lots of mist/less total co2. Should I care?

In experimenting with how to increase o2 in the tank, I have gotten rid of the bubbler, left my power head ripples and most importantly took the top off of the tank. (it was a piece of acrylic with a 1.5 inch circular hole.

My co2 based on kh5 solution went from perfectly mid green to green witha bit of blue, so I uppd my co2 and messed around with power head ect...

I now have a load of visible mist, but the drop checker still shows a darker green than I had been running. Not blue green, but definately one step darker.
(edit -- actually tonight I am a definate mid green, but with about twice the bubble count now that the top is off.)

and the question remains.. in the presence of visible mist do I care as much about the total co2 saturation? Do the plants care? If they are in swirl of mist with less dissolved gas being held in the water, does it matter? Is the mist enough?

Before my co2 was so constant (even during night with co2 off and bubbler on) I thought my drop checker was slow. Now I think it was the gas getting trapped under the top.

 

I added two power heads going at right angles when I added my mist and yesterday I had my first real (non water change pearling) since my co2 disaster.. so that isa good sign.

so far NOTHING has suffered overtly from cutting light nearly in half from 4.5 watts to 2.5, glandulosa is a little shakey but it has been since co2 cut out a few weeks ago.