Will Nitrite kill my plants?

Question

My tank is currently suffering with high nitrite levels, we are doing all the steps to reduce that at the moment. We orded some live plants before we noticed our nitrite had gone up. Now they have arrived, is it safe to put them in? Will the nitrite just kill them. We have someiver plants which have started to look a bit unhealthy as well.

Answer 1

It is NITRATES which are good for the plants, not NITRITES!!! Wikipedia on Nytrogen cycle: "It is important for the nitrites to be converted to nitrates because accumulated nitrites are toxic to plant life." ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitrogen_cycle ). Another example is mine: I was on vacation for 3 weeks and handed my 2 aquariums to friends. In a large tank I made too much of a water change (70%) in a hope that it will last longer (usually I do 50% change every 2 weeks), so the tank started cycling while I was away, most fish died, and nitrite was about 20 ppm when I came (horrible!). In a small tank water was just changed from the top, without vacuuming the gravel, resulting in 0.5 cm waste covering the bottom...And nitrites rose to about 5 ppm. In large tank there was no plants left (except some kind of hairy moth as I call it), in small tank (with a little less nitrite) 3/4 of plants were gone. So, the punchline: NITRITES ARE HARMFUL TO PLANTS, NITRATES ARE GOOD!!!