Chlorination of seawater used for shrimp culture

Abstract

Chlorination of sand-filtered and microfiltered seawater for 24 hours significantly reduced the initial bacterial load from 10⁵ to 10⁰ - 10¹ colony forming units (cfu) per ml. The total plate counts steadily increased however, after neutralization, reaching levels similar to those of untreated water 24 hours later. Results suggest that chlorine exerts bacteriostatic effects at 5 to 30 ppm and that water should be used within 6 hours after neutralization when the bacterial load is at its minimum level of no higher than 10² cfu/ml.