Quote Originally Posted by JoshOdphi View Post
baking soda will do tha trick
Actually, you do NOT want baking soda. Baking soda will LOWER your pH, in many instances. It's pH is around 7.8-8.0.

And, it will raise your alkalinity.

What WILL raise your pH and your alkalinity is anhydrous baking soda: Put box of baking soda into a baking dish (very clean), and put it in the oven for an hour at 350 degrees. This drives off the CO2 - which ist what lowers your pH - and make sodium bicarbonate into sodium carbonate. I take a box of this and put it in a 3 liter bottle of RO/DI water, and dose with it. The pH of sodium carbonate (anhydrous sodium bicarbonate) is 11.6 - and pH is a logorithmic scale (10 is 10x what 9 is).

This is a great link: http://jdieck1.home.comcast.net/~jdieck1/chemcalc.html

I'd guess your biggest problem is too much CO2 OR a bad test kit - either pH or Alkalinity. As one who chased an Alk problem a few years ago because of a bad kit, HAVE SOMEONE ELSE TEST YOUR WATER! For pH, your water sample needs to be just water, in a sealed bag (no air).

Oh, yeah: If you dosed Mg, did you test for it? The cardinal rule in Reef Chemistry: "Don't dose anything you don't test for".