Mangroves for co2 removal vs co2 scrubber

ARGYGANG · May 11, 2024

Hi I’m curious if a few mangroves added to my basement tanks would help raise ph by consuming the co2 in the room. I know they arnt to great for nutrient removal but I’m making the assumption they might do decent work for removing co2 from the air since they are a tree haha. Anyone think it’s worth a shot? Co2 scrubbers are a bit pricey to run for the amount of tanks I have.

GARRIGA · May 11, 2024

Might want to reach out to Julian Sprung as I believe he's the leading authority on this subject although at what cost to illuminate and draw that co2 along with the fact that at night it will draw oxygen and expel co2. An air exchanger seems to be the universal agreed best solution overall. Path I've been headed and likely finishing.

Garf · May 11, 2024

ARGYGANG said:
Hi I’m curious if a few mangroves added to my basement tanks would help raise ph by consuming the co2 in the room. I know they arnt to great for nutrient removal but I’m making the assumption they might do decent work for removing co2 from the air since they are a tree haha. Anyone think it’s worth a shot? Co2 scrubbers are a bit pricey to run for the amount of tanks I have.

I expect you would need a small forest to get much pH benefit, and appropriately lighting it may be costly. However, they are cool so I would say, go for it.

ARGYGANG · May 12, 2024

Garf said:
I expect you would need a small forest to get much pH benefit, and appropriately lighting it may be costly. However, they are cool so I would say, go for it.

I was actually thinking about how many I could house at the moment and I think I could do about 8 of them, even if they don’t offer much they are cheap and cool so I’m gonna go for it haha! The struggle of basement tanks is the constant 7.7 ph I’m fighting. It could be a blessing it could be a curse, the only things I can’t keep are hairy mushrooms and acros and sensitive sps like acros.

ChrisfromBrick · Monday at 11:19 AM

i got a co2 scrubber and opened a basement window. ph is steady 8.3. The media is lasting longer than I thought it would and Im not even recirculating it.

Thinking of doing a mangrove just for fun as well. But I dont think they will do much for ph.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Monday at 11:37 AM

I cannot imagine mangroves are detectably useful for this purpose, just as multiple houseplants in a room provide a trivially small benefit. Much too little CO2 consumes relative to the massive inputs a typical home has.