I feel bad about mentioning Dr. Tim as meeting him was a highlight at the '18 Dallas aquashella but the truth is he's put formally-produced videos out on the web stating nitrite importance, and it drives bottle bac sales bigtime. I have a separate 20 page thread tracking the general number of posts a few years back stating they bought 2, 3+ extra bottles of bacteria to cure high nitrite/a claimed stuck cycle
someone is teaching the masses that measuring nitrite and reacting to it is important in reef tank cycling
but we can do a search here on Randy Holmes-Farley and the word nitrite
look how clear, concise, to the point he's been about it's nonfactor in reefing, it can't be any clearer
the sales angle makes it important
the free chemistry angle makes it not important, that's the issue with promoting sales claims about nitrite as it forever puts believability, credibility in doubt for me personally
can nitrite itself stall a cycle? heck yes.
it's why beef jerky is packed with sodium nitrite, see the label, it's a legit antibiotic.
so why do we state in free chemistry nonsales angle reefing that nitrite is neutral, don't own the kit? context is why
no possible way we cycle tanks will drive nitrite high enough to matter. context was left out of the sales angle, which is why it smells like ripoff sales info to me. even if nitrite is 'high' for the test kits we use, it's well below the tolerance level for bacteria insulated by bioslicks. that part was conveniently left out.
In freshwater, nitrite is the killer and ammonia is the neutral
in reefing, ammonia is the killer and nitrite is neutral, they're reversed, we don't get told that. the cycling info we've traded for 30 years is a mix of freshwater / marine rules but it doesn't work that way irl
there are different timeframes in effect for the two systems because we must manage opposing params depending on salt / chloride concentration in the system.
not one time in the history of this website did nitrite affect any organism in reefing, same for every other website, in the history of all reefing and nobody can post a link showing it did. salesmen will never be that direct in information relay.
in aquaculture facilities, which aren't reef tanks (they're high bioload crammed barely covered surface area settings) nitrite can indeed be an issue
the context was always twisted regarding nitrite's impacts to us in reefing. I think salesmen did that, or perpetuate it at least.
