The truth about nitrites

[gmoney243]

Here's a good article on nitrites and how harmless in saltwater it really is untill you hit levels of like 300ppm. However ammonia is still harmfull at 1ppm.

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-06/rhf/index.php

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[gmoney243]

bump

 

[Bishop]

While a partially interesting article, it makes me think of an egg. Sure, Nitrite is harmless. Never have I ever tested or even put thought into nitrite in a reef tank since I got into the hobby. However, it comes from ammonia which we know we don't want and it turns to nitrate which we know we don't want to much of either. Like an Egg, it is harmless. If you leave a dozen in the back seat of your car over a summer weekend and one is cracked then things turn afoul real quick. Leaving a chicken in the car for to long might not be so great either.

 

[Mike J.]

Well, I read the entire article and sure came up with a different analysis that you did. The measurement used for most (LC50) is where half the test subjects die within 24 hours. Most of numbers elevated drastically at 48 hours, 96 hours so on. One result that really caught my attention was for a sea urchin. It stated death at 33 ppm and reduction in gonad growth as low as 1.6 ppm. I have two sea urchins in one of my tanks. Then the 330 ppm result you're referring to is death within 24 hours. The next test was done a 33 ppm and the clown fish were lethargic and breathing with difficulty. Then the clincher of it all is that normal seawater has a nitrite level of .00002 ppm. I thought our goal was to emulate nature in our tanks. My conclusion after reading this is to keep thinking that elevated levels of nitrites are very toxic to my reef tank inhabitants. Let's not start telling people differently, especially since elevated levels of nitrites comes from elevated levels of ammonia!