House plants and p.h.

[Paul31733]

Hey everyone!
I was just enjoying my 4:20pm hobby. As well as watering my house plants.
And my mind got to thinking...
Could house plants help raise someone's ph levels in a closed environment?
Say... A Canadian house in the winter. Closed up all the time.
Or would it take a rainforest in your house to help?
Hope somebody can feed my curiosity lol.
Thanks.
Paul.

 

[Spare time]

This might interest you

(PDF) The Influence of House Plants on Indoor CO2

PDF | This study aimed at determining the effect of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the internal environment of different indoor plants. Spathiphyllum... | Find, read and cite all the research you need on ResearchGate

www.researchgate.net

 

[Paul31733]

This might interest you

(PDF) The Influence of House Plants on Indoor CO2

PDF | This study aimed at determining the effect of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the internal environment of different indoor plants. Spathiphyllum... | Find, read and cite all the research you need on ResearchGate

www.researchgate.net

Thanks looking forward to reading this!

 

[Spare time]

Thanks looking forward to reading this!

You can find some more on google scholar. This was just one that I saw.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

No, they will not help in a detectable way in any normal home situation.

Think of it this way:

To offset the CO2 that you breathe out in 24 h, plants would need to add about the same dry mass as the dry weight of the food you eat.

Unless you have the tank in a greenhouse (which some folks do), the effect of plants will be lost in the massive doses of CO2 from people, pets, and gas stove cooking.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Thanks looking forward to reading this!

Read it with a highly skeptical eye, especially how much air they are measuring and how much plant. 1 m2 leaf area in one cubic meter of air. That is above greenhouse density (unless it is only 1 m tall), not a home, and says nothing about how it compares to someone breathing.

 

[Joedubyk]

No, they will not help in a detectable way in any normal home situation.

Think of it this way:

To offset the CO2 that you breathe out in 24 h, plants would need to add about the same dry mass as the dry weight of the food you eat.

Unless you have the tank in a greenhouse (which some folks do), the effect of plants will be lost in the massive doses of CO2 from people, pets, and gas stove cooking.

Yep. I've tried it. Did absolutely zilch!

 

[Paul31733]

I figured you would have to have a rainforest inside, but I haven't read about it myself anywhere, so thought it was good to bring it up and get people thinking!

 

[Paul31733]

Still interests me that just having a window open can change your p.h. level drastically.

 

[mindme]

My 25g cube tank in my living room has a ph of 8.3 in the afternoons. There are 3 of us in the house and we are basically here all day long, so pretty decent Co2 adding to the house. I work from home, my wife doesn't work and our youngest son doesn't really go out very much. He works part time and plays video games.

I have a good amount of house plants, and surely they help some. But, I think the 2 biggest factors is that my tank is near the front door, so when the door opens/closes it probably gets a pretty good dose of fresh air.

The other thing, and something I saw take my tank from about 8.1-8.2ish to 8.3 is I added a Co2 scrubber to my skimmer. I just have a bubble magnus HOB skimmer, and I just removed the silencer part and put in a little medical tube filled with Co2 media(forget what it's called). I saw the difference in PH immediately after doing that.

Same setup and ph I also get in my 29g anemone tank. However it's in my bedroom, so doesn't get quite as much fresh air. There are only 2 small plants in that room, but same skimmer and scrubber. The scrubber took me from 8.1/8.2 to 8.3

So IMO, pick the house plants you want because you like how they look in your house and if you want to increase your ph without adding things to your tank, maybe look at a Co2 scrubber.

I'm currently building a 180g setup. And I am not sure how I am going to tackle this issue as I really want to try it without a skimmer.