was performed; in which the concepts for selecting and designing the treatment
processes are proposed. The results have shown that the SS in the wastewater from this
pond can be effectively separated by using coagulation and dual media filtration with
sand 0.8 mm and anthracite 2.0 mm (set C) in d10 (efficiency > 90%). The dual media
filtration system can provide advantages on investment and operational costs compared
with the coagulation process. Filtration with sedimentation as pretreatment and filtration
combined with aeration can be considered as simple techniques for improving the
filtration performance (operating time and effluent volume).

NOMENCLATURES

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This research was supported by the Higher Education Research Promotion and National
Research University Project of Thailand, Office of the Higher Education Commission
(FW1017A) and CU graduate school thesis grant of Chulalongkorn University.

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