It's also a dynamic situation I find so not just a case of marrying up your lighting levels with the gas, plant mass also needs taken into account which inevitably increases with the addition of co2. The bubble counter really tells you only one thing and that's just give you a rough idea of how much that little turn on the needle valve you've just made has changed by a lot or a little bit more. I set up a 50ltr tank in my office after stripping down my tank at home mainly just to keep the plants I had for a future venture and let my remaining fish live out their retirement as it's very difficult to re-home fish round there here parts. Didn't want the hassle of co2 so set it up non co2 with a light that was at its best low to med lighting I would guess without any data and it was dimmable. started of on its lowest setting and dosed about 25% of what would be considered EI, zero issues but no growth to speak of. Got a bit bored with it TBH and having my old reg kit about and a full 5KG pub bottle decided to do 1bps about 4 hrs before lights, net result was major improvement in growth as you would expect so up went the light a setting out the 5. Managed to get away with it until plant mass was filling out more then I was getting a nigh on blue DC at lights on so hack down the plants and another little turn on the needle valve got me back in the green again. Rinse and repeat until eventually the light was at 100%. The next thing I came across was some signs of deficiency in the plants so I just upped an extra 2.5ml syringe of macros every two weeks until it diminished,
Now I've hit a point that the light is 100% for 7.5 hrs, green DC at lights on and dosing about 35% EI values which seems to be the sweet spot for this particular set up. The only adjustments I have to make now is co2 starts getting a bit low when I let the plant mass get out of control which I adjust with the scissors to bring back in-line. Although I do appreciate the 30ppm 1 PH drop and unlimited ferts technique and do appreciate it will work for experienced people I find that it does cause issues for a lot of people in the hobby usually within the first three months with an immature tank. I will be setting all my tanks up this way in the future and would advise anybody just starting off to try it. Go low tech and pick plants suited to it, you can always bring other plants in later on. Get a dimmable light and run it on its lowest setting and gradually bring everything up starting with co2, ferts then light in that order. Take your time and I'm talking here over a period of maybe six months rather than a couple of weeks like I see most people do in the algae section of the forum. 90% of us aren't aquascapers anyway so what's the rush. I find doing the unlimited ferts and 1ph drop technique is best done in a very mature mature tank as this technique has its pitfalls so best not to combine them with the setting up a new tank pitfalls. Very easy to get sickened this way especially when you've just forked out the neck end of £500 notes on equipment thinking it will buy one instant success. The hobby should be enjoyable after all otherwise it ceases to be a hobby and turns into a job.
