The present study explores the adsorption potential of Pleurotus ostreatus (a macro-fungus) to remove copper, nickel, zinc and chromium from water all together. Different operational parameters such as the effect of pH, biomass dose, equilibrium time, stirring intensity, temperature and initial metal ion concentrations were studied. Maximum adsorption of Ni (II), Cu(II) and Zn(II) took place in the pH range 4.5-5.0, whereas for Cr(VI) ion, best results were achieved at pH 2.5. Nearly 150 mm are required to gain sorption equilibrium. Temperature has no significant effect on biosorption in the range of 20-45 degrees C. The maximum biosorption capacity of fungus was 8.06, 20.40, 3.22 and 10.75 mg g(-1) for Cu(II), Ni(II), Zn(II) and Cr(VI) in that order. FTIR analysis pointed out the involvement of amine (-NH2) and carboxylic (-COOH) groups in the adsorption process. Simple and adjusted Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models were used to explain the sorption phenomenon. For real effluents of electroplating, biosorption capacities were 2.73, 8.45, 0.88 and 4.45 mg g(-1) for Cu(II), Ni(II), Zn(II) and Cr(VI) ions, respectively. Moreover, used P. ostreatus was recycled repeatedly and used many times to evaluate the adsorption efficacy on reuse, but findings pointed out that capacity decreased, to some extent, on recycling. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.