Api root tabs and sudden high nitrates?

[PattysAquatics]

Hey all, I have a 75 gallon heavily planted tank with community fish and I do water changes typically every 3-4 weeks my nitrates typically always stay around 10-20 ppm but last week I put in some API root tabs for some of my plants and tested my water today with the CoOps test strips and API test kit and my nitrates are through the roof. Like 100ppm. Nothing has changed except the root tabs, is it possible the root tabs caused the jump in my nitrates? 

[LDNMollies]

I have definitely heard of root tabs causing ammonia/nitrate spikes in the past. How deeply did you bury the root tabs in the substrate? Sometimes, if you don't bury them deeply enough, the nutrients inside will leak out more quickly into the water column and cause spikes. 

[Nik_n]

Agree, I have heard similar things about root tabs. If they aren't buried deep enough they can mess up water perimeters. Did you gravel vac soon after you added them? That could have disturbed the substrate. Also how many did you add at a time?  

[CT_]

Frankly, I've wondered why they don't all just dissolve into the water-column within a day or two anyway, at least with coarse substrate.  I've seen enough proof that they do deliver nutrients to roots but I'm still astonished they work.

[PattysAquatics]

My substrate which is black blasting sand isn’t the deepest maybe 2 inches and I put 8 of them in. I didn’t vacuum ( I typically don’t because there is much there) but I added more sand a couple days later. I do have a colony of Malaysian trumpet snails that could have unearthed some

[Pizzafan]

This happened to me a while back. A bunch leached out of the substrate when I didn’t bury it deep enough and my ammonia and nitrites spiked. Ended up vaccing it all out and gave up on adding junk to the aquarium