Promising water treatment practices with peracetic acid products

Peracetic acid products can be used as sanitizers to control water quality in aquaculture systems. Here we describe recent practical experiences of applying peracetic acid (PAA) as an alternative to formalin or sodium chloride. PAA has strong antimicrobial effect, it is easy degradable and relatively safe to use work-wise. Being a strong oxidant, PAA resembles ozone in its mode of action and the associated rapid decay. This can be a challenge towards optimizing treatment protocols, and continuous low dose applications seem to be a promising solution. PAA is listed among the few disinfectants to be approved to be applied in organic aquaculture where formalin is prohibited (EU, 2014a). As of January 2016, organic trout production fully depends on organic reared ova and fry, which already are available for purchase from Danish hatcheries. DTU Aqua, The Danish Aquaculture Organisation in cooperation with DTU Vet, University of Copenhagen and University of Aalborg have recently launched research projects, which include addressing how to optimise PAA application in juvenile trout production in order to be prepared to meet new production conditions (ROBUSTFISH, 2014)