pH adjustment of acid water at Matre Aquaculture Station: Experiences with previous and existing methods

Abstract

The water from Matre River is characterized as very soft, with a total hardness of 1. 5 - 2. 5 mg Ca0/1 and a very low buffer capacity. Acid precipitation results in low pH, values below 5. 0 are recorded every year. As a consequence of the water quality, several systems for pH adjustment has been tried, most of them having evident limitations. In this paper several of them has been described and evaluated. A special attention has been put on the two systems which at the moment are beeing used at the station and which we think are holding promise. These are the neutralizing systems based on the addition of sodium hydroxide and well pumped salt water.