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Re: [APD] Copper poisoning in plants



Hmm, interesting... I would like to see the plans for a skimmer.

The water here has 0 degrees kH so i suspect that ph swings are very common
depending on the time of year etc...

So are leveles below 2ppm toxic for plants/shrimp?

On 5/11/06, Dave Wilson <aqua_green at bigpond.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> I tried to set up a pond in a new Hospital Building here in Darwin NT, Oz.
> The new pipes were all copper.   The water lilies and fish all died after
> a
> few weeks so I started to test for a few different things.   The copper
> levels were over 3 ppm so I looked up the safe drinking levels for humans.
> It was about 2 ppm.   We reported the high copper levels in the water as a
> problem for both the pond and the patients.   They Hospital Admin filled
> in
> the pond and put a nice pattern in the gravel.   I expect the copper
> levels
> would have come down after the copper pipes aged.
>
> I have also tried to kill snails without killing plants in my plant
> production ponds.   Some plants are more sensitive to copper than others.
> Copper toxicity changes with pH.   Copper can be removed from water via
> foam
> fractionation (protein skimming).     Yes it does work in fresh water but
> not as efficiently as salt water.  I have a skimmer on my plant ponds and
> I
> use it as an indicator when to siphon sludge off the bottom.   It foams
> when
> the organic compound levels in the water start to get high.   When I used
> low levels of copper sulphate to treat snails the foam was blue so I
> turned
> it off during that treatment.
>
> If you obtained a small swimming pool pump, set it up on a 1000 litre tub
> then forced the water through a 25mm venturi into a 2 meter high  150 mm
> wide protein skimmer I am sure you could remove the majority of copper
> from
> your water.     You could then use that water for water changes.   Mazzei
> make big venturis.   http://www.mazzei.net   I have seen all manner of
> things lifted out of the water using skimmers, plastic filings, algae,
> chemicals used to treat disease in fish.
>
> If you want photos of fresh water skimmer at work email me off the list.
>
>
> Cheers
> Dave
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On 12/5/06 4:23 AM, "Michael Teesdale" <zapins at gmail_com> wrote:
>
> > 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=sho
> > wthread&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=sho
> > wthread&forumid=10>,
> > so
> > iron<
> http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/autolink.php?id=35&script=sho
> > wthread&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.
> > _______________________________________________
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>
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