The most effective method for treating hatchery waste on site is to establish an anaerobic digester system. It is by far the most popular process used to treat organic wastes in all other organic waste industries. It has the advantage of being a high efficiency process and produces biogas which can be used for heating or generating power. The biosolids remaining after the digester process can be used as a high quality fertiliser.
Off the shelf digester systems for purchase by hatcheries are not available and need to be designed by engineers and built specifically to the requirements of each hatchery. Hatcheries disposing wastewater into lagoons could adopt the integrated aquaculture approach to produce water suitable for irrigation and other potential products such as ornamental fish; a multi-billion industry worldwide. The ideal system in a hatchery would incorporate separation and handling equipment to separate waste into its various components for further treatment. This would save disposal costs, produce biogas to reduce power costs at plants and produce a range of value added products.