Public Lab Research note


This is an attempt to replicate an activity.

Building Snake Plant Air Remediation kit in Bangalore, India

by deeptalaxmibharadwaj | September 02, 2019 08:51 02 Sep 08:51 | #20739 | #20739

deeptalaxmibharadwaj was awarded the Basic Barnstar by deeptalaxmibharadwaj for their work in this research note.


deeptalaxmibharadwaj was awarded the Photo Documentation Barnstar by Bronwen for their work in this research note.


I am following the instructions from the pdf and public lab writeup by Prof Nick.

I divided the activity into two parts

  • Plant acclimatization
  • Air Purification

Plant Acclimatization

Step 1

Rinsing clay balls and activated carbon until water running out of the strainer is clear

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Step 2

Making the nylon net and fastening it to the glass jar

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Step 3

Removing snake plant from the mud and washing its roots to remove mud sticking to the roots

Step 4

Placing the plant in the net and filling net with clayballs. Adding water into the jar so it covers half inch of the net.

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Step 5

Adding a little sugar to water for nutrition

Step 6

Allowing it to acclimatize for 2 weeks.

Day 1: Sept 2, 2019

Day 6: Sept 7, 2019

I noticed one mosquito larva in the water. This might be a problem if we have stagnant water. Gowri Ma'am told me that if i put a little bit of oil in the water it might prevent mosquitoes from laying eggs in the water. I checked online that i could use vinegar as well.

Day 7: Sept 8, 2019

I changed the water (because it turned foggy due to plant excretions). Seems like it gets foggy every 6 days. I added a bit of oil to the water like Ma'am suggested (to prevent mosquito larvae)

**Day15: Sept 17, 2019 I noticed that the water had turned black. I am not sure why. This is how it looked. So i changed the water.

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But the interesting thing is, I kept this black water outside for a bit in a cup and after a while it was no black any more. (Puzzling!!!)

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Air Purification

Step 1

Setting up the pump. Removing the blue cover of the Tetra Whisper Air Pump , and reversing the diaphragm. NOTE: This did not work. It was sucking in air. So I changed it back to how it was.

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Step 2

Collecting Air and Dust Samples

**Day1: Oct 29, 2019 I collected the air sample using a vacuum cleaner and the dust sample by running the swab on the door. I have frozen the samples.image description

Plant in the room where the samples were taken
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**Day13 : Nov 10, 2019

Continuing to change water and pump air into the plant

**Day30 : Nov 27, 2019 (30 days, A month Later)

**Day34: Dec 1, 2019 (34 days later)

I again collected the air sample using a vacuum cleaner and the dust sample by running the swab on the door.
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The samples are in the freezer. I will send it out to the lab to get it tested.


Issues I encountered

Understanding the writings in the hand-drawn drawings were a little difficult


Suggestions

Since i have a concern about the plant getting proper nutrition, one thought i had was to split the root of the plant and keep it into partitions.

  1. Regular mud with manure
  2. Clayballs with air tube to purify the air

This way the plant stays healthy while it purifies the air

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We need to think of a way to build a kit with a partitioned container.


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3 Comments

@Bronwen awards a barnstar to deeptalaxmibharadwaj for their awesome contribution!

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Thanks for this tutoriel, I will try it after the confinement. I live in Europe ..so not sure to find this kind of plant in my country...

Thanks for the good comment. You could try find snake plants or a species of them in sub tropical regions of Europe. You could try using ginger or other rhizomes.


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