Continuous Monitoring of Recirculated Aquaculture Water

Control of recirculated water in aquaculture systems will require the monitoring of several important parameters to assure the absence of toxic conditions and verify the effectiveness of treatment processes. These parameters include nitrite, ammonia, pH, dissolved oxygen and total suspended solids. The proposed research investigates two techniques for on-line analysis of ammonia that can be used with an existing absorbance spectrometry system capable of nitrite, nitrite and turbidity analysis without affecting existing pH, dissolved oxygen and temperature probes. Each technique will be evaluated for ammonia detection within the expected control range for aquaculture systems and will also be evaluated for the potential to withstand interferences from other nitrogenous compounds, background chemistry in aquaculture systems, turbidity and biofouling.