Effectiveness of commercial bioactivator in biofilters on acclimatization time and reduction of BOD and COD in cracker industrial wastewater treatment

Abstract Indramayu is one of the regions with a fish cracker processing industry with production output of 3.5 thousand tons or 45.20% of the total production of processed fishery products. The production of fish crackers produces wastewater which increase organic pollutants in wates that exceed quality standards. The study aims to determine the effectiveness of commercial bioactivator on acclimatization time and the reduction of COD and BOD levels in liquid waste of the cracker industry by using anaerobic-aerobic biofilters on andesite stone fragment media. Based on the results of this study, the bioactivator was able to reduce COD concentration from 2337.71 mg/L to 196.94 mg/L and BOD concentration from 653.6 mg/L to 95.09 mg/L. The final ratio of BOD/COD increased from 0.22 at 4 hours to 0.47 at 24 hours indicating a shift into the biodegradable zone. The total COD removal efficiency reached 91.42%, while BOD removal efficiency reached 85.26%.