What is nitrates and nitrites

[Chiclid addict]

I’ve never understood what nitrates and nitrites are I’ve just known what is good or bad so what are they and(because it’s always nice to know what others think) what is a good level of both I know nitrites should be 0 but what is good for nitrates 

[Daniel]

I have always liked this explanation:

https://users.cs.duke.edu/~narten/faq/cycling.html

There is debate surrounding how just harmful nitrates are. I am in the camp that they have to get pretty high before I get worried, but not everyone agrees.

[SWilson]

I think this video from Aquarium Coop explains it too:

and prime time aquatics on YouTube also did a fairly deep dive on it. 

[FlyingFishKeeper]

Hi, not sure what happens with nitrates, but with nitrites the fish's blood can turn brown, and it prevents the fish from being able to process as much oxygen. I would definitely agree that it takes a LOT of nitrates before it can hurt a fish. 

[Eric R]

1 hour ago, Daniel said:

I have always liked this explanation:

https://users.cs.duke.edu/~narten/faq/cycling.html

There is debate surrounding how just harmful nitrates are. I am in the camp that they have to get pretty high before I get worried, but not everyone agrees.

Neat, I haven't seen that graph before with a trend line for total N. Interesting relationship!

[Chiclid addict]

1 hour ago, Daniel said:

I have always liked this explanation:

https://users.cs.duke.edu/~narten/faq/cycling.html

There is debate surrounding how just harmful nitrates are. I am in the camp that they have to get pretty high before I get worried, but not everyone agrees.

So what do nitrates do to the fish