Filtering capacity of Daphnia magna on sludge particles in treated wastewater

A great challenge in water reuse is the reduction of suspended particle concentration in wastewater. In particular the reduction of the presence of small particles in suspension which cause a cloudy appearance in the water and, which also make disinfection difficult. The present study evaluates the filtering capacity of a population of Cladodera (Daphnia magna) in secondary effluents from a wastewater plant. The study was performed in both a mesocosm and the laboratory, in an effort to compare the grazing on sludge particles by Daphnia versus the settling rate of those sludge particles. The particle volume concentration of small particles (with a diameter below 30 μm) was used to evaluate the efficiency of the proposed biotreatment system for small particles. Both laboratory and mesocosm results showed that the suspended particle volume concentration decreased with time due to the Daphnia filtration, with the highest reduction in experiments carried out with the highest Daphnia concentration. In the mesocosm experiments, the Daphnia diameter was also found to play an important role, with an allometric relationship between the filtering rate of Daphnia and the Daphnia nondimensional diameter. In laboratory experiments, the effect of D. magna in the suspended concentration of small particles was in the range of 10.1–29.4%, according to the range of Daphnia concentration of 10–50 ind/l. For laboratory experiments, sedimentation was responsible for 62.2% of the suspended particle concentration reduction. For the mesocosm experiments, the reduction in the particle concentration attributed to the Daphnia filtration ranged between 2.5 and 39%, corresponding to Daphnia concentrations of between 5 and 100 ind/l (i.e. biovolumes of 8–60 ind/l).

► Filtration by Daphnia magna as an effective method for wastewater treatment.
► Particle concentration results proof the efficiency of the biotreatment.
► Laboratory and mesocosm results on the Daphnia filtration are in agreement.