J. Env. Bio-Sci., 2015: Vol.

29 (2):323-329
(323) ISSN 0973-6913 (Print), ISSN 0976-3384 (On Line)

A COMPARATIVE STUDY ON FISH TO PLANT COMPONENT RATIO IN

RECIRCULATING AQUAPONIC SYSTEM WITH COMMON CARP AND MINT
A. P. Shete, A. K. Verma*, N. K. Chadha, Chandra Prakash and M. H. Chandrakant
Central Institute of Fisheries Education, Mumbai, India
[Corresponding author E-mail*: akverma45@yahoo.com]

Received: 02-09-2015 Accepted: 23-09-2015

The growths of Common carp (Cyprinus carpio) and Mint were evaluated in recirculating aquaponic system. Fish production, plant
growth and nutrient removal were measured and their dependence on fish to plant component ratio were observed. Fish growth
performance differed with different fish to plant component ratio. Fish growth was higher in 1:2 and 1:3 ratios, whereas, plant
production was higher in 1:2 and 1:1 ratios. The ratios of fish to plant component were compared to balance the nutrient generation
from fish with nutrient removal by plants. The optimum ratio obtained was 1:2 (fish: plant) which showed optimum fish production,
plant growth as well as nutrient removal.

The production of high quality foods of ample quantity on a
consistent basis is vital to an individual, cultural and national
survival. Human populations require high-quality proteins,
vitamins and minerals for proper nutrition. Fish and vegetables
are excellent sources of these food groups. The scarcity of
fresh water and loss of prime agricultural lands to accommodate
growing human populations require the development of new
agricultural systems to meet the demands for food, fiber, and
fuel while reducing the environmental impacts of their
production 1. The further expansion of aquaculture now
depends on development and application of new technologies
to intensify fish cultivation, while maximizing water and
nutrients reuse, and minimizing environmental impacts2.
Interest in aquaponics is increasing globally in response to
more emphasis in resource management, sustainability, waste
management and wholesome food supply production.
Aquaponics is the combined culture of fish and plants in
recirculating system and is considered to be an innovative
and sustainable solution. It is a bio-integrated system linking
recirculating aquaculture with hydroponic production of plants
such as vegetables, ornamental flowers, and culinary or
medicinal herbs, etc. The integration of aquaculture and the
hydroponic cultivation of plants have been examined repeatedly
over the past three decades with a wide variety of system
designs, plant and aquatic animal species, and experimental
protocols3. Nutrients which are excreted directly by the fish or
generated by the microbial breakdown of organic wastes, are
absorbed by plants cultured hydroponically.
Aquaponics and recirculatory aquaculture systems in general
NAAS Rating (2016)-4.20
are stocked at high densities. Aquaponic system offers several
benefits. It increases the productivity of water by providing two
crops, i.e. fish and plants. Dissolved waste nutrients are
recovered by the plants, reducing discharge into the
environment and extending water use. Minimizing water
exchange reduces the cost of operating aquaponic system.
Having a secondary plant crop that receives most of its required
nutrients at no costs improves a system's profit potential.
Aquaponic systems require substantially less water quality
monitoring than separate hydroponic or recirculating
aquaculture systems4. The hydroponic component serves as
a biofilter, and therefore, a separate biofilter is not needed
unlike in other recirculating systems. Various fish species can
be cultured in aquaponic systems including Nile Tilapia
(Oreochromis niloticus), common carp (Cyprinus carpio),
Goldfish (Carassius auratus), Rainbow trout, Asian sea bass
(Lates calcarifer), Murray cod5-6. More than 30 types of
vegetables have been raised in integrated aquaponic system.
Lettuce, herbs, onion, cabbage, cauliflower, garlic, peas and
specially green vegetables (spinach, chives, basil etc. are well
adapted to aquaponic system and have low to medium
nutritional requirement; whereas, fruiting plants like tomatoes,
cucumbers have higher nutritional demand and perform better
in heavily stocked and well established aquaponic system6.
Aquaponic system contains several key components; the fish
component, the plant component and a filtration component.
These components include various factors such as fish and
plants species, fish and plants stocking densities, fish to plant
component ratio, water flow rate, feeding rate etc. Various
 A COMPARATIVE STUDY ON FISH TO PLANT COMPONENT (324)

Figure-1 . Aquaponics tank set up. Figure-2 . Weight gain in Common carp during the
experimental period of 60 days for different
treatments.

