# Copper in my plant fertilizer! Help!



## zacasonapan (Jun 14, 2004)

Hello, 

I have a 125 g. planted tank and I was wondering what kinda plant fertilizer should I use to nourish my plants that does not contain copper. I'm using Kent's Iron & Potassium and Seachem's Flourish plant supplement at the moment. Right now I'm using less then half or the recommended dose twice a week cause I'm afraid the copper will kill my shrimp. But I also don’t want my plants to suffer from nutrient deficiency. The shrimp bug bit me hard!!! I never intended to dedicate my 125 g. tank to shrimp, I started off by getting 18 amanos and 20 ghost shrimps to help me combat algae in my tank cause the oto's and siamensis were having a hard time keeping the algae on check. In only 2 weeks the amanos cleaned house of all visible algae except the algae that grows on the plexi tank, but the otos keep that algae down to a minimum. I know that ghost shrimps are not much for keeping algae on check but I found that the ghosts are not shy at all and they help my amanos lose their shyness in only 3 days and getting them to the point that now my amanos will take food right out of my fishes mouths  

Before I added my amanos I removed 16 tiger barbs, 8 clown loaches and 8 gold barbs, in order to make the tank safe for the amanos. I became so addicted to shrimps that I started hunting down different types of shrimps in my area. Now I have 26 amanos, 20 tiger shrimps, 20 bumblebees, 20 red cherry shrimps and 6 crystal reds. As for the ghost shrimps.. Well they have been dieing off slowly for some reason. The only fish I have left in the tank are 13 rummynoses, 8 Cardinal tetras, 5 siamensis, 2 kuli loaches and maybe 10-12 otos. 

Wow sorry for the long ramble but any suggestions on the best fertilizer that does not contain copper for my plants would be appreciated. 

Thanks in advance


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## MarcinB (Apr 16, 2004)

I used to dose 5x more copper than the recommended dose of TMG provides. My amano shrimp didn't mind.


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## jake (May 25, 2004)

Had-a-snail is 1.61% copper from copper sulfate pentahydrate. TMG is 0.006% , flourish is 0.00005% copper sulfate, plantex is 0.10% CU. Had-a-snail takes multiple uses to kill pond snails, and you darn near have to squirt it directly on the snail at that, so I can't imagine the trace amount in ferts having any effect.

I was dosing flourish in a tank full of mystery snails for months with no problem, then switched to TMG which has even more copper, still no problem. I'll be switching over to plantex and don't forsee any problems there either.


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## dennis (Mar 1, 2004)

I can only speak for hte amanos and ghost shrimp, as that is all I have, but I dose 1ml flourish each day in a 10 gallon. I have 10 shrimp, 5 of each and in the past month no deaths. Everyone seems happy and well. I know that tsunami, one of our moderators had a 20 gallon with at least a coupld cherry red shrimp and he dosed around 21ml per week of flourish.


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## zacasonapan (Jun 14, 2004)

Thank you all for the advise  I'm glad to hear that some of you are have no problems with fertilizers with copper on your shrimps.


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