It's not. You have a dynamic system of CO2 passing by, being used, and then free CO2 influencing diffusion. A non-zero amount of CO2 will diffuse and begin the process. That will then continue as the water saturates - but the rate of saturation with light vs. without light is different.It can't be lost on you that that is a complete contradiction? You can't get sufficient CO2 into the plant, if there is insufficient surrounding it in the water.
And Tom Barr. And JoshP12. And ...That's utter none sense I'm afraid. The only person I've seen achieve a 1.0pH drop in 30 minutes is @Zeus. with his mighty dual injection system. 2-3 hours is far from uncommon, even with the efficiency of an external reactor.
Livestock? If they are fine it's fine. Everything is going to work.Whilst I agree that plants may take time to ramp up to full CO2 demand - there is no sensible reason to delay the required supply and risk the plant's demand not being met.
And the given fert level etc. Yep.I don't see the relevancy of this comment - we're talking about achieving a consistent level of CO2 in the water column sufficient to meet the demands of the plants for the given light level. It's not the only input that affects plant health, but it's one we can control and adjust to a target level.
Yep.No it doesn't but its the best tool we have unless you want to fork out for a proper CO2 meter, and we can extrapolate that if we get a consistent drop checker colour in all parts of the tank, then any further CO2 related plant deficiency is down to distribution problems.
Too much light? Poor flow? Too little ferts? Too much ferts? They all lead to the same thing.So all plants turn red? Some can moderate yes, but many can't and don't - they'll just run out of CO2 and then begin to break down attracting algal growth. You can pop over to the algae section, and you'll see the effects of too much light time and time again.
Plants look better with more light.I'm not saying you can't run high light, many people do it very successfully, but it require a lot of experience and not something that should be recommended to a beginner - personally, sa I say, I don't see the point in chasing high light as a target in and of itself unless you're looking to grow plants for profit perhaps (in which case you'd probably do it emersed anyway).
Agreed. If your fish are fine, turn it up. Why starve the plant?Again, this is nonesense. pH is largely irrelevant, its a by-product of the process. Each turn on the needle valve injects the same quantity of CO2 into the system regardless. Sure there may be less plant consumption, and the absolute level of CO2 can be lower, but then we are setting the CO2 input to a target level regardless, and it simply means there is an excess of CO2 beyond the plant demands, which is not a negative thing providing the absolute level is within safe parameters for livestock.
Then why is there benefit to having excess CO2 in a system for the plants? Or excess nutrients?Tanks even with low levels of light and CO2 injection achieve O2 saturation. Once you achieve saturation the O2 has no where else to go and comes out of solution, hence why we see bubbles all over our plants - I would argue that there is no benefit to the microbial population once O2 saturation is achieved.
More O2 is a safeguard to the system.
If you already achieved everything and you are happy, then stop. The goal of the hobbyist is at the forefront.Sure you can apply more light, and drive more growth through photosynthesis, but why do that and risk deficiency in that CO2 and the stable plant health you have already achieved, or having to push CO2 further and further to keep up with the light intensity and increase risk to livestock?
Not looking to argue - OP can try both methods.