# Oxygen Producing Aquarium



## elspru (Nov 24, 2010)

Hey, I wanted sufficient breathing oxygen in my apartment,
this also applies for having sufficient oxygen in a submarine,
since planning on living on the ocean via seasteading.

so after doing much research I found out that on needs either 14.5 trees per person or 5 gallons or 20 liters aquarium with 1kg of algae mass.

Best indoor plants to generate oxygen? - Yahoo! Answers

I have a partner and some pets so I decided need at least 60 liters or 15 gallons,

synchronistically I had picked up a 20 gallon or 72 liter aquarium on the apartment lawn, I also got a table from lawn,
for deep-sand-bed 
got clay, from forest-garden I tend,
got sand, pebbles and rocks from my nearby river.

I did have to buy the 
eheim water-filter, $140
rena air-pump and aeration-parts $50
Growpanel 28watt LED lights, $130
and day-night control-bar $50
totaling about $400,

ya, I wanted to have enough power that I could extend it to a larger setup with the same equipment.

I got plants from nearby pond, which came with nematodes, snails, worms, hydra, water-boatmen corixidae, and mayflies,
along with the microbial life of a healthy pond eco-system.

made a facebook album of the aquarium Clean Air Aquarium | Facebook

it's only been a few days but some of the plants are showing new growth.
I bought a java moss for $8,
but most of my plants I got from nearby pond,
there seem to only be two types of plants,
would be nice if you could identify them.

the LED GlowPanel lights are 28 watts and can grow tomatoes,
Eheim 8 watt water filter, Rena 3 watt aerator, marineland 150 watt heater.
so in total that's 189 watts, though heater is oversized and intermittent, and lights and aerator are only in daytime.
so that's 158 watts in night-time. can use renewable energy like solar, wave or wind power to make it fully self-sustaining.
the equipment is enough for a 40 gallon or 151 liter tank. 

the oxygen distribution in my room seemed a bit uneven so I added in a fan to move the air around in the apartment.
I couldn't find the wattage of the fan.

So it's quite possible with some solar panels or other renewable energy source,
we could produce all our own oxygen in our homes.

also note it's best to have at least a third in reserve,
as if you do physical labour you use more oxygen.
or if you there is smoke, there is more carbon-dioxide to uptake.

i also play music to help the plants grow, nature-sounds, slow, spiritual, throat-singing and such.

I have some non-aquarium plants, mainly for backup-oxygen, and aesthetic appeal as well as feng-shui.
Also note that plants and algae not only produce oxygen, but also uptake carbon-dioxide and can filter out toxic-chemicals.

Before I had trouble breathing in my apartment at all, as I live next to a major intersection,
now if I take a few deep breaths I feel light-headed from excess oxygen. lol, so ya, it's working.


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## WhiteGloveAquatics (Sep 3, 2009)

Best way for me is to open a window......


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## automatic-hydromatic (Oct 18, 2010)

really neat setup!


any plans to put any local small fish in it as well, or would that kill the idea?


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

14 trees per person? How is it that the average healthy lawn (in the US) provides enough oxygen for a family of 4? Not debating, just seems a little high.


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## WhiteGloveAquatics (Sep 3, 2009)

its 17.5 trees to be exact.

but per 18 people an acroe of 480 trees is needed to both produce oxygen and break down co2. a single person generates 2.3 billion tons of co2 a year, a single tree can break down 2.6billion tons of co2 per year.

Algaes and kelp are the two best plants for oxygenation and co2 consumption. faster growing=more capable to disgest and consume Co2 back into oxygen.


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## PolymerTim (Sep 22, 2009)

WhiteGloveAquatics said:


> its 17.5 trees to be exact.
> 
> but per 18 people an acroe of 480 trees is needed to both produce oxygen and break down co2. a single person generates 2.3 billion tons of co2 a year, a single tree can break down 2.6billion tons of co2 per year.
> 
> Algaes and kelp are the two best plants for oxygenation and co2 consumption. faster growing=more capable to disgest and consume Co2 back into oxygen.


OK, quick reality check:
A typical person produces ~2.3 lbs of CO2 per day (840 lbs/yr). Multiply that by the about 6.75 billion people on Earth and you get ~2.8 billion tons of CO2 per year. Just so we know, that is for everybody collectively, not per person.
Frequent Questions - Emissions | Climate Change | U.S. EPA

Trees absorb about 50 lbs of CO2/yr and there are about 400 billion trees on the planet, so that comes to about 10 billion tons CO2 absorbed by all trees per year.
Carbon dioxide emission footprint calculator and offset estimator
Going Out On A Limb With A Tree-Person Ratio : Krulwich Wonders? : NPR

I didn't look up much on oxygen production, but did find a few interesting tidbits:
75% of our breathable oxygen comes from algae and 20% from tropical rain forests.
How much oxygen can algae produce? - Yahoo! Answers
And here's am interesting experiment from 1961:
Science: Algae for Oxygen - TIME


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## snail (Aug 6, 2010)

Does this setup include fish? If there are no tropical fish you don't need the heater. Most plants will do better at a lower temp as the co2 levels are highter in cool water. Presumably they would also make more oxygen.

