Algae accumulate heavy metal elements from waters and are used to deal with polluted waters.Gracilaria lemaneiformis has been extensively cultivated as a source of commercial agar and the ecomaterials along the eastern coast of China and Nan′ao county,Guangdong Province.This seaweed has very high productivity and could absorb large quantities of N,P,CO₂,and have excellent effect on decreasing eutrophication.Copper and cadmium are extensively used in industry and agriculture and pollute the marine environment.In order to remove the copper and cadmium in polluted waters,the author investigated the accumulation and elimination for copper and cadmium using cultivated G.lemaneiformis as materials in the low copper and cadmium concentration waters.The accumulation experiment results showed that the copper and cadmium could be accumulated by G.lemaneiformis,the copper and cadmium contents in G.lemaneiformis were obviously positively related with the copper and cadmium concentrations in waters,and with the exposed time of G.lemaneiformis.The copper and cadmium contents in G.lemaneiformis exposed to waters mixed copper with cadmium were higher than that exposed to waters with copper or cadmium alone.The uptake rate constant and elimination rate constant were obtained from twocompartment model by nonlinear curve fitting.The curve fitting results showed that the accumulation capacity for copper by G.lemaneiformis was higher than that for cadmium.And the accumulation capacity for copper and cadmium by G.lemaneiformis decreased when the G.lemaneiformis was exposed to higher copper and cadmium concentration waters.The elimination experiment results showed that the copper and cadmium were accumulated in G.lemaneiformis mainly by way of ion exchange,and some of these copper and cadmium were eliminated by the same way.According to the experiment results,to remove copper and cadmium from polluted waters using G.lemaneiformis as materials is feasible.