Public Lab Research note


Air Plant Bio Bubbler

by eustatic | December 21, 2015 06:59 21 Dec 06:59 | #12535 | #12535

What I want to do

Retrofit an air plant I had cultivated as an office plant into a bio bubbler, as shown at the Barnraising 2015. This was done with an 100 gallon air pump, mostly with supplies that came with the air pump, plus a rubber band. Stopper is optional. Here's my amazon list made from the air quality wiki

My attempt and results

The office plant was a previously clipped Air Plant in a bottle filled with tap water and some remnant soil from the mother plant.I may or may not have added rooting hormone into the water in the months previous when I made the clipping.

The clippings of air plant generally grow very long roots when you transplant them into tap water. the plants don't seem to need a lot of soil, especially if you keep them out of the harshest sun.

Here's the video of a bubbler I made from the air testing kit parts and [devil's ivy] (Epipremnum)(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epipremnum_aureum). It's associated microbes are formaldehyde and benzene eaters, but the plant also likes aquarium living.

I think I made it pretty happy by just routing the tube into its water. I secured the tube with a rubber band and a stopper at the end for weight. As usual with rubber bands, results were quick but it took a bit of finagling to get hte tubing to stay in one place. This was only a preliminary 'playing around with the pump' thing. The plant was already established in the bottle in my office.

VID_20151217_171548_554


The plant lived in the jar before this (I had helped by adding rooting hormone). The Plant looks very happy after this. My office mate enjoyed the white noise of the bubbling.


3 Comments

Ok this is inspiring! Just drop the tube in and start bubbling -- no special container needed. I've got @philipsilva 's spider plant already happily growing in water in a mason jar on my windowsill, so i think i'll get a pump and try this.

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Elegant, wonderfully simple. I'm going to make one. Also, thought-provoking.

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Aw, thanks!

I also have the 100 gallon pump throttled way down. 100 gallon pump is much bigger than needed for this size, it's just what came recommended. note that i didn't mess with the pump.

I have the pump on a power strip so i can turn this on and off with the circuit breaker switch.

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