So what do you do when your players start focusing on something that doesn't matter?

I'm doing a module called Call from the Deep, and my players walked into an illithid nautiloid that crash landed on an island. While exploring it, they found a room full of pools for raising tadpoles. For flavor text, the mod said there were strange glyphs written all over the walls. I had forgotten that my warlock has some sort of ability that lets them read all written languages, so she asked me what the glyphs said. And I didn't know! They were just glyphs! So I started rambling about how they're just instructions on how to care for the pools. "Do a water change three times a week. Check salinity, pH, and temperature every day. Clean filters every day."

And then they just started asking me all sorts of questions about the maintenance of these pools, and I didn't know how to answer any of those questions either! "Where did they get the water from?" "Is the water the same pH as the nearby ocean?" "Do the instructions explicitly describe how to clean the filters?"

I stuttered and stammered through some weak answers, until I finally just said something like, "Guys, I'm gonna be honest, the mod says nothing about the glyphs. There's no important information there."

Two of my players looked disappointed, the other two looked at me suspiciously.

So how do y'all handle when your players do this? Do you immediately tell them, "what you're focusing on doesn't matter, it was just flavor text"? Or do you try to come up with actual answers? My worry with the second option is that my players will think that there is important info I'm telling them and they'll run off on a random pointless goose chase that will get them completely off track.