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The effects of different seeding ratios on nitrification performance and biofilm formation in marine recirculating aquaculture system biofilter

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Abstract

Rapid start-up of biofilter is essential for intensive marine recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) production. This study evaluated the nitrifying biofilm formation using mature biofilm as an inoculum to accelerate the process in RAS practice. The effects of inoculation ratios (0–15 %) on the reactor performance and biofilm structure were investigated. Complete nitrification was achieved rapidly in reactors with inoculated mature biofilm (even in 32 days when 15 % seeding ratio was applied). However, the growth of target biofilm on blank carrier was affected by the mature biofilm inoculated through substrate competition. The analysis of extracellular polymeric substance (EPS) and nitrification rates confirmed the divergence of biofilm cultivation among reactors. Besides, three N-acyl-homoserine lactones (AHLs) were found in the process, which might regulate the activities of biofilm. Multivariate analysis based on non-metric multidimensional scaling (nMDS) also indicated the great roles of AHLs and substrate supply which might fundamentally determine varied cultivation performance on target biofilm.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by grants from the Natural Science Fund of China (31402348), the National Water Pollution Control and Treatment Science and Technology Major Project (2014ZX07101-012), the National Science and Technology Support Project of China (2014BAD08B09), and the National Postdoctoral Science Fund of China (2014M551747). We also thank the reviewers for their insightful comments and suggestions.

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Correspondence to Yunjie Ruan.

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Responsible editor: Bingcai Pan

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Zhu, S., Shen, J., Ruan, Y. et al. The effects of different seeding ratios on nitrification performance and biofilm formation in marine recirculating aquaculture system biofilter. Environ Sci Pollut Res 23, 14540–14548 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-016-6609-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-016-6609-1

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