Im currently dark cycling a 20L nano cube, I have a Twinstar 300E lighting fixture and I'm planning to inject CO2 and fertilise.
What I'm still confused about is how I'm supposed to ascertain the amount of CO2 to inject, obviously for optimum plant growth conditions I should be aiming for 30ppm, but how do I know if I'm injecting enough or too much.
Of course I can use a drop checker or instead the pH drop method, however if I use either of these two methods it will mean I need to constantly fluctuate my CO2 until I find the correct bubble rate for my specific system. Surely this fluctuation will cause algae? Is there not any way to accurately determine how much CO2 I should be adding in advance of introducing plants to prevent any initial melting/algae due to unstable conditions?
Also any method I can find online requires constant observation/testing, which is unreliable and time consuming, not to mention any difference in initial water parameters such as Kh, water agitation, flow etc can make this even more difficult. Watching a drop checker the entire day, or taking numerous tests doesn't to micromanage everything doesnt seem very reasonable.
So how do most people determine their specific injection rate, Is it just a case of trial and error, Given plants are constantly absorbing CO2 doesn't this make it more difficult to keep a constant 30ppm without changing the amount of CO2 injection throughout the day? Am I missing something or do I have a misunderstanding, thanks in advance.
What I'm still confused about is how I'm supposed to ascertain the amount of CO2 to inject, obviously for optimum plant growth conditions I should be aiming for 30ppm, but how do I know if I'm injecting enough or too much.
Of course I can use a drop checker or instead the pH drop method, however if I use either of these two methods it will mean I need to constantly fluctuate my CO2 until I find the correct bubble rate for my specific system. Surely this fluctuation will cause algae? Is there not any way to accurately determine how much CO2 I should be adding in advance of introducing plants to prevent any initial melting/algae due to unstable conditions?
Also any method I can find online requires constant observation/testing, which is unreliable and time consuming, not to mention any difference in initial water parameters such as Kh, water agitation, flow etc can make this even more difficult. Watching a drop checker the entire day, or taking numerous tests doesn't to micromanage everything doesnt seem very reasonable.
So how do most people determine their specific injection rate, Is it just a case of trial and error, Given plants are constantly absorbing CO2 doesn't this make it more difficult to keep a constant 30ppm without changing the amount of CO2 injection throughout the day? Am I missing something or do I have a misunderstanding, thanks in advance.