Growing plants to lower Co2 in the home.

[Jeeperz]

I see. I leave my windows open a bit and run the heat. Just as I leave a window by my tank open in summer and run the AC. Not the greenest but I only heat my place to mid 60's at the most and keep it under 80 in the summer

 

[Rodney G Woelfel]

While adding plants to your fishroom may well be a nice thing to consider for aesthetic reasons, it's unfortunately not going to get you to your goal. As others stated, plants absorb CO2 during the photoperiod and release it at night, with a slight positive uptake over the 24hr cycle that represents the carbon incorporated into the plant structure as it grows.

One can, of course, choose very fast-growing plants like grasses and reverse the photoperiod cycle for the terrestrial plants with respect to the reef tank, but that won't help much with 24-hr furnace use in a cold climate.

Personally, if I were in your situation I'd consider a fresh-air heat-recovery makeup system. Whole house units can get a bit pricey, but a smaller unit is fairly reasonable, like this one.

Succulents, such as the Snake Plant, do Not release co2 at night and continue to absorb co2 and release oxygen even at night. This is through a process called Crassulacean-Acid metabolism, which only a very small number of plants have, all succulants.
CO2 is absorbed via stomata, and O2 is released by the same stomata. In Crassulacean-Acid metabolism, the plant opens the stomata at night to minimize water loss. CO2 is acquired at this time, and stored in vacuoles as malate.

 

[Scott.h]

So I’ve been running this experiment for over two months. I have 12 good size plants. With it being cold here (as low as 11 degrees already unfortunately) the house closed up for a few months, and the furnace running consistently, I’ve noticed my PH is running .2 higher then typical. I believe it’s caused a positive impact that is noticeable, even with the room being unvented like I previously planned. So if the room was exhausted for a few minutes at lights off for the plants I’m guessing that would help more, as that’s when the plants would let go of the co2 primarily.

 

[Scorpius]

Cool beans. Glad to see you have improvement. I'm currently experimenting with larger diameter tubing ran outside to feed my skimmer. I've been have overflowing due to smaller diameter tubing putting restrictions into the system.

 

[Scott.h]

Both my systems have 7/8” tubing ran outside from the skimmers. One 8’ the other 12’. Neither seemed to make a difference even with that size tubing. I think the skimmer just doesn’t do enough for my water volume. Both a little over 100 gallons total water volume. I’ve always been curious to run two skimmers per system to see if that would change anything.

 

[Scorpius]

Both my systems have 7/8” tubing ran outside from the skimmers. One 8’ the other 12’. Neither seemed to make a difference even with that size tubing. I think the skimmer just doesn’t do enough for my water volume. Both a little over 100 gallons total water volume. I’ve always been curious to run two skimmers per system to see if that would change anything.

How many liters of air is your skimmer pulling? My pulls 600 lph. 75 gal total system water volume.

 

[Scott.h]

How many liters of air is your skimmer pulling? My pulls 600 lph. 75 gal total system water volume.

My reef octopus is 719 lph and my other sicce pump is slightly larger, but I don’t know the rating on that one. It won’t hurt to give it a try. It’s at least 25% less water volume then mine so that may help.

 

[Scorpius]

My reef octopus is 719 lph and my other sicce pump is slightly larger, but I don’t know the rating on that one. It won’t hurt to give it a try. It’s at least 25% less water volume then mine so that may help.

I'm not seeing a huge ph increase with fresh air, but going from 7.7sih to 8.0ish is much improved for my system.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

So I’ve been running this experiment for over two months. I have 12 good size plants. With it being cold here (as low as 11 degrees already unfortunately) the house closed up for a few months, and the furnace running consistently, I’ve noticed my PH is running .2 higher then typical. I believe it’s caused a positive impact that is noticeable, even with the room being unvented like I previously planned. So if the room was exhausted for a few minutes at lights off for the plants I’m guessing that would help more, as that’s when the plants would let go of the co2 primarily.

I don’t think it’s the plants because they cannot be growing enough to make that impact.

colder weather has been shown to increase air turnover in homes.

