Our nitrates have risen a bit in the past few weeks. Between 30 & 40 ppm. I have read that the biomedia (our bag of stones that came withe the red sea max) can cause elevated nitrate levels. Several people have stated that they do not like to use any kind of rock or stone in their filtration area because it can raise the nitrate levels. We have considered removing it for this reason and because we think it may be causing our micro bubbles in the aquarium. I think it may be impeding the flow to the return pumps. We have at least 50 pounds of live rock in the 34 gallon aquarium. Do you think it would hurt to remove the bag of stones altogether and run it without the biomedia? We are also using chemipure in the same chamber on top of the biomedia. Everything else is stock.
