nitrates vs light

I'm not a chemist (only took 3 hours of Chemistry in college :) ), but the nitrate ion (I believe) does not have an effect on a substance's color, so lowering your nitrate shouldn't cause your lights to appear brighter to your corals/fish. In contrast, detritus and other organic compounds do affect your water's color (turning it yellow), and removing them (by using carbon, for example) will cause your lights to be more intense from the perspective of your corals/fish.

Hope that helps!
 
I can see that clouding the water would affect lighting adversely. I was looking at nitrates themselves. Wasn't thinking cause and effect.
 
I have heard the lower the nitrates the less light corals "need" to thrive. Don't know the rhyme or reason.
 
I had really high nitrates and got the problem fixed, but now i am have problems with the corals bleaching out. My zoas, Anemones, and sps all are not opening they way they used to. I went from 80+ nitrates to less than 20 in about 10 days.That is the only thing that has changed. All the rest of my numbers are spot on. I am trying to figure out why my corals were doing really good when my nitrates we high and not now. Maybe what joelq said is correct because I used ecobak to get rid of my nitrates. If this is the case, should I loer the time I keep my lights on and bring it back up slowly?
 
I am sure if it was nitrates or phosphates but I did notice when I started running biopellets to lower both my water clarity improved. When I do a water change now my old water looks just like new water when I use a white bucket


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It could be the corals were tolerating the higher NO3, but the sudden drop was hard on them versus are more gradual change. However, water clarity is what increases light penetration. This is why vodka dosing is popular.

Some corals thrive in ultra-low nitrate, like birdsnest. As NO3 rises, the corals begin to grow in a stunted fashion because it is somewhat toxic to them. We strive for lower nitrates for this reason, keeping them between 0 and 5ppm if possible.
 
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