Talk to me about Nitrites?

You do not want to change your water just yet. Basically the nitrogen cycle progresses as follows. Ammonia builds up in the fish tank and the nitrifying bacteria will increase in population (usually the hazy cloudy look to a new tank) they will consume the Ammonia and convert it to Nitrite (so Ammonia will be zero or close to and nitrite will rise) at this point Nitrifying bacteria will convert the harmful nitrite to less toxix nitrate. At this point when you test your water, NH4, and NO2 should be at zero but your nitrates should be around 80-90 ppm. Now it is safe to perform a water change and add some livestock. There's really no harm in performing a water change when your Nitrites are at 1 it's just that you are delaying your cycle by taking away the nitrifying bacterias food source. I hope this sheds a little light. Best of luck with your tank.