# how to get rid of the smell?



## heyprettyrave (Aug 26, 2010)

my redfoot lives in my room with me, and i change her dirt probably every three months because it gets a weird smell. i do clean up her messes and what not but it doesn't seem to help. i didnt know if i had a filtration system, if that would help ( like pebbles on the bottom covered by a mesh net, to get rid of excess water) but im not sure of how to go about this... 

help?


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## Yvonne G (Aug 26, 2010)

What kind of smell are you talking about? Does it smell like the substrate is sour? Too much water. Does it smell rotten? Old poop or food.

What kind of substrate? Cypress mulch and orchid bark never smell.


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## heyprettyrave (Aug 26, 2010)

i know there is a lot of excess water in the substrate, beneath. but it just smells. i think it may be the dirt with a mix of her, i bought a new pool and i think it may have been that


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## Tom (Aug 26, 2010)

I like to use air purifiers that generate ozone to reduce smells, but this is a little controversial. I've been using it for years with no problem and it works great. I used to have three big poopy Tegus in my living room and thanks to my ozone filter, you couldn't smell a thing even standing right next to the tank.

You should still try to discover what is causing the bad smell and eliminate it. I once had that problem when I made my substrate too deep. The lower portion just got stagnant and started decomposing.


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## heyprettyrave (Aug 26, 2010)

yeah sometimes i can smell it coming into my room, which, doesnt make my parents very happy. i do have candles which i think help but not for long


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## Madkins007 (Aug 26, 2010)

Possible problems and solutions:

- Funny smelling substrate. Lots of bagged soils and mulches smell. I strongly suggest not using them indoors.
- Food wastes or fecal material. Clean them ASAP, stir the soil weekly or so.
- Too much water, mildew, etc. Improve the drainage and reduce the 'standing' water. 
- Something nasty growing in the substrate. Change it out or clean it carefully.

My best luck with a low-odor large-scale indoot habitat has been a 'bioactive substrate system'- basically a mini-compost system that emulates natural soil.

Put a thinnish layer of something chunky on the bottom to allow some drainage. Put an inch or two of a sandy soil mix on top of that. I used a fairly random mix of sand, clean topsoil, hardwood mulch, and some left over chopped sphagnum moss. Mix in some aged, clean garden soil (for micro-organisms), and add some garden worms to help break things down and a few isopods (pill bugs, roly polys, woodlice) to eat pest eggs. 

Lay a 'dry layer' of cypress or hardwood mulch on top, keep the very bottom layer wet and the top dryish. 

When the system is fully aged and running, it will eat small amounts of food or wastes, prevent pests and most molds and fungi, etc. with almost no odor other than a soft soil scent.


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## heyprettyrave (Aug 27, 2010)

for the drainage? how would i go about that, just have like rocks on the bottom, covered by a mesh top?


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## Madkins007 (Aug 27, 2010)

heyprettyrave said:


> for the drainage? how would i go about that, just have like rocks on the bottom, covered by a mesh top?



In my opinion, if you need mesh, your chunkies may be too big. You want the bottom of the soil layer to be in the bottom wet layer so it wicks it upward. 

One set of plans for the system actually has you put a tube in a corner so you can monitor the water level in the bottom. If it gets too full, let it dry out a bit, possibly adding bottom heat to speed it up.


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## heyprettyrave (Aug 30, 2010)

i plan on getting a glass terrarium around december, so i am going to try some different things. is there a site i could look at for this?


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## Madkins007 (Aug 30, 2010)

If you google bioactive substrate, you get some forum hits here and elsewhere, and an article that makes it harder than it needs to be.

If you can borrow the book 'The Art of Keeping Snakes', the author explains it very simply.

'Drainage' is not quite the right term. The goal of the bottom layer is to make a place for the water to settle until it is reabsorbed back up as the soil dries out- hastened, ideally, by some warmth under it.


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## heyprettyrave (Aug 31, 2010)

yeah i will take a look around, thanks soo much. i wont be doing this until much later but it helps knowing


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