It's a good idea to start your CO2 roughly an hour or so before your lights come on. The reason for this is simple.
When your lights come on, you want your plants to hit for floor running. What I mean by that is you want your plants to begin growing instantly. As the CO2 build up over the 60 minutes before the lights are on your levels begin to rise (remembering the carbon dioxide has been off for maybe 16 hours) and your plants take complete advantage of this. Good levels of CO2 and lighting (don't forget your fertilisers) = happy planted aquarium.
By contrast, having your CO2 come on when your lights start up, you delay the growing process as it takes roughly 1 hour for CO2 levels to hit that perfect 30ppm level.
In addition, turn your CO2 off 1 hour before your lights go off. There will be sufficient CO2 in your tank for that time for your plants to continue growing.
When do you turn your CO2 on and off?
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You can pick up a check valve at Amazon for ebay relatively cheap. Or try your local pet store. It takes all the guess work out.
Yes, it’s always best to have it running for about 1 hour before your lights come on.
many thanks for your reply, I am using aquagro grobeam 600 ultima led lighting x 2 and an arcadia led strip, in your opinion is this sufficient?
drop checker is now showing light green. lights on for 7 hours at the moment.adding ferropol 24 daily. 1 bubble per sec.
thanks
Have a read of this thread
http://www.aquaessentials.co.uk/blog/2012/07/my-tank-has-hair-algae-how-do-i-get-rid-of-it.html
Plenty of light
Drop checker needs positioning at bottom of tank (not top). I bubble per second doesn’t sound much but be guided by drop checker
Ferropol is trace element only. You need Neutro+ http://www.aquaessentials.co.uk/neutro-medium-p-6381.html