[smokinreefer]

interesting idea...

the first thing that pops into my mind is that you would run into an issue of instability. by "cleaning" the bed or portion of it by rinsing or bubbling would you basically be sterilizing it in a sense? so that part of the bed would lose its "removal capacity" while the bacteria colonies re-establish themselves.

so every time you did a cleaning, then nitrates would spike as the consumption is no longer at equilibrium. slowly dropping back down as bacterias colonize again.