ISSN: 2226-6348
Open access
This study presents the development and evaluation of a custom 3D printed filter casing designed to enhance the performance of Downflow Hanging Sponge (DHS) biofilters in small scale aquaculture settings. Given the importance of dissolved oxygen (DO) for nitrifying bacteria and overall fish health, the proposed casing incorporates an external air intake opening and an internal water splitting system to improve aeration and biological filtration efficiency. Experiments comparing the new casing with a traditional seep through DHS setup were conducted using real catfish wastewater from a local farm. DO, ammonia (NH?/NH??), temperature, pH, and total dissolved solids (TDS) were measured. Results indicate that the redesigned casing achieved higher DO levels and reduced ammonia concentrations at a faster rate, demonstrating its suitability for practical aquaculture applications. This work contributes to accessible, low cost innovations for improving water quality in fish tanks and small recirculating aquaculture systems.
Furukawa, A., Matsuura, N., Mori, M., Kawamata, M., Kusaka, J., Hatamoto, M., & Yamaguchi, T. (2016). Development of a DHS-USB recirculating system to remove nitrogen from a marine fish aquarium. Aquacultural Engineering, 74, 174–179. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aquaeng.2016.08.004
Liu, W., Ke, H., Xie, J., Tan, H., Luo, G., Xu, B., & Abakari, G. (2020). Characterizing the water quality and microbial communities in different zones of a recirculating aquaculture system using biofloc biofilters. Aquaculture, 529, 735624. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aquaculture.2020.735624
Martins, M. A., Mouriño, J. L. P., Seiffert, W. Q., & Vieira, F. D. N. (2022). Predictive functional profiling of water bacterial community in the integrated culture of Pacific white shrimp and Nile tilapia under heterotrophic and mature biofloc systems. Aquaculture Research, 53(15), 5428–5433. https://doi.org/10.1111/are.16000
Suriasni, P. A., Faizal, F., Panatarani, C., Hermawan, W., & Joni, I. M. (2023). A review of bubble aeration in biofilter to reduce total ammonia nitrogen of recirculating aquaculture system. Water, 15(4), 808. https://doi.org/10.3390/w15040808
Teng, L., Watari, T., Fujimoto, T., Sato, N., Sato, T., Enoki, Y., . . . Yamaguchi, T. (2024). Performance comparison of down-flow hanging sponge reactor and moving bed bioreactor for aquaponic systems. Bioresource Technology Reports, 28, 101963. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biteb.2024.101963
Wahab, N. A., Nur, A., Takeshi, Y., Najib, S. M., Lokman, N. F., Dwijayanti, K., & Othman, M. A. (2024). Optimizing Fish Farming through Bio-DHS Filter and IoT: A Pathway to Sustainable Aquaculture Practices. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 14(12). https://doi.org/10.6007/ijarbss/v14-i12/24409
Darshani, N. P., Hewawasam, C., Jayasanka, D., Manage, P., & Hatamoto, M. (2025). Nitrogen removal performances of Downflow Hanging Sponge (DHS) reactors for wastewater treatment: A critical review. Cleaner Water, 4, 100136. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clwat.2025.100136
Wahab, N. A., Lokman, N. F., Nur, A., Takeshi, Y., Chay, T. C., Najib, S. M., & Dwijayanti, K. (2025). Sustainable water quality improvement in small-scale tilapia ponds through Bio-DHS filtration. International Journal of Integrated Engineering, 17(8), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.30880/ijie.2024.00.00.000
Wahab, N. A., Nur, A., Takeshi, Y., Najib, S. M., Arshad, A. Z., & Badaruddin, M. N. (2025). Design and Development: Filter Casing for Highly Efficenty Dissolve Oxygen. International Journal of Academic Research in Progressive Education and Development, 14(4), 2411–2422.
Copyright: © 2025 The Author(s)
Published by HRMARS (www.hrmars.com)
This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this license may be seen at: http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode