Biosorption of nickel and copper ions from aqueous solution onto treated alga biomass Undaria pinnatifida has been studied and the Langmuir, Freundlich and Temkine equilibrium isotherms, pseudo-first-order, pseudo-second-order and intra-particle diffusion kinetic model were determined respectively. Within the test range (initial concentration 5-50 mg/L, biosorption doze 0.1-0.5 g, pH 3-7), biosorption performance for metal ions showed an increase in specific metal uptake capacity with an increasing in initial ions concentration and decreasing in biosorbent doze. The optimized condition of pH value for nickel and copper is 4.7 and 4.0, respectively, while contact time is about 100 min. At equilibrium, the maximum total uptake by U. pinnatifida was 24.71 mg/g for nickel and 38.82 mg/g for copper. The results for nickel and copper fit well to the Langmuir and the Temkin isotherm, respectively. Pseudo-second-order model described well the sorption kinetic of nickel and copper ions in comparison to pseudo-first-order and intra-particle diffusion kinetic model. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.