How to prevent a tank crash .... HELP

[Cococalm]

Hello all,

My CO2 equipment arrived today finally. I want to connect it all up early next week but am scared out of my wits about it after I had a nitrite spike in my other tank when adding a CO2 set-up ( Söchting Carbonator). Current water values are as shown by the attached image.

At the moment there is no CO2 addition to the tank and the hardness will be addressed this week with the addition of Spagnum moss to the filter and the water change which will contain mostly matured rain water.

However, in connecting the DIY ( Bicarb and Citric Soda) CO2, I want to avoid completely any risk of a crash which will kill my fish and inverts.

Please help as I am doing my first CO2 rig ever, and I do not want it to be a nightmare. I want to be able to react immediately should there be any misshap ... wifey will be the one to suffer this should I be at work ....

Thank you in advance for any assistance

Thank you for your help.

 

[Delapool]

Do you have a drop checker as well? I've found that, watching fish to see if they go off food (others see gasping at surface) and checking ph will help detect if getting too much CO2.

Also I like the JBL proscan but the CO2 is calculated from kh and ph. Ph will vary over the tank slightly with CO2 addition unless you have a powerhead. The kh should be an easy one to test but I have this test kit, API and a pool test kit (the pool kit is three solutions in 10ppm increments so might be the better one). Anyways all can be slightly different readings so I tend to use the CO2 reading as a guide and check against drop-checker, etc as well.

A digital ph pen (needs calibrating every year - I just buy calibration buffers off eBay), would be a quick way to check ph each morning (here the JBL is quite expensive).

I can't help on the actual rig itself though.