A comparative evaluation of surface water quality standards for lakes and fish ponds from Bucharest and vicinity

Abstract

Monitoring of lakes and ponds water quality parameters is important to evaluate the interactions between quality and effects on aquatic organisms’ growth and health. Even if each water parameter individually may not be relevant, several parameters together can reveal dynamic processes that occur in the water. For instance, unbalanced pH values may increase ammonia and hydrogen sulfide toxicity. Nitrogen and phosphorus are associated with plant and algae growth, although phosphorus is generally the limiting nutrient in freshwater bodies. Accordingly, it is recommended to monitor and assess water quality parameters based on routine analyses. Therefore, the aim of this study was to generate an overview of our researches related to the monitoring of water quality collected from lakes and fish ponds. The parameters on the basis of which was evaluated the quality of water were: pH, electrical conductivity (EC), total hardness (TH), chemical oxygen demand (COD), nitrate-nitrogen (N-NO3-), nitrite nitrogen (N-NO2-), ammonium nitrogen (N-NH4+), phosphate phosphorus (P-PO43-).