Plant Roots Rotting?

[Teddy]

I got sand a little while ago, and put a layer of it ontop of some Seachem Soil I believe it was. The plants were doing good. I was injecting CO2 during the day, reduced my lighting period from 16 hours to 10 hours, and was adding iron every week.

My plants were looking healthy, my Sword was looking very lush and green, some plants were growing.

Then they started to turn yellow and brown and started dying. i had an onion in there as well that was growing well, then it lost all of its leaves within like 2 days, and i pulled it out and it smelled horrible. Then today i was vacuming around a grass and it had the same thing. One of the roots was turning black and it smelled horrible. Fortunately that one is not dying.

What the heck do I do now? Do I get rid of the sand and just get soil? Should I have someone plant sit my plants until I do something? Any suggestions would help. Thanks

-Teddy

 

[DarkEntity]

If the plant stinks then remove it from the tank as its rotting and wont do the water much good. If your plants rot it can be caused by a few things.

Off hand i can think of these, although there are probably more,

1) Damage to the plant caused by you, the fish, or just while in transit.
2) The plant isnt an aquatic plant, but has been sold as one.
3) something in the substrate

 

[Teddy]

See I thought that it had to do something with anaerobic pockets in the sand. I also have 2 African Dwarf Frogs that enjoy digging, but I figure that can only be to my advantage because they overturn the soil. All these plants are aquatic.

 

[Teddy]

bump

 

[Nyte]

How long ago did you put the new substrate in? Is it possible you sufficated the plants roots?

I have no idea if this is it, but I just added some Eco-Complete to an exsisting tank and on the back it said something like: Warning adding susbstrate ontop of substrate can be damaging to aquatic life. Make sure to mix the eco-complete into exsisting gravel.

 

[Teddy]

so, what? i was supposed to add Eco-Complete to the the soil?

 

[Dude]

If the plant stinks then remove it from the tank as its rotting and wont do the water much good. If your plants rot it can be caused by a few things.

Off hand i can think of these, although there are probably more,

1) Damage to the plant caused by you, the fish, or just while in transit.
2) The plant isnt an aquatic plant, but has been sold as one.
3) something in the substrate

may i add that plants can also rot if ph is too high or if nitrite nitrates or ammonia are oof the charts