Figure-3 . Length gain in Common carp during the experimental period of 60 days for
different treatments.
Table-1. Feed Conversion Ratio, Feed Efficiency Ratio and Protein Efficiency Ratio of
Cyprinus carpio after 60 days.

Mean values with same superscript did not show any significant difference (p>0.05).
(325) SHETE, VERMA, CHADHA, PRAKASH AND CHANDRAKANT

Figure-4 . Growth of Mint during the experimental period of 60 days for different treatments.

Figure-5. Mint yield during the experimental period of 60 days for different treatments.
experiments have been conducted to study the hydroponic
subsytems viz. Gravel Bed, Floating Raft and Nutrient Film
Technique, water flow viz. constant versus reciprocating water
flow, hydraulic loading rate and plant ratios, fish stocking
density, water circulation period water flow rate, nutrient
dynamics4, 7-14 etc.
Research on aquaponics in India is in its infancy as compared
to other countries. Thus, there is a strong need for establishing
a technology for researchers as well as farmers for efficient
cultivation of fish and plants while conserving freshwater and
land resources in Indian agroclimatic zones. Thus, present
study aimed at standardizing one of the important component,
of aquaponics i.e. fish to plant component ratio.
MATERIAL AND METHODS
The experiment was conducted over a period of 2 months at
the wet laboratory unit of Aquaculture Division, Central Institute
of Fisheries Education, Mumbai, India. Common carp (Cyprinus
carpio) fry were procured from a commercial fish farm, Gujarat,
India. They were acclimatized at the wet laboratory facility of
the institute for another 15 days and fed on commercial pelleted
diets containing 35% protein. Mint seed were procured from
the Ratanshi Agro, Mumbai, India. Seed were planted in coco-
peat. Cow dung was added as organic manure. After growing
for 10 days, plantlets were thoroughly washed and transplanted
into the aquaponic system. Completely randomized design
 A COMPARATIVE STUDY ON FISH TO PLANT COMPONENT (326)

Table-2. Physico-chemical parameters and nutrients dynamics during the experimental period for
different treatments.

Mean values with same superscript did not show any significant difference (p>0.05).
Table-3. Ammonia-Nitrogen excretion rate, TAN removal rate and Biofilter performance of different
treatments during experimental period.

