Evaluation of a rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mikyss) culture water recirculating system

Objective. To evaluate a water recirculation system of rainbow trout fish culture at the recirculating laboratory of the Aquaculture Engineering Production Program of the Universidad of Nariño. Materials and Methods. There were cultured 324 rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mikyss) fries in 12 plastic tanks of 250 L capacity in a recirculation aquaculture system which treatment system was made up by a conventional sedimentation tank, a fixed bead up flow biofilter with recycled PVC tube pieces used as carrier, and a natural degassing system; the sedimentation unit effluent was pumped to a reservoir tank by a centrifugal 2 HP after passed by gravity through the biofilter and was distributed to the 12 culture units in which there were injected a constant amount of air from a blower. Results. The waste water treatment system removes 31% of the Total Suspended Solids; 9.5% of total ammonia nitrogen, and increased the dissolved oxygen to the final effluent in a 6.5%. It was calculated a biomass increase of 305% on the 75 days, the mortality percentage registered during the research period was of 4.9%. Conclusions. The wastewater treatment system maintained the physic chemical water quality parameters in the recommended values for the specie. The values of weight and size gain, food conversion, mortality and biomass production reported were between the normal values of rainbow trout fish culture in recirculating systems.