Here’s where my head is at on temperature.
(turns out it led me down the track of fleshing out the entire system but hey!)
What I could do:
If you set it anywhere from 68f-88f and leave it and forget it and proceed as usual, then everything will be “fine”.
But we want optimization:
Each temp will offer benefits over the others. The primary constraint is fish choice, however: if we choose a ram, the thing has to be hotter. If you choose a minnow, it can be colder. But really, most fish will adapt, within reason.
Fish - check.
Higher temps offer increased metabolic rates and increased energy in the system for life - that means algae and bacteria. The tank will grow the proper bacterial assemblage faster at higher temps ... but to sustain that growth rate, we require oxygen (which will be reduced due to high temp and gas laws).
Lower temps slow down metabolic rates and increase gas concentration. This means bacteria has a higher likelihood of not being oxygen limited and plants have a higher likelihood of not being CO2 limited. Compound slower metabolism with more CO2, this means we as the fish keeper will have an easier time providing the proper nutrients and as such probably have better plant forms with less attention to flow/distribution of CO2 and ferts. And less energy for the algaes.
Higher temp:
1) Faster bacterial assemblage
2) Less ammonia in water column (cleaner environment) -- since more metabolism means growing faster (provided we don't block via Leidbig).
3) If things aren't "correct" inadequencies will be exploited faster ... algae will spawn quicker if we don't get it right
4) It will be harder to get things correct (highest likelihood of messing up is CO2 bottlenecking Leidbig and metabolism increase CO2 demand)
and then more stuff
Lower temp (basically all the opposites but let's illustrate a few):
1) Easier plant forms + meeting co2 demand
2) More time to respond to ammonia spikes
and then more stuff
So, those things stick out to me -- but CO2 needs to be perfect ~10 - 30 minutes into lights on -- it needs to be "getting there" at lights on. The best way we could get this is lower temps. But when do we have the most oxygen? (the largest downfall of high temps) -- when plants are growing their fastest ... 4 hours into photoperiod and on wards ... we want max temp at the point when these plants experience their final soak up of CO2 ... and the “stabilize at a smaller photosynthetic rate”.
... so maybe we mimic nature?
I think I will set my temp (for now) around 23celcius at lights on and overnight and then up to 26celcius for about 4 hours into photoperiod. Recall reading somewhere that the difference between min and max is about 2 - 4 celcius ish depending on season. Thinking best growth will be in the "wet season"? Not sure how reliable this is:
Water temperature in Amazon river (near Manaus) today | Brazil but 3 degree swing sounds nice like a nice middle ground to start.
Photoperiod: let's go 10 hours to get viewing before my kiddo goes for nap (on weekends ~ 12:30PM) ... so 11:30 AM with a 30 minute ramp (last time I was in the Caribbean the sun got aggressive almost instantly so let's mimic that) ... 12 PM should be on full blown (by the point CO2 should saturate the water which I am comfortable with as my agitation is bang on so I should get a high enough injection rate to do it).
Ok -- so:
Lights on: 11:30 AM (temp 23)
Ramp up: 11:59 aM (temp starts to ramp up)
Lights at 100: 12:00PM (temp ramping)
Temp stabilize (totally guessing): 3:00 PM (hold steady)
Potential "final suck up of CO2": 4:00PM (pearling should be crazy! Paired with max temp!)
Temp begin to drop back to 23: 6:00 PM (gives us 2 hours of good cleaning of ammonia in column)
Ramp down of lights: 9:00 PM
Lights off: 9:30 PM
This is clearer:
(whoops AM on that picture for 11:30).
So ... that looks like nature ... I hope. AND I have never done this for startup (only in a mature system).
Josh