I'd also consider light from a window, it is not a popular choice as it is harder to control and can cause algae problems for those who want a perfect tank but it might work for you and would use solar power directly.


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## elspru (Nov 24, 2010)

WhiteGloveAquatics said:


> Best way for me is to open a window......


have 2 people and 4 pets living here, in a Canadian winter, 
heating enough air to breathe would be prohibitively difficult.



automatic-hydromatic said:


> really neat setup!


thanks for the support 



> any plans to put any local small fish in it as well, or would that kill the idea?


ya, was thinking of doing that perhaps in spring or summer, so it wont be as much a shock to them, and they'd be closer to the shore. 

I was thinking of getting a dwarf-puffer to eat snails, but it seems that with the nematodes and worms there is enough algae eater competitors to keep their population reasonable.




snail said:


> Does this setup include fish?


nope, just invertebrae. 


> If there are no tropical fish you don't need the heater. Most plants will do better at a lower temp as the co2 levels are highter in cool water. Presumably they would also make more oxygen.


ya it seems so.
most clorophyl production

is at temperatures between -1.5 and 15 Celcius

almost makes me think perhaps should have gotten a cooler instead of a heater 

initially I was using my heater to partially heat the room,
but after by water-boatmen disappeared, I figured maybe it was too warm.
though I have some java moss, it's a tiny fraction of my algae
so now I turned off my heater to see what happens. 

though maybe it's related to the high-ph (8-8.4) and alkalinity (180+) of the tap-water. I'm adding kombucha vinegar to help lower the PH slowly. 



> I'd also consider light from a window, it is not a popular choice as it is harder to control and can cause algae problems for those who want a perfect tank but it might work for you and would use solar power directly.


ya, however the days get really short in the winter, and so oxygen production is lower, also it's often cloudy.

so ya, it's possible that might only be able to be self-sustaining if also used wind-power as the wind is always quite strong in the winter time. unfortunately living in an apartment without a balcony it's not really an option, however maybe when we move to live on a boat it will be doable.


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## elspru (Nov 24, 2010)

WhiteGloveAquatics said:


> Best way for me is to open a window......


have 2 people and 4 pets living here, in a Canadian winter, 
heating enough air to breathe would be prohibitively difficult.



automatic-hydromatic said:


> really neat setup!


thanks for the support 



> any plans to put any local small fish in it as well, or would that kill the idea?


ya, was thinking of doing that perhaps in spring or summer, so it wont be as much a shock to them, and they'd be closer to the shore. 

I was thinking of getting a dwarf-puffer to eat snails, but it seems that with the nematodes and worms there is enough algae eater competitors to keep their population reasonable.




snail said:


> Does this setup include fish?


nope, just invertebrae. 


> If there are no tropical fish you don't need the heater. Most plants will do better at a lower temp as the co2 levels are highter in cool water. Presumably they would also make more oxygen.


ya it seems so.
most clorophyl production

is at temperatures between -1.5 and 15 Celcius

almost makes me think perhaps should have gotten a cooler instead of a heater 

initially I was using my heater to partially heat the room,
but after by water-boatmen disappeared, I figured maybe it was too warm.
though I have some java moss, it's a tiny fraction of my algae
so now I turned off my heater to see what happens. 

though maybe it's related to the high-ph (8-8.4) and alkalinity (180+) of the tap-water. I'm adding kombucha vinegar to help lower the PH slowly. 
an interesting PH to reach 7.3 the ph of spinal-fluid, though if you have any better ph's for oxygen production I'd love to know them.
hmmm well actually now was thinking the ocean is Ph close to 8.1
and assuming an upper bound of ph at 14,
(6.18 / 10) = (x / 14) = x = 8.652
the phi or golden-ratio ph is 8.652
so the Ph as it is now might be okay. 



> I'd also consider light from a window, it is not a popular choice as it is harder to control and can cause algae problems for those who want a perfect tank but it might work for you and would use solar power directly.


ya, however the days get really short in the winter, and so oxygen production is lower, also it's often cloudy.

so ya, it's possible that might only be able to be self-sustaining if also used wind-power as the wind is always quite strong in the winter time. unfortunately living in an apartment without a balcony it's not really an option, however maybe when we move to live on a boat it will be doable.

but actually now without the heater on, 
that means daytime power-consumption is about 40 watts, and night time is 10 watts, 
(40 * 16) + (8 * 10) = 720
720 watts total consumption on longest-day

720 / 8 = 90
so with 90 watt solar panel can fully power the set-up even with only 8 hours of daylight during winter, 
90 * 16 = 1440
with 720 watts extra during summer.


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