eco23
Aquarium Advice Addict
Fishguy2727 said:It is true that excessive nitrite can be harmful to nitrifying bacteria and therefore stall the cycle, the same is true of ammonia. This means that if the concentration of either gets too high (I have heard 4-6ppm, but I am not sure that those numbers came from studies) water changes to reduce the concentration need to be performed. Your opinion that it would have to be ridiculously high is your opinion, but scientific studies have put numbers to that (although I don't know them off hand).
The main point of this thread was to state the fact that daily or every other day water changes are not necessary during a fishless cycle. I'm all up for debate and gaining knowledge for myself...but let's not get the purpose of the initial post muddled with another discussion about nitrIte toxicity to bacteria. I'm all for that as a new thread...but that's not the point of this one. I'll happily word it differently if it is causing this much debate on the topic. I personally believe it is a combination of multiple things which cause stalls.