Smelly plants

[hayley-jane]

Hi,

I was cleaning some stuff up from Elsa's tank today and managed to up-root one of the plants.

The base of it was black and had a putrid smell to it, does anyone know why or what this is?

The plant looks healthy and is growing well, I've had it in there for about 2 months now.

Thanks

 

[rheann]

Hayley, Some of my plants also have this. I think it is collected waste from the axolotls that the plant is is storing for food.

This is my guess

I don't think it is anything harmful if the plant is healthy and the tank is also healthy.

 

[hayley-jane]

lol

Oh well

It is strange though, and the smell...ergh!

 

[rob]

i pulled my root out a cpl of weeks ago and it stank
very bad, i think this is normal ? i soaked it in hot water for a cpl of hrs, but i'm sure it's probably back to the same now...
if u have a cannister filter u can add carbon which will get rid of the smell

 

[tina]

I've also found this black gue in my plant roots, but I never smelled it. I think it might be old roots decomposing, giving nutrition to the new roots...

 

[alex]

hmm, i think the same as rheann b/c old axie poo and food smells horrible. i have fake plants thought so im not to sure. the reason i have fake plants is because i like to have the room dark for the axies b/c they have no eye lids it can be harsh on there eyes and also it heats the tank up and supports algea growth. tinas theory of the roots decomposing could be true aswell, i imagine that would smell pretty bad too. thats interesting what you mentioned rob about the carbon, i didnt know that.

 

[hayley-jane]

It doesn't smell like old axie poo, I'm not sure what it smells like, just horrid!

I washed it off anyway.

Its not making the water smell, I can only smell it if I uproot the plants.

Noticed today that the sand beneath the plants is turning black too, like right the way down to the floor of the tank. Its weird?

 

[tina]

If it is rotted old plant roots, it might enter down into the sand beneath because of gravity...

If the rest of your tanks sand isn't turning black too, I don't think it's poo 'cause plants don't tend to have weird poo-magnetic fields in their roots.

...or do they...?

If you study the black matter you might discover some kind of structure to explain the origin of this gue...

 

[hayley-jane]

Don't think its rotten plant.

Dad thinks its the plant's waste seeping down into the sand.

 

[tina]

Yeah.. dead plant particles - plant waste

 

[theresa]

It is important to stir sand on occasion because anerobic pockets happen. most folk use a fork. This happens in fish tanks also... waste gets trapped, not pretty.