A European project is helping to improve the efficiency and safety of ozone use in the management of water quality in aquaculture. Ozone is a great tool for the removal of fine particles and dissolved organics in fish tanks when used with a Recirculation Aquaculture Systems (RAS).
Research shows that using ozone for water treatment with an RAS improves productivity – fish are healthier and survival rates increase. Designing a high performance ozone system optimised for specific site conditions requires expertise.
Ozone has seen wide use in aquaculture because it has a rapid reaction rate, produces few harmful reaction by-products in freshwater and oxygen is produced as a reaction end-product. Ozone is an extremely reactive oxidant and a very effective bactericide and viricide. Ozone can also be used to achieve water quality improvements by micro flocculating fine particulate matter (making particles that are easier to settle or filter) and oxidizing non biodegradable organic molecules (creating smaller and more biodegradable molecules), nitrite, and refractory organic molecules (reducing water color).
Application of ozone to aquaculture requires ozone generation, ozone transfer into solution, contact time for ozone to react and disinfect, and possibly ozone destruction to ensure that no ozone residual makes it into the culture tanks The lack of knowledge and user friendliness of ozone and ozone dissolution systems has been a major issue for many fish farms in Europe. This is why Europe’s RAZone project was initiated. Its aim is to find an ozone dissolution system for the industry that is both effective and efficient. The project was initiated by the Norwegian company, Normex AS, and the research work of the project is funded by the European Union’s FP7 and managed by the Research Executive Agency (REA) and will run up until the end of 2014.