Treatment of fishery wastewater by co-culture of Thalassiosira pseudonana with Isochrysis galbana and evaluation of their active components

Abstract Microalgae can synthesize their own active substances by absorbing nitrogen, phosphorus in wastewater to provide the nourishing bait for the aquatic organisms, when purifying the aquaculture wastewater. This research Thalassiosira pseudonana (Tp) and Isochrysis galbana (Ig) were selected to treat fishery wastewater and then evaluation of their active components. The results showed that the highest biomass productivity of Tp and Ig was 0.11 g·L−1·day−1 and 0.14 g·L−1·day−1, respectively, at the optimal initial inoculum biomass of 0.4 g·L−1. Furthermore, the two strains were co-cultured in different initial inoculum volume ratios, and the highest biomass was at the volume ratio of 1:1. With the most suitable inoculum biomass and volume ratio, the removal rates of NH4+-N, TN and TP were 80.65%, 85.29% and 92.75%, respectively. Moreover, the cells after wastewater treatment showed high contents of carbohydrate, protein, and lipid, which were 36.62%, 8.72% and 23.11%, respectively. This study showed that co-culturing Thalassiosira pseudonana with Isochrysis galbana to treat fishery wastewater is feasible, and algae cells have high nutritional value, which may provide a feasible technology for ecological protection and resource utilization of aquaculture.