Nitrite spike after rescaping tank

[davidjp1982]

I recently removed the plants from my tank and rescaped the sand pushing it up into a corner and added some stones from a stream which I boiled and scrubbed and tested with vinegar and also added some dead oak branches which I scrubbed and poured boiling water over, also boiled oak leaves and alder cones and added to tank along with some of the boiled "blackwater extract" water.

2 days in and the branches are covered with a white snotty cobweb of what I have been told is a harmless fungus which is common on newly added wood and should clear on its own. However I tested the water to put my mind at rest and it showed a 0.25 reading for ammonia and a 0.5 reading for nitrites. This was 2 days ago and I have been doing 50% water changes daily since.

I'm aware that disturbing the substrate can kick up buried waste and this could be causing some problems but I just wanted to check to see if anyone has some experience or advice in this area.

I assume if it is as simple as disturbing the sand then daily water changes should help and this should settle soon enough? Fish seem fine but my black neons are breathing noticeably fast.

Any thoughts appreciated - should I just continue with the water changes and if the nitrites are still there assume the stones or branches are causing issues?

 

[regani]

The ammonia/nitrite spike is caused by an excess of decaying organic material.
To prevent immediate toxicity issues I would add some Prime, Ammolock or similar to the tank to neutralise the ammonia. Nitrite toxicity can be reduced by adding salt to the water, but for a soft water tank that may be a bit more problematic than for a normal tank.
If there is a large amount of visible 'dirt' on the substrate, I would siphon that out. You could also remove some of the twigs for now as they are a likely culprit. Bark is often still full of organic matter that can leach out into the water.
Apart from that, doing plenty of water changes until the bacteria in the filter catch up is the only thing to do.

 

[davidjp1982]

OK thanks nitrites were back to 0 yesterday so did a final (hopefully) WC . fingers crossed that it is settled now.

 

[Dano1311]

All still going ok David? im wanting to find and add some nice big pieces of Oak but am abit concerned now after reading this. . .

 

[davidjp1982]

Everything is going fine now - I think it was as simple as disturbing the substrate that caused the spike. I also failed to mention that I used to use root tabs when the tank was planted and I'm pretty sure that disturbing the sand released not only large amounts of fish waste but also large quantities of ferts into the water column. The fungus lasted no more than a week and parameters are back to normal now - I've even moved house in the meantime but made sure not to disturb the substrate any more than necessary.

Don't let this put you off adding branches or leaves to your setup it will be one of the best things you have done in the long term. It was just coincidental that I added branches at the same time as rescaping the sand.