How important is baking Baking Soda

[tangman99]

I have all my stuff to create my Two part and I'm wondering how important it is to bake the baking soda if you have lower or regular PH? My PH probe usually reads around 7.9 in the sump, but my Salifert test kit is usually 8.2 to 8.3. If I don't bake it, what can I expect my PH and alk to be comparatively to if I do bake it?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

The pH will be largely driven by the tank alkalinity and the home CO2 level. Your pH looks on the low side and I'd use the bake version, but you can always try it unbaked (using Recipe 2, not 1) and see what happens.