HagenKB

Plant Fertilizer Toxicity

I'm a beginner with planted tanks. I have a small tank (10 liters) with cherry shrimp and some plants. I plan to use some fertilizer but do not know which to choose. I bought "Plant Grow" and it contains N (0.15%), Fe (0.26%), Mn (0.05%) and Zn (0.003%).

I'm a beginner with planted tanks. I have a small tank (10 liters) with cherry shrimp and some plants. I plan to use some fertilizer but do not know which to choose. I bought "Plant Grow" and it contains N (0.15%), Fe (0.26%), Mn (0.05%) and Zn (0.003%).
We do not know if the level of copper obtained after each dose of Plant Gro Iron Enriched (PGIE) can be problematic for Cherry Shrimps (Neocaridina denticulata sinensis).

We have never investigated the reactions with Cherry Shrimps in conjunction with PGIE. Invertebrates are very sensitive animals, especially when exposed to copper. Since we never had the opportunity to work with these animals, no definitive answer can be given. We can only advise caution.

The uncertain part of using PGIE with crustaceans is that each dose of PGIE will increase the copper level by 0.66µg/L. Free copper is known to potentially cause problems with invertebrates (toxicity). The copper contained in PGIE is chelated which does reduce the toxicity of copper to animals.

I have found few references about copper toxicity on the Cherry Shrimp. I have used Pan Pesticide database. Cherry Shrimp have a LD50 of 55ug/L for free copper. This means that the copper level obtained after a single dose PGIE is 83 times less than the reported toxic level. To give a clear picture; one customer would have to add 4.15 Liters of PGIE in a 10 US gal tank to obtain 55ug/L of copper.

As mentioned previously, we have never worked with these animals before and even if the risk of toxicity is low, caution is advised when using a microelement fertilizer with invertebrates (there is more than copper in the solution) .

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