ABSTRACT
There is a need to study the effect of support media on heavy metals removal in constructed wetland, due to the fact that for many years this support media has been considered an inert material only used for the bacterial consortia establishment or for vegetation support. This chapter presents the effect of support media inoculated with tolerant strains in heavy metals removal at waste water industries concentrations in constructed wetlands. Synthetic wastewater was used in heavy metals adsorption tests with tezontle. The chapter shows the experimental design with the configuration of the different lab scale wetlands systems. Before the start of the experiment, the vegetation was propagated in a hydroponic system in the same location where the experiment was implemented. In experiments related with adsorption, support media with metallotolerant microorganisms were capable of accumulating a considerable amount of heavy metals, probably due to biofilm development.
