[jmhart]

Since I have a pH of about 7.6 right from tap, and when I have green reading from my drop checker, would it be safe to assume it will took off .6, making it 7.0 during my photo/co2 period? What IF I up my co2 bubbles per minute, get it down by .5 more, making it 6.5. and then getting up to 7.0 when lights and co2 goes out. Getting a color of light-green from my co2 drop checker. No danger to it, right? Best to just watch your fish. When I was first getting really comfortable with pressurized co2, I never adjusted anything unless I knew I was going to be home for 4-5 hours to watch what, if any, effect it had on my fish. All tanks are different...that being said, with 4 dKH in my drop checker, I was able to safely have the drop checker turn kind of a greenish-yellow almost a brown with no visible signs of danger to my fish.

What chemical do I use to get kH, or gH, down? What is recommended? and when I do have high kH and gH, do I dose slowly like a increasing ppm when dosing nutrients but the other way around by decreasing the ppm for a kH and gH, a unbuffer or something?For raising GH, use a GH booster from Aquariumfertilizer.com. For raising KH, I use baking soda, but a lot of people prefer calcium carbonate.The only way to "unbuffer" in tank is to use peat. I have soft water, so I don't know a whole lot about that. The only other option is an RO unit for softening the water before going into the tank. If you are even thinking about upping GH/KH, get a GH/KH test kit first.....always know what you are doing.

If my kH and gH is too low, what would be a better option? Buy CaNO3 to get both gH and kH up or Flourish's Equilibrium and Acid buffer? How much would I dose CaCo2 to get my kH from 1 to 4 slowly and what about gH?CaNO3 does not raise GH and KH. See my above answer for what to use for GH and KH. A quick google search will tell you how to dose these

Where can I get a potassium test kit?There are no affordable potassium test kits

Should I up my lighting right now or wait until my tank gets from moderately planted to heavily planted? Guess work lol.You have changed almost everything about your tank in the last few months, now it's time to just grow. Stop changing. Your lights and co2 are in good shape, and your dosing looks good but may need tweaking depending on your tank.

Any answers to my questions, and advice, tips, links, or suggestions would greatly be appreciated.

Please ask me any questions, I will gladly answer it.

I'll be back 7-9 hours later, I need to catch some ZzZ's.

See blue above for the questions I answered.

 

[jmhart]

I agree, if you are doing EI or PPS, your problems aren't with nutrients. Try upping your co2 or reducing light to combact algae issues.