Trace amounts of copper in plant ferts and inverts

iamgroovy

iamgroovy

Nature Lover
Jul 7, 2005
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PA USA
Will the trace amounts of copper in plant ferts harm apple snails? I believe I've read that copper will accumulate in the tank and it's difficult to get rid of.
I want to use ferts for my plants but most of them have trace amounts of copper. Does anyone use ferts with thier snails? Any suggestions for ferts that don't have copper I them?
I just bought two bottles of ferts, Kent Freshwater Plant and Natural Aquarium Vital. Neither one mentioned copper in the catalog or website but it's on the ingredients list. Granted it's .00001% but if it accumulates....
I'm thinking about returning them but neither bottle mentions any danger to inverts :confused:
 
Most of the people that keep planted tanks have snails and or shrimp and fertilize their tanks. Micronutrients are necessary for healthy plants. In small doses such as 0.00001% should be fine and there should be no accumulated buildup as the plants will utilize that up fairly quickly. I have plants in my tanks as well as Red Cherry Srimps and so far I have only lost 2 shrimp to acclimation issues.

Furthermore most of the threads I have read on the planted tank forums have been positive about shrimp and dosing micro ferts.
 
This is the same advice I got when I started using Kent's Freshwater Ferts for Plants... which has trace amounts of copper... and I haven't had any deaths with it, and in my 20gallon paludarium, I don't notice any ill affects at all. but in my 10 gallon, the 1 amano in it spends an hour scratching his tail every time I dose the ferts. I am planning on moving away from kent's probably to the EI index method... but don't have time or money to do it right away.
 
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