Safe Nitrite level?

[kev_kb]

Hi all,

Whats a safe level of Nitrite for cycling with fish?

I've gotten through the Ammonia spike, and now the Nitrite is rising. I managed to keep the Ammonia under 1ppm with water changes should I keep the Nitrites under this level or can it go a little higher as Nitrite isn't as harmful as Ammonia?

My tank has:

8 Neon Tetras
3 Albino Cory Doras

I will continue with lots of water changes, but is the most dangerous phase of cycling with my fish now over?

 

[skimpy]

No level in my opinion is 'safe' with nitrIte and ammonia except 0.

I am sure you will get lots of different opinions but for me personally I didn't worry too much at the level of 0.25 for NitrIte (during cycling) but I did not let mine go above 0.5. If you look at this link My Cycle you will see in my case my tank went to 0.5 on day 34 so I did water changes everyday until it was down again to 0.25 but I did not change so much then because I had explained to me that I needed some NitrIte to allow the NitrAte to form.

Do be careful though, you may be through AN Ammonia spike, but it may spike again when you get more fish.

Good Luck

 

[kev_kb]

Thanks, I'll try to keep it under 0.5ppm so at least the bacteria has something to work with.

 

[Inchworm]

Hi kev_kb

There is no big hurry to get a tank cycled, as long as you are monitoring the water quality. If you keep the level of the ammonia and nitrites down it will still cycle but more slowly. The lower the levels are the safer for the fish, so I suggest you keep them low and just have patience.