Diatom Culture Nualgi Fish Farming

Importance of Diatom Culture

Diatom culture is a method of farming in which fishes are cultivated without providing aeration and filtration. I got to learn a lot about diatom culture from various people. But we have not yet  tested this farming method. Many farmers in Kerala today are successfully cultivating fish using this method of cultivation. That’s when we had to build a new nursery pond to rear 5,000 koi carp babies on the fish farm. And so we decided to  follow diatom culture to rear these baby fishes.Through this video we will show you what all we did to start this new diatom culture in a new Fish tank. A detailed video on diatom culture Nualgi Fish Farming will be made later. Try to watch the video completely.

What Is Diatoms

Diatoms are single-celled algae. It becomes food for aquatic plant plankton. These plant plankton are also good protein foods for fish. These type of diatom produces about 80 percent of the oxygen in the oceans.  Oxygen is produced by this method in flowing rivers and streams also.

A thought on how to make effective use of this diatom phenomenon that occurs naturally in almost all the oceans, rivers and streams into our fish ponds lead to the idea of such a farming method.

How to Start Diatom Culture

The pond for diatom culture should be located in a well-lit place. A diatom pond exposed to 10 hours of sunlight will contain 10 ppm to 15 ppm of oxygen. While supplying oxygen with an air pump produces a maximum of 5 ppm only. However, diatom produces oxygen only during daylight hours by carrying out the process of photosynthesis. Therefore it is essential to provide aeration during night time.

Nitrogen is essential for the growth of diatom algae. It depends on the nitrogen sources of ammonia, nitrite and nitrate produced in the fish pond. Therefore, it helps to turn the ammonia level of the fish pond into zero.

Now let’s see what all were done to cultivate the diatom in this particular pond. This is a nursery pond that holds about 5000 liters of water rearing juvenile fishes.This pond contains more than 5000 Koi carp fish fries, about one cm in size.

1 – pH Value of the Water in Diatom Culture

It is to be ensured that the pH of the water in the pond lies between seven and eight. If the pH of the water is not between seven and eight, then of course it should be kept between seven and eight.

2 – The alkalinity or KH CARBONATE HARDNESS of the water should be tested.

This fish pond has an alkalinity of 160. Diatom culture pond should have KH of at least above 150 ppm. If it is less than 150 ppm, it should be raised above 150 ppm by using dolomite or calcium carbonate. If you no longer know how to test the Alkalinity (KH) of water then you can learn it, we have already uploaded a video in detail about it. For those who have not seen the video, you can watch the entire video by clicking on the link above.

3 – Collect Diatoms.

Third is the collection of diatom algae needed for the pond. We use bore well water for our fish farming requirements in our fish pond. Diatom is less likely to occur normally in tube well water and well water. Therefore, diatoms should be collected from ponds or rivers with good flow. We collected diatoms from the river for this pond. The water flowing through the rocky surfaces contains good amount of diatom. Similarly, it is better to scratch out the algae stuck in the rocks and collect it with water. One liter diatomaceous water can be added to one thousand liters of water. Instead you can also buy and add zooplankton available in aqua shops.

4 – Mix Nualgi to Diatom Culture Pond.

The water containing the diatom collected from river is then mixed with NUALGI. Magic Bloom can also be used instead. Mix one ml of NUALGI per 1000 liters of water. Five ml of NUALGI is taken in a test tube as is mixed into a bucket of water.This mixture is then poured into the pond in such a way as to reach everywhere.

This is all we have done so far for diatom aqua culture in this particular fish pond. If the pond is exposed to good amount of sunlight, the diatom will become active within four to five days in the pond. Until then it is necessary to provide aeration. It is also essential to remove the waste that is accumulated at the bottom of the pond.

Like Aquaponics and Biofloc, diatom culture is a good farming method. We will come back later with another video with new information regarding our diatom farming method. Your doubts and comments about aquaculture can be commented below. If you like this video, don’t forget to share it with others and subscribe to the channel. See you again with another video Thanks.