[APD] Copper poisoning in plants

["Michael Teesdale" <zapins at gmail_com>]

I was wondering whether excess copper in the water column will cause
problems with rotalla species/sagiteria/ludwigia. What are copper poisoning
symptoms?

My rotallas have no new growth when placed in the suspect water. They do not
grow, and simply turn black and then rot away. The ludwigias have trouble
rooting now (as did the stellata) as the root area just turns black and dies
up towards the leaves. In addition, my shrimp have been dying off after
water changes, and i see yellowing on some of the sagiteria leaves/other
plant parts. The yellowing is not due to nitrates/iron/sulfate since i know
exactly how much is in the tank, and it is far above deficiency levels.

There is a sign in one of the buildings next to my tank that warns people
"This water has high copper levels, but the levels are not toxic to humans."
I mean it all makes sense, my shrimp are dying, some of the sensitive plants
are dying, sagitteria, ludwigia, wachilli and others still are showing
iron<http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/autolink.php?id=35&script=showthread&forumid=10>deficiency
symptoms.

I did a bit of research on Cu symptoms, and one thing that high copper does
is limit the uptake of
iron<http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/autolink.php?id=35&script=showthread&forumid=10>,
so iron<http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/autolink.php?id=35&script=showthread&forumid=10>deficiency
symptoms show up.

What do you think i should do? Also what are the levels of copper that are
toxic to plants? I bought a test kit thats accurate to 0.01 mg/L that should
be comming soon. Hopefully that will be sensitive enough to tell what is
going on. In addition, i will be testing the water at the lab for copper, so
i will probably be able to obtain a much more accurate reading.
_______________________________________________
Aquatic-Plants mailing list
Aquatic-Plants at actwin_com
http://www.actwin.com/mailman/listinfo/aquatic-plants