(CRD) was followed for the experiment using three replicates
for each treatment.
One aquaponic unit (Fig.-1) consisted of 3 tanks namely fish
tank, sump tank and hydroponics tank (For plants). Capacity
of fish tank is 500 l, sump tank is 400 l and hydroponics tank
is 1000 l. Water flow was maintained from fish tank to sump
tank and then to hydroponics tank. A submersible water pump
was fitted into the sump tank which lifted water from sump to
hydroponics tank. A bell siphon was assembled in the
hydroponics tank to maintain the flood and drain system which
was connected to fish tank. Cyclic timer (Crouzet TMR 48 L)
was used to control the water pumps. Timer was set to switch
on the pumps for 10 minutes and off for 50 minutes every hour.
The experimental design consisted of three treatments, each
having three randomly assigned replications. Three fish to plant
component ratios i.e. 1:1, 1:2, and 1:3 were assigned as three
(327) SHETE, VERMA, CHADHA, PRAKASH AND CHANDRAKANT
treatments, T1, T2, and T3 respectively.
After making all the connections and setting up the system,
water was filled into the tanks. Then the system was put on a
dry run for 15 days. After dry run, fishes were added to the fish
tanks and the system was run for 30 days (Cycling). The
process of establishing a beneficial nitrifying bacteria colony
in aquaponics system is called as "cycling" because it is the
initiation of the nitrogen cycle in the aquaponic system. This
is done to build the bridge between plants and fish by
establishing the bacterial colony. Developing nitrifying bacteria
makes nitrate available for the plants growth. Mint plantlets
(10 days old) were transferred into the aquaponics system
after cycling.
Sampling of fishes were carried out at 15 days interval for
assessment of growth (length and weight) and health check.
Growth parameters viz., weight gain percentage, specific
growth rate (SGR), Feed conversion ratio (FCR), Feed efficiency
ratio (FER) and Protein efficiency ratio were estimated.
Sampling of plants was done by measuring length of plants.
Water quality parameters viz., temperature, pH, dissolved
oxygen, free carbon dioxide, total hardness, alkalinity,
ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, phosphorus, potassium, calcium,
magnesium, sodium, iron and zinc were analyzed during the
experimental period with an interval of 15 days using the
standard methods15.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Aquaponic systems need to be balanced. The fish (and thus,
fish feed) need to supply adequate nutrients for the plants; the
plants need to filter the water for the fish. The biofilter needs to
be large enough to process all of the fish wastes and enough
water volume is needed to circulate this system. This balance
can be tricky to achieve in a new system. During the present
study, three different component ratios showed different growth
rates in common carp as well as mint.
The harvested body weight of the common carp among all
treatments including control varied significantly (p<0.05). Fish
growth in treatment T1 was significantly lower than T3 and
control; whereas, T2 showed the highest growth (Fig.- 2). Mean
length of common carp at the end of 60 days culture period
showed significant difference in control and treatments. Higher
value of length was recorded in T2 followed by the control, T3,
and then T1 (Fig.-3). Feed Conversion Ratio (FCR) in control
and T2 was significantly higher than T1 and T3. Feed Efficiency
Ratio (FER) of T1 and T3 was significantly higher than control
and T2. Control and treatment T2 showed significantly higher
Protein Efficiency Ratio (PER) than T1 and T3 (Table-1). Various
fish growth parameters like total weight gain, length gain, SGR,
FCR per day were higher in T2 with component ratio 1:2 followed
in decreasing order by control, T3 and T1. These results were
supported by some early workers study on how different
component ratios of the system affect fish vs. vegetable
productivity16. Larger biofilters/plant component provided better
filtration, resulting in better fish production. The higher ratios
of plant growth capacity to fish rearing capacity relative to
other systems 3 permitted recovery of nutrients in the fish
waste by the vegetable crop. This resulted in suitable water
quality and good fish production without the exchange of large
quantities of water or complex biofiltration devices17. The yields
from aquaponic systems are greater than those for plants grown
in soil under similar conditions. Similarly in the present study,
Mint production in control was lower than the aquaponic
treatments.
Height gain in Mint at the time of harvest was significantly
higher in T2 followed in decreasing order by control, T1, and
T3 (Fig.-4). Mint yield in control and different treatments showed
significant difference. Treatment T2 recorded higher yield
followed by T1, control and then T3 (Fig.-5). According to some
early workers aquaculture effluent provides most of the
nutrients required by plants if the optimum ratio between daily
feed input and plant growing area is maintained18. Mint growth
and production was affected by different component ratios.
1:2 fish to plant ratio showed better performance than 1:1 and
1:3 ratios. Lower growth performance of Mint in 1:3 ratio can
