Institute of Marine Sciences, University of Dar es Salaam, P.O. Box 668, Zanzibar, Tanzania; Israel Oceanographic and Limnological Research, National Center for Mariculture, P.O. Box 1212, Eilat 88112, Israel
Msuya, F.E., Institute of Marine Sciences, University of Dar es Salaam, P.O. Box 668, Zanzibar, Tanzania; Neori, A., Israel Oceanographic and Limnological Research, National Center for Mariculture, P.O. Box 1212, Eilat 88112, Israel
The seaweed Ulva lactuca L. was spray cultured by mariculture effluents in a mattress-like layer, held in air on slanted boards by plastic netting. Air-agitated seaweed suspension tanks were the reference. Growth rate, yield, and ammonia-N removal rate were 11.8% · d-1, 171 g fresh weight (fwt) · m-2 · d-1, and 5 g N · m-2 · d-1, respectively, by the spray-cultured U. lactuca, and 16.9% · d-1, 283 g fwt · m-2 · d-1, and 7 g N · m-2 · d-1, respectively, by the tank U. lactuca. Biomass protein content was similar in both treatments. Dissolved oxygen in the fishpond effluent water was raised by >3 mg · L-1 and pH by up to half a unit, upon passage through both culture systems. The data suggest that spray-irrigation culture of U. lactuca in this simple green-mattress-like system supplies the seaweed all it needs to grow and biofilter at rates close to those in standard air-agitated tank culture. © 2010 Phycological Society of America.