Total newbie starting his first serious set up....

Hi, all! This is my first post here and I wanted to thanks you for the incredible resource!
I am relatively new to the aquarium game, I got a 29g tank for Xmas and started doing the research of what wanted to do with it. I hadn't had a tank since I was teenager running a fish gulag twenty years ago. I read a few books, did some internet hunting and assembled a few peices at a time. I am a pretty serious about a few different hobbies, so I had hunch that this would be somewhat complicated. I think I started off as carefully as I could I wanted a fairly natural planted tank. I am not a wealthy man and I have lots of other hobbies so everything has been done on a peicemeal, somewhat shoestring budget. As my research continued it became apparent that to have a beautiful natural scene like to ones in the amano books would require much more than my budget would initially allow, and frankly the tank would need to cycle up anyways. (There is no way I could be patient enough to wait for budget situation to be fixed first, but I am patient enough to cycle....) I just ordered a new set of serious lights, a new stand, and am ready to move on to an effective CO2 system. My goal is to set up an effective Co2 monitoring and delivery system on the cheap, with the intention of being modular enough that when I add in more pieces it is plug and play. I have a HOB filter right now, but plan to upgrade to a canister when the budget allows. I want to eventually get upgrade to a pressurized Co2 system, but for now I am going to be brewing my own. Initially, I got the peices for a Lavasseur style Co2 reactor with yeast generator. It has a few issues, some of which can be fixed (like me preparing the yeast mixture better) and some you can't fix. (Like the fact that is extremely ugly and eats up a ton of space.) It has never really consistently worked for me. So I am going to try to assemble an inline reactor that eventually can be plumbed into a canister system when I get one.

The equipment I started with and am currently running.
29G tank
Emperor 280 (eventually plan to remove and go to a canister filter, but that will be a while)
AG dual 17 watt flora grow bulbs- upgrading to Orbit 130 cf 6700K this week
Eco Complete substrate
My current water parameters are PH 7.8 KH 5 (the LV reactor is dormant right now)
The tank is cycled as far as I can tell.
Miscellaneous plants and fishes
Co2 generator with a gas separator (inactive right now- I have champagne yeast to recharge)

I don't have secondary tank to work with so all modifications have to done with the fish still in the tank.

So the way I figure, I need to get the CO2 system to drop the PH slowly to a happy place like 6.8 or so, without mopping the floor with my fish to get about 30PPM CO2. From my inital research into the DIY side of life the list of things necessary to accomplishing this goal include:
Drop checker for accurate measurement of CO2 to prevent crashes
Inline CO2 reaction chamber
Co2 generator with bubble counter
Pump on a set on daily timer to drive the system once proper ph parameters are established

Most of these projects are listed here and a fairly easy to follow. I do have a few newbie questions though. I am not great plumber so some this will be basics on how to and some will be water concerns. Let me know if you see any flaws in my reasoning.

I am new to a few of the materials, like the acrylic for making a rectangler drop checker. What do you use to cut the acrylic to size? Do score it like glass and break it? On use a fine toothed saw? I am somewhat limited in the tools department, so I want know what I need to get and not break the bank.

I want pre-plumb the inline reactor for a eheim2213 or something like it later. What size tubing would you recommend for general compatibilty?

I want use the maxi jet 600 that I bought for the LV reactor to drive the inline reactor I am planing on building for now and increase circulation. Is it too small or an okay? If it is OK, do I set it up so that it will push into the reactor or pull through the reactor?

The consensus seem to be that you should regulate you CO2 input using a bubble counter to accurately regulate the flow of CO2 to get the the 30ppm range during the day for optimal growth, but minimise the flow nightly so that you don't have crashes. My thought was to put the pump on a timer once I get idea of what kind of CO2 output I have. So what is a good starting point for the bubble counter? Do I need to buffer the system as it stands, given my intial water conditions of 7.8PH, 5 dKH? Will the buildup of CO2 in the reactor chamber at night matter at all? Does the fact the I live at 4600 ft make any difference in the numbers?

So as an overveiw I want set up a yeast based system that can later be replaced with a pressurized CO2 system. I want to set up a reactor module that will driven by a maxi-jet 600 that will eventually be driven by a canister type filter. Any thoughts or advice would be greatly appreciated.