Water quality management in shrimp aquaculture ponds using remote water quality logging system

Abstract

Currently an institutional co-operation project funded by NORAD is evaluating different environmental management strategies for sustainable aquaculture in India. A brief description of a remote water quality logging system installed in shrimp ponds to obtain real-time data on vital water parameters and to monitor the ponds is presented. The potential application and advantages of such automated data loggers vis-a-vis traditional (conventional) methods of measurements installed in shrimp ponds in the coastal Karnataka are discussed. The data logging system consists of two remote monitoring units and one base-station unit Data generated on physico-chemical variables such as dissolved oxygen, temperature, salinity, pH, turbidity, redox-potential from remotely logged units were compared with manual analytical methods which revealed that results from two types of analyses were comparable. The advantages of using these automated systems are that a large number of samples could be processed in sh'ort time within minimum cost compared to the manual methods. The study also revealed that the data logging system could be effectively used to improve the understanding of the processes occurring at sediment-water interface in aquaculture pond. Further the data generated could be effectively used to optimize the amount of aeration in shrimp ponds, thus resulting in considerable energy savings. In addition, continuous loggers equipped with alarm systems could also act as early warning systems to the farm managers on the water quality conditions prevailing in different ponds and to take appropriate management decisions for water quality.