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 RebelSteve33
Amateur Mycologist
Registered: 05/28/02
Posts: 3,774
Loc: Arizona
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 Using a Plant for CO2? 
#650734 - 05/29/02 06:38 AM (22 years, 10 months ago) |
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I am using an aquarium with a tight fitting lid as a terarrium for my cakes... I know there can be a problem with CO2 build-up inside of the terarrium, so I was thinking:
Would putting a small photosynthesizing plant inside the terarrium with the cakes filter out the CO2 and give them more oxygen?
To my brain this sounds like it would work, but what do you experts say? Anyone ever tried it?
-RebelSteve
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Namaste.
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 TheShroomHermit
Divine Hermit of the Everything
Registered: 02/19/02
Posts: 7,575
Loc: border of Canada and Mexi...
Last seen: 1 year, 10 months
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 Re: Using a Plant for CO2? [Re: RebelSteve33]
#650745 - 05/29/02 06:48 AM (22 years, 10 months ago) |
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Plants grow very differently that mushrooms. If you were to find a plant, you'd need to find one that grows in almost 100% humidity (keep in mind that plants need to respire, if the rh is almost 100% the plants can't respire) they need to be able to live daily on low light for 6 hours, then you need to get any bugs out of the soil, and on the plant. You can't sterilize the soil, becuase then you wouldn't have nitrogen fixing bacteria which some plants need to grow.
I was looking on the net to see if there would be a species that could grow symbotically with mushrooms (one that would fight other contams, but not harm the cake) my results were inconclusive.
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Baby_Hitler
Magat Stalker
Registered: 03/06/02
Posts: 28,106
Loc: I'm right behind you, aren't I...
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I think Salvia would be a good candidate.
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Morality is just aesthetics, meatbags.
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RebelSteve33
Amateur Mycologist
Registered: 05/28/02
Posts: 3,774
Loc: Arizona
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Re: Using a Plant for CO2? [Re: Baby_Hitler]
#650877 - 05/29/02 08:42 AM (22 years, 10 months ago) |
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mmmm... what a perfect combination 
-RebelSteve
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Namaste.
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indicaz
Lysol God
Registered: 04/12/02
Posts: 580
Loc: My Chair
Last seen: 16 years, 30 days
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Re: Using a Plant for CO2? [Re: RebelSteve33]
#651139 - 05/29/02 10:58 AM (22 years, 10 months ago) |
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well while on the topic of beneficial plants... What about beneficial microbes and nematodes... they are microscopic and alive they are used to kill common microscopic organisms and microbes in yer garden they actuall eat bacteria.... say you put something like that in yer casing would it fight off contams???
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Aeolus1369
Dr. Seahorse
Registered: 05/20/02
Posts: 367
Last seen: 16 years, 2 months
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 Re: Using a Plant for CO2? [Re: RebelSteve33]
#651142 - 05/29/02 11:01 AM (22 years, 10 months ago) |
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I think an easier way to go about this creative idea would be to use a plant such as elodea that lives naturally underwater. You can easily find these at pet shops in the aquarium section I believe. The CO2 released by the mushrooms and O2 that is released from the elodea plant would diffuse into and out of the water (respectively). Since this plant naturally grows in lakes/ponds which tend to be somewhat murky, I would imagine it could survive with not all that much light. The only problem I can think of with this "CO2 sink TEK" is that mushrooms probably release CO2 much faster than elodea absorbs it, so you might need quite a few plants for the TEK to be viable. It'd be great if someone gave this a try and report back their findings =)
--Aeolus
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TheShroomHermit
Divine Hermit of the Everything
Registered: 02/19/02
Posts: 7,575
Loc: border of Canada and Mexi...
Last seen: 1 year, 10 months
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Re: Using a Plant for CO2? [Re: indicaz]
#651146 - 05/29/02 11:05 AM (22 years, 10 months ago) |
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>I was looking on the net to see if there would be a species that could grow >symbotically with mushrooms (one that would fight other contams, but not harm >the cake) my results were inconclusive.
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RebelSteve33
Amateur Mycologist
Registered: 05/28/02
Posts: 3,774
Loc: Arizona
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Re: Using a Plant for CO2? [Re: Aeolus1369]
#651165 - 05/29/02 11:14 AM (22 years, 10 months ago) |
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Aeolus, you're a genius! Elodea sounds like it would be perfect to me... The fact that it grows underwater would prevent any contamination of the mushrooms and still provide a great CO2/O2 transfer.
As to the problem you mentioned:
The only problem I can think of with this "CO2 sink TEK" is that mushrooms probably release CO2 much faster than elodea absorbs it
I'm not sure if this would be a problem at all... I think photosynthesizing plants can absorb CO2 and release O2 at a much higher rate than most people think; provided they have enough light of course. I'd have to do more research to find out the specifics, but I'm fairly sure that a small jar of Elodea would be enough to provide a sufficient amount of O2 to at least 12 half pint sized cakes. That's just speculation tho.
Anyway... Thanks for the great idea! Hopefully someone with the means will try experimenting with this soon!
-RebelSteve
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Namaste.
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Aeolus1369
Dr. Seahorse
Registered: 05/20/02
Posts: 367
Last seen: 16 years, 2 months
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 Re: Using a Plant for CO2? [Re: RebelSteve33]
#651227 - 05/29/02 11:38 AM (22 years, 10 months ago) |
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Tanks for the praise. I'll look into CO2 absorbtion for elodea and maybe give it a go this summer when I embark upon my first cultivation adventure. Just remember...you heard it here first
--Aeolus
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Aeolus1369
Dr. Seahorse
Registered: 05/20/02
Posts: 367
Last seen: 16 years, 2 months
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Re: Using a Plant for CO2? [Re: Aeolus1369]
#651265 - 05/29/02 11:52 AM (22 years, 10 months ago) |
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Another purely speculative thing I just thought of for the chemistry inclined folks:
If you leave water out in the open, it eventually becomes silghtly acidic because CO2 dissolves into it and a small amount combines with water to form carbonic acid H2CO3. Not too much C02 dissolves because it quickly reaches equilibrium between the air and water. However, if in a terrarium, you made a basic solution, say with a small amount of detergent or lye, the carbonic acid would react with it and release hyrdogen gas. This would upset the CO2 gas equilibrium and allow more CO2 to dissolve. So in theory any CO2 gas generated by the mushrooms would dissolve into the basic solution and stay in solution as a carbonate ion, releasing hydrogen gas in the process. As long the basic solution remained basic (which it should provided an appreciable amount of detergent or lye was added), it would continue to function as another CO2 sink.
I personally find the elodea idea a lot more appealing just because it seems so much more natural, but the above idea could easily be done simply using household chemicals.
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