High pH issues and dosing
Automated dosing is pretty new to me. That being said, chemistry is not. I'm a big fan of Randy Holmes-Farley, and have been adopting his methods little by little for a few years now. For example, about the best and cheapest way to raise your alkalinity is plain old Arm & Hammer baking soda (pure sodium bicarbonate).
Over the past ~6 months, I've been using a doser as opposed to manual dosing, started with kalkwasser, moved on to separating the big 3 (alk/Ca+/Mg+), etc.
My problem now (and subsequent question) is high pH, where Alk/Ca+/Mg+/PO4/Nitrates/Nitrites are maintainable within preferred ranges. I've been struggling with pH ranging in the 8.45 - 8.5 range for the past month or two.
I know that being concerned with chasing pH numbers is not as important as many believe, but is high pH in that range detrimental to SPS?
If others have experienced high pH, what do you use to fix it long term? Any short term solution is just that. pH will go back to these elevated levels the next day. How do you keep Alk up, yet pH at or near 8.0-8.3 over time?
With a 300g tank, efficiency is key in treatments and cost of treatments, so really looking for someone who has been through these struggles using Randy's methods, or similar.
Thank you in advance.
