Aquascaping causing tank to recycle?

[MiniMasterFlash]

I have had my 7 gal minibow for about 2 weeks now. I "installed" (haha) live rock and live sand from the LFS and let the tank do its thing. I recorded the ammonia spike, the nitrite spike, and both these parameters went to zero while my nitrates rose. My water has been stable at 0/0/12.5 mg/l for about 5 days. This Thursday ( 2 weeks later ) I noticed a lot of brown algea growing, so i decided it would be fine get a small cleanup crew ( 2 blue legs and an astrea). Plus this would satiate my overlylustfull desire to put something living in my tank. But alas I could not introduce them into a home that was not imaculatly aquascaped. So yesterday, I pulled all my live rock out and modified the geometrical structure of the rock with a claw hammer. After about 30 minutes of work I had my tank looking wonderfull ( I.M.O. ). I went back to the LFS and got 2 tiny blue legs (very very cute guys) and introduced them to their new home. Later that saturday night I tested the water and now my ammonia and nitrite levels are almost as high as when they peaked earlier in my cycle!! Ammonia is at ~1.5mg/l and nitrites at ~.45mg/l. What the heck did I do to my tank? Did breaking the live rock release a lot of dead stuff into my tank? Anyone have any similar experiances?

[tinyreef]

could be, you could've killed a peanut worm or something similar without even realizing it. some sponges that were growing might've died.

 

a bunch of nasties that were locked away underneath could've been exposed. (that's why burying waste is not a solution) or it could've been the opposite, i.e. you locked them away and they suffocated or starved and now they're rotting. :x

 

gotta be careful when moving rock, things can get gooshed underneath. you might want to do a small wc if the ammonia is getting up there to save your new livestock.