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First Terrarium, and an issue

Hey, I recently constructed a terrarium in a 20 gallon tank. I noticed a horrible stink in one of my pots, but only when I flushed it, and it seemed to be at the bottom. I was told on another part of the forum that this was hydrogen sulfide, and indicated anoxia in the lower portion of the pot.

My question is, given that none of my other plants smell like this, would anyone suspect that my setup was causing anoxia, or that this may be related to a period of overheating this plant recieved when it was still outdoors?

The terrarium top is glass, but I had it cut so there is a couple inch gap on one side for circulation, and I run a fan on it some nights. The whole bottom has about one inch of standing water in it, which I let dry down to about 1/2 inch before putting in more.

Thanks for any thoughts.
 
and to partially answer my own question, It appears that a lot of people here reccomend half inch of water or less, so perhaps the first thing I should do is let that drop significantly. Perhaps that was a major factor?
 
That was the only factor :) Heat didn't do that, because my pots outside get up to 100 degrees.

If your other plants are in different media or clay containers, that might explain why they don't stink. I bet if you repotted them you'd be unpleasantly surprised, though.
 
thanks for the help on this, you were right on. The pots I kept moist but not in standing water seem fresh, but the two that were in 1-1.5 inches were quite stinky. I kept thinking it had to do with a bad case of the "hot" upstate NY sun, silly me.

I did repot them as this seemed like a bad thing, but do you know if this actually would have an adverse effect on the plants? They seemed reasonably happy, but I haven't been doing this long enough to know if they would have gone downhill or not.
 
Imagine if you kept your leg in 3 foot deep muck for a week or two. It wouldn't kill you for awhile but it wouldn't make you happy :) Roots respirate and at night they need oxygen. It could have led to root rot.
 
Imagine if you kept your leg in 3 foot deep muck for a week or two. It wouldn't kill you for awhile but it wouldn't make you happy

That's how I feel about the 3 feet of laundry in my room.
 
best description I have seen... "a good mix should hold air like a balloon, absorb water like a sponge and drain like a sieve"

Av
 
Thanks everyone, I removed all but about a quarter inch of water in the bottom of the tank as well as the repotting, which I plan to let dry before I resoak this time around.

Hopefully I can keep the pots from smelling like a volcano vent in the future.

My legs buried in muck for three weeks, Im guessing that would have an adverse effect all right (rot them off, ugh). It seems to make sense that root rot could kick in with this going on, best that I try and avoid it in the future.
 
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