Why are my plants doing this?

I have noticed over time that allot of my plants are growing their roots along the surface of the substrate instead of in it.
For example my hair grass often seems to push its roots to the surface.
How ever its allot worse at the back of the tank where the substrate is about 4cm-5cm. i do plan to add more substrate, just not right now.
Here is a picture of what I’m talking about. The camera didn’t pick up all the roots, but you will get the general idea.
Any idea why this is happening?

 

Hmmn...What is the substrate? grain size? how long has this tank been running? You dont gravel vac - do you?

Think that your substate may be very fine,not gravel vac;d for a while and have built up a good layer of mulm in it... Roots are growing out of it to get away from the anearobig conditions in the substrate.... Some of @Henk Hugo's Microbelift Gravel and Substate cleaner will work a treat on your tank...

 

Its Seachem Flourite Black sand.
I cant do gravel cleaning since it all just gets sucked up the pipe, so i just use a small pipe to suck up the top layer of dirt.
The brown your seeing is baby food that has built up. that spot is kind of like 'The dead spot" for flow, so it build up there.

 

well i hade a similar problem when planting S.repens in that subs, the roots do tend to grow along the top as its just much easier and i had a VERY thing layer... so no anaerobic spots going on in there..

i think it compacts too much... i had that exact same plant in my flourite substrate witch is VERY corse and i still got those fine hairs sticking out accross thr gravel so i guess its just this plants behaviour. suck that gunck on the suface up though, will cause issues down the line if you let it build up.

 

I don't know whether the following has any bearing - but I'm pretty sure the plant in the pic is Acorus gramineus - which is not a true aquatic. Perhaps that's why its doing that?

 

i beleive the plant is an aquatic Echinodorus cordifolius but a echinodorus sp. none the less

the but and roots look healthy too and growing well, a non aquatic wont do this at all..

 

Thanks for the Reply Lloydster.
As i said it seems to only be the Echinodorus cordifolius and amazon sword that are growing like this.
Everything else in the tank has its roots under the soil.
Here is an example from the front of my tank.

 

@Phinix... won't you google a bit and see... I copied the above pic of E.cordifolius... and here is one of A.gramineus...

Like I said, I might be totally wrong...

 

@tracyp I've never been a great one for remembering plant name
But I can tell you that I do have one small bunch of A.gramineus in there, which hasn’t died, but hasn’t grown and doesn’t have any roots really. If it is a non-aquatic plant then oh well. it’s not doing any harm atm.
As for the 2 types of big leaved plants i have that are causing all these roots. When I was sold them I was told they where an Anubias and Amazon sword. They could be something totally different.
I've tried to identify them specifically but they all look the same on the internet to me.

If you want I can take a picture of the 2 types of leaves? As they are near the surface of the tank.

 

yip a pic of the leaves will help LOADS!

 

@Lloydster Here you go, and i yes i know the leaves are dirty/dying.
Its a mix of sedement from the baby food (such dirty stuff) and the lack of a sucker fish, which i'm waiting for.

 

OK Guys,

The explanation for the growth of those roots above the gravel is quite simple. Roots require oxygen to grow and if you have a too fine medium, oxygen cannot penetrate by diffusion and the plants then push their roots above the gravel. You can correct this, but this would mean that you would have to strip down the tank. You could strip down the tank and install undergravel filter plates throughout the tank, put the gravel back on top and then you would need to circulate water through the gravel, either by regular air lift through the normal outlet, or in reverse using a power head, but the flow must only be very slow.

Your plant in your top pic is an Anubias and does not need its roots in the gravel, but this is not the plant that you showed the bottom part of in any case. The bottom pic is an Echinodorus, but it is not Echinodorus cordifolius (which is blacklisted, just for your information), but is one of the other closely related swords with similar leaves. All swords need oxygen on their roots so this is very typical. However your other plants are also in trouble in this fine gravel. Any fine sediment on the gravel makes things worse so at least follow Lloydster's advice and remove the muck by syphoning.

Kind regards,

Dirk