Plants in fish room raise pH?

[SaracensRugby]

So I was given a house plant, about 3 feet tall, which I put in my fish room aka office over Christmas. I was looking at my pH on my Apex the other day and noticed that m pH goes higher during the day (8.25) and not as low during the night (7.95 or higher) than BP (before plant). It is about .1 higher on both ends. Has anyone else seen this before? Seems like an easy way to keep pH higher...

 

[CoralWealth]

interested in this. what kind of plant?

 

[SaracensRugby]

I was just told tells its a fig tree. Looks like any plant you could get at Home Depot (see attached). Please excuse my battery backup sitting out on the floor as well. I can’t think of anything else that has changed to cause this.

 

[brad shawn]

Not too sure about raising Ph from being in the room... looks like a fiddle leaf fig. Nice plant!

 

[lapin]

Nice plant. They will consume Co2 and give off oxygen. Hard to tell if it would be enough to show up in your tank, but maybe.
Any other variables such as you not being in the room when the measurements were taken?

 

[joseserrano]

This does sound accurate/possible, just unsure if we could get a realistic conversion from plant to consumption of co2 in room.

 

[Shawn.B]

the effect you are seeing is likely not from the plant but a result of light cycle in your tank, a house plant wont create enough 02 or consume enough CO2 to see a difference.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Plants do not use carbon dioxide fast enough to be useful in a normal home. They would need to add tissue as fast as you eat food to offset the exhaled CO2.

 

[SaracensRugby]

Plants do not use carbon dioxide fast enough to be useful in a normal home. They would need to add tissue as fast as you eat food to offset the exhaled CO2.

There is @Randy Holmes-Farley setting the record straight again, thanks for the info! I wonder how many plants in an enclosed room lets say, would meaningfully add to pH, if possible? The plant has added about 6” of new growth in 3 weeks, but no where near enough sounds like.

 

[SaracensRugby]

Nice plant. They will consume Co2 and give off oxygen. Hard to tell if it would be enough to show up in your tank, but maybe.
Any other variables such as you not being in the room when the measurements were taken?

I am not in there when it bottoms out, during the day the door is open regardless of whether or not I am in there. Certainly though if I am not in there all day I imagine that may play into it. But this has gone on for a couple weeks now. Ah well, interesting to think about...

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

There is @Randy Holmes-Farley setting the record straight again, thanks for the info! I wonder how many plants in an enclosed room lets say, would meaningfully add to pH, if possible? The plant has added about 6” of new growth in 3 weeks, but no where near enough sounds like.

Assuming there’s not something like a gas stove in the home (which makes the problem much worse) then even if only 1/10th of the carbon you eat ends up as CO2 in your home, that’s a lot more than a couple of leaves and a small stem in a day.

some folks have reef tanks in greenhouses also filled with plants. Those will have a big effect since there are so many and people aren’t really living in the room for many hours per day.

 

[Larry L]

Move the plant out of the room and see if your numbers go back to your BP levels.