I've just set up a new planted 55 aquarium. I planted it three nights ago,
with what I would call a moderate plant load. Certainly, it's not dutch. I
do have DIY CO2 injection, and 160W of flourescent lighting (1 tube aqua-lux,
2 "daylight full spectrum" and one cool white). The inhabitants are 4
cories and a hitchhiker tetra fry that is doing suprisinly well. Anyways,
yesterday night, just before the lights turned out at 11:30pm I took the
following test results:
o temp: 76 F
o ammonia/ammonium: 0.5ppm
o nitrite: 5.0ppm
o GH: 11 dGH
o KH: 8 dKH
o pH: 7.0
o CO2 (calculated): 24ppm (is this right?) This stays hooked up 24h a day.

Now, this morning just before the lights turned on I took the tests again.
There was no visible O2 production from plants, and all the readings were the
same across the board. If the plants were living as they are supposed to,
shouldn't the pH have gone down due to the plants not using O2, and producing
CO2 at night? Is it normal for the plants to have to establish themselves
first? Sorry if these are newbie questions, I'm just trying to get off on the
right foot. Also, just in the last couple days, ammonia/ammonium has gone
from 1.0 to 0.5 ppm and nitrite up from 0 to 5.0 ppm. This is good right? I
know that they should both eventually be zero but this is the right trend
isn't it? Thanks in advance!

__
"Insert witty comment here."
-John