• tal@lemmy.today
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        5 months ago

        Just give me a 4U tank somewhere where someone else can deal with harvesting the algae and a webcam aimed at it and I can enjoy it just fine from here. For me, selfhosting is mostly about the privacy, not principally about needing to be resistant to loss of Internet connectivity or the like.

    • DUMBASS@leminal.space
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      5 months ago

      Come on, you know there’s someone out there trying to work out how to selfhost one of these.

        • _stranger_@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          You should look up “Walstad planted tank”. An all plants aquarium you don’t ever have to mess with (except to trim if you want to)

          • SolarMonkey@slrpnk.net
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            5 months ago

            I’ve been doing these for years… they don’t work as intended for more than a year or two, and then become pretty unstable. Even the lady who created it went back to low-maintenance (as opposed to zero input) systems after a few years. Still with the dirt and all but not without water movement and stuff.

  • Daniel Quinn@lemmy.ca
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    5 months ago

    I had the same reaction until I read this.

    TL;DR: it’s 10-50x more efficient at cleaning the air and actually generates both electricity and fertiliser.

    Yes, it would be better to just get rid of all the cars generating the pollution in the first place and putting in some more trees, but there are clear advantages to this.

    • A_norny_mousse@feddit.org
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      5 months ago

      I appreciate Rebecca Watson’s opinion. Watched the 6min video, now convinced 👍

      Also learned a new term: kneejerk cynicism

    • lightnsfw@reddthat.com
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      5 months ago

      How long does it take to break even from the pollution and electricity spent to make and install these?

    • FarceOfWill@infosec.pub
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      5 months ago

      It provides fertilizer but needs “some food”.

      How much food and what is it?

      Typically for aquariums you have to feed these things fertilizer so it seems odd

      • rumba@lemmy.zip
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        5 months ago

        It’s just some circle of life stuff, fertilizer, carbon dioxide, light in, The algae produces more algae. It loads up on a bunch of carbon, some of the bloom dies off, by removing it, you take the carbon with it along with some of the fertilizer components. You add a little more fertilizer in and the algae blooms more and sucks up more carbon dioxide.

  • JimVanDeventer@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    Isn’t spirulina more effective for capturing carbon than trees? And also you can eat it in the way you don’t normally eat trees? Trees are great and all but why do you want me to be angry about algae?

  • TORFdot0@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    I think it’s probably cheaper in the long run to self host a tree instead, unless you live in an apartment with absolutely no green space. But I’d rather get a VPF and host a tree there if I had too

    • hazel@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      5 months ago

      Problem with VPFs is irrigation throttling, or lack thereof. Most people are cool, but I’ve heard of people hosting exotics which just max out downstream 24/7. Plus everyone has root access which gets abused frequently.

  • Allero@lemmy.today
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    5 months ago
    1. Wrong community, maybe? Lol

    2. iirc, algae are better oxygen producers per units of mass and volume, so a tank full of algae might actually be better than a tree. One issue though is that trees can grow on open ground, while algae require a tank to be built, most likely negating the economic benefits. Also, trees are more aesthetically pleasing.

  • Psychadelligoat@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    5 months ago

    Because there’s no serious answers being given even though there are at least 2:

    • trees have roots, roots ruin any nearby human infrastructure. You’ll note this says “in urban environments” and that there are trees nearby, so this is probably the big reason
    • trees need maintenance, which costs money. this is a stupid reason imo, but it’s one nonetheless
    • algae is cool, ok?
    • superkret@feddit.org
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      5 months ago

      I love this about lemmy.
      Like someone stumbling into the wrong house and still being welcomed.
      It’s a lot more informal and relaxed than on the piss page of the Internet.

  • Ganbat@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    5 months ago

    The most dystopian thing I’ve seen… Fuck, idk, it’s all pretty dystopian these days, I’ve lost count