Hi all,
Darrel how would heavy metals affect an aquarium if they were not removed??
It would depend on the metal, the water hardness and the livestock. If you get a <"
complete and rapid kill"> it is much more likely to be a <"
pesticide residue"> rather than metal content. Heavy metal effects are often first seen in the nervous system <"
with erratic swimming"> etc.
Metal:
Heavy metals vary widely in their toxicity, in general terms <"
the heavier they"> are (<"
in terms if their RAM") the more likely they are to be highly toxic and have no biological activity, so that is cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb) and mercury (Hg) are in the <"
really nasty biocide"> pile. I'm going to ignore cadmium (Cd) and mercury (Hg) on the grounds that you are pretty unlikely to find them in your water, and any lead (Pb) is already being dealt with.
Zinc (Zn), nickel (Ni) and copper (Cu) are a little bit different in that they are all micro-elements, but toxic at higher levels of availability. You could also include <"
iron (Fe) in this group">.
Water:
Hard water reduces or removes any (and all) of these issues. Any heavy metal ions in solution are mopped up and precipitate out of the water column. Soft, or most specifically very acid, water will keep these ions in solution and in <"
wastewater treatment"> acid, metal rich water
<"from old mines etc."> is really difficult to treat.
Livestock:
For example <"
copper (Cu) is much less toxic to fish"> than it is to snails or shrimps.
cheers Darrel
