PH from 7.6 to 8.4, Alk consomption doubled

[Rognin]

So I caved and bought a PH meter end of October. Calibrated with PH7 and PH10 solution. Took my reading, 7.6 before lights on and 7.8-7.9 at the end of the 10 hours light cycle. Fuge is on inverse hours.

I recently purchased some soda lime and a cannister from BRS during plack friday. PH is now steady between 8.1-8.4 night and day. But I've more than doubled the alk (soda ash) dosing during the night. And my Alk is barely over 8.1 (red sea test kit). I can't seem to get ahead and I don't see any coraline growing and only have zoas as of right now (3 weeks since soda lime). I'm up from 8.8ml a day to 33.3ml a day... When I tested a couple days after the soda lime installation it was down to 6.7.

Where's it all going? Why is it not raising past 8.1?

Tank age: 16 months
Temp: 79-80
Ca: 470
Mg: 1360
Alk: 8.1
Ph: 8.1-8.4
PO4: 0.00 (tested twice on Hanna)
NO3: 0.02 (Redsea)

 

[Rognin]

Also increased feeding to get my PO4 up and NO3 up, my shrooms are shrinking... Will be testing again next week when I return from camp to see if nutrients have gone up.