be due to lack of nutrients. Some researchers compared
different fish feed to plant component ratios in the aquaponic
system and found that for larger plant growing areas, the
inadequate nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium (NPK)
induced poor production of lettuce plants (increased removal
of minerals by plants)19. This inverse relationship between plant
growth and plant growing area supported the findings of present
study. Earlier researchers found that differences in nutrient
removal rates of nitrate nitrogen and phosphorus were
dependant on plant numbers and effluent flow rate20. If plant
numbers are increased sufficiently, nutrient concentration can
 A COMPARATIVE STUDY ON FISH TO PLANT COMPONENT
decrease to levels that may be too low to sustain plant growth.
T1 (1:1) showed low performance as plants were unable to
stripped the nutrients efficiently as also showed by other
workers that plant uptake was insufficient to remove
contaminants in one aquaponic trial due to a high ratio of fish
to plants21.
The water temperature during the study period varied within a
range of 25.8 -26.90C with no marked variation between the
treatments at any given time of sampling. In general, the pH
varied with intermediate nodes of higher and lower values in
the treatments throughout the culture period. It varied within a
narrow range of 7.0-8.0 and no marked variation was observed
among the treatments. Dissolved oxygen concentration in T2
showed significantly higher levels than T1, T3 and Control
(Table- 2). Free carbon dioxide concentration showed significant
difference. T1 showed significantly higher free CO2 than T2, T3
and Control (Table-2). Total hardness in T1 was significantly
higher than T3 and control, whereas, lower value was recorded
in T2 (Table-2). Total Alkalinity in T1 was significantly lower
than T2, T3 and Control (Table-2). Dissolved oxygen levels,
pH, free carbon dioxide, alkalinity and hardness levels were
found within the acceptable limits for fish as well as plants
culture.
Total Ammonia Nitrogen (TAN) varied significantly in control
from treatments. No significant difference was observed in
treatments T1, T2 and T3 (Table-2). Significant variation in
Nitrite-N concentration was observed with T1 showing
maximum concentration followed by T3, T2 and then Control
(Table-2). Nitrate-N levels varied significantly. Nitrate-N
concentration in T1 was the highest followed by control and
T2, while T3 showed the least value. Total phosphate in T1
was significantly higher than control followed by T2 and T3.
Treatment T3 showed significantly lower concentration of
potassium than Control, T1 and T2 (Table-2). Total Ammonia
Nitrogen levels did not show any effect of different component
ratios, whereas, Nitrite-N, Nitrate-N and total phosphate levels
were comparatively higher in T1 (1:1). This was result of low
plant to fish ratio which caused inefficient removal of Nitrogen
by the plants in the system. Significantly lower levels of
potassium, calcium, sodium, magnesium, iron and zinc in T3
(1:3) showed that higher ratio of plant to fish component was
capable of stripping off the nutrient effectively. Some earlier
workers also stated that higher plant ratio provides better
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filtration of the nutrients from the system16. Calcium in T1 was
significantly higher as compared to Control, T2 and T3 (Table-2).
Magnesium levels were significantly higher in control and T1
than T2 and T3. Sodium concentration varied significantly with
higher values recorded in Control and T1 than T2 and T3 (Table-
2). Iron concentration was significantly lower in T3 as compared
to T1, T2 and Control. Zinc concentration was significantly
higher in T1 in comparison with T2, T3 and Control (Table-2).
Ammonia-N (NH3-N) generation rate of Control and T2 was
significantly lower than T1 and T3 (Table-2). Ammonia-N (NH3-
N) excretion rate did not show any significant variation among
the treatments (Table-3). Total Ammonia Nitrogen (TAN) removal
rate was significantly higher in T3 than T1 and T2 (Table-3).
Biofilter performance value of was significantly higher in T3 in
comparison with T1 and T2 (Table-3). TAN removal rate, biofilter/
Plant component performance of the treatment with ratio 1:3
was better as compared to other ratios. The findings of the
present study were supported by the findings of the earlier
researchers study who also observed increased percentage
removal of TAN and other water quality parameters with increase
in plant ratios to fish.
To be most effective, the aquaponics system must be sized
correctly with the optimum balance between nutrient production
from fish culture and nutrient uptake by the plant component.
Findings of the present study on comparing different fish to
plant ratio for its optimization in aquaponics system shows
that Fish to plant component (1:2) ratio is optimum for rearing
Common carp and Mint in an aquaponic system.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The author would like to thank to Dr. W. S. Lakra, Director/
Vice-Chancellor, ICAR-Central Institute of Fisheries Education,
Mumbai, India for supporting this study technically and
financially.
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