 

[Mical]

In a follow up to this thread, I did a little experiment since the temps here are single digits currently. I turned my air exchanger off for 1 week and watched my Ph levels and they hovered from 7.9 at lowest & 8.13 at highest throughout the week. The next week I turned it back on and my Ph levels have been 8.17 at lowest & 8.36 at highest. Now not exactly "laboratory ideal" conditions as I have no control of outside temps but the first week here in Minnesota was in the lower teens for temps, the second week it's been single digits. So I believe the air exchanger is helping keep the levels up.

On another note I mentioned earlier in the thread that the air exchanger runs all the time and that's not the case. This time of year it runs based on outside temp and humidity. And since having it on "full time" since Sept I have not seen an increase in my utility bills. Just an FYI.

 

[Scott.h]

In a follow up to this thread, I did a little experiment since the temps here are single digits currently. I turned my air exchanger off for 1 week and watched my Ph levels and they hovered from 7.9 at lowest & 8.13 at highest throughout the week. The next week I turned it back on and my Ph levels have been 8.17 at lowest & 8.36 at highest. Now not exactly "laboratory ideal" conditions as I have no control of outside temps but the first week here in Minnesota was in the lower teens for temps, the second week it's been single digits. So I believe the air exchanger is helping keep the levels up.

On another note I mentioned earlier in the thread that the air exchanger runs all the time and that's not the case. This time of year it runs based on outside temp and humidity. And since having it on "full time" since Sept I have not seen an increase in my utility bills. Just an FYI.

i have no doubt that would make a difference. It would have to effect utility costs though. It’s probably just subtle. It seems that would definitely be a good option. I’d be curious to the co2 levels in the house with and without the exchanger. For you to have ph at 8.3 I’d expect your levels to be around the 400 ppm mark depending on a few other tank variables

I don’t think it’s the plants because they cannot be growing enough to make that impact.

colder weather has been shown to increase air turnover in homes.

I think it depends on the types of plants. If you have plants that can start at 3”, grow roughly a foot a week, grow to be 5’ tall after 6 weeks and times that by multiple plants they will absolutely take in co2. The only way to see this is to log the actual co2 levels over time with and without plants in the room.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I think it depends on the types of plants. If you have plants that can start at 3”, grow roughly a foot a week, grow to be 5’ tall after 6 weeks and times that by multiple plants they will absolutely take in co2. The only way to see this is to log the actual co2 levels over time with and without plants in the room.

Certainly. A tank in a greenhouse will experience effects. A few plants in your home won't.

To offset your exhaled CO2, the plants have to grow by the same tissue amount you eat every day. Few house plants come anywhere close to that.

 

[taricha]

To offset your exhaled CO2, the plants have to grow by the same tissue amount you eat every day.

Solution: eat only your house plants!
If you only eat them at the rate they grow you can be sure your CO2 exhalations match their uptake.

 

[Mical]

In a further follow-up, since we're in the middle of winter, I did an experiment (somewhat controlled... lol) I shut air handler off for a couple of days at the end of Jan. Then turned back on Feb 1st and monitored it via Apex (attached) This is the 2nd time I've done this and results were the same (I didn't document first time) The house is 3000sq ft, it's my girlfriend and myself and a 90lb german shepherd and on both experiments Ph dropped.

 

[Scott.h]

In a further follow-up, since we're in the middle of winter, I did an experiment (somewhat controlled... lol) I shut air handler off for a couple of days at the end of Jan. Then turned back on Feb 1st and monitored it via Apex (attached) This is the 2nd time I've done this and results were the same (I didn't document first time) The house is 3000sq ft, it's my girlfriend and myself and a 90lb german shepherd and on both experiments Ph dropped.

That makes perfect sense. So for someone that has a house half that size, and a few kids air exchange makes a huge difference. And I’ve also been monitoring my co2 in the air this winter via auto pilot, and I’m here to say having multiple large plants in my fish room has kept my ph over 8.0 night and 8.2ish day vs barely over 7.8 last winter. But we are taking multiple big plants that love co2. Even though Co2 monitoring is of the plant world I suggest people buy co2 monitors for their home vs going though all that co2 scrubber stuff. Simply crack a window to help their co2 when it reaches 800 ppm or above.