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Re: copper in the water




Karen Randall wrote about not being able to grow Valisneria because of its
sensitivity to copper.

Karen, I used to be in Boston, and the water there had 5 mg per liter of
copper.  After standing in a tank for a month, that water would kill a
snail in 30 minutes and a fish in four days.  I figured that other people
kept their fish alive only because they used activated charcoal in their
filters that captured the copper.  I didn't want to do that, so I solved
the problem by borrowing some 5 gallon plastic containers from a freind,
and going to the outflow from one of the local reservoirs and collecting my
water there.  I filtered the water through sand to catch any hair algae
that might have been picked up and kept it in a covered aquarium.  It was
excellent water and I never had any problems with it.  In fact, I started
wondering if all that copper was OK to drink, and I began drinking the
water I had collected.  No problems, and I am still here to tell about it.


Paul Krombholz                  Tougaloo College, Tougaloo, MS  39174