I think the whole dont chase ph advice is important but more to prevent people from using products like "ph up" or "ph buffer". They only provide small temporary boosts anyway and primarily impact alkalinity which some people dont even know!
I use a co2 scrubber as well and it almost doubles my carbonate consumption. I also run a refugium on a reverse light schedule, but all that really does is minimize the drop at night. It does increase the baseline but nothing like a co2 scrubber does for me. Both could be considered "chasing ph" technically but are pretty safe and provide multiple actual benefits, imo.
I agree you definitely need to monitor your ph, co2 media (I have to switch mine before its all turns purple), and alk closely though or your dKH will rise up when your media is exhausted. I like to replace mine one day before it usually starts to become less effective because even a .1 reduction in ph will let my average alk rise up about .1 dKH in about 24-36 hrs (obviously it fluctuates more than that throughout the day). Not a big deal on it's own but unless you make that up everytime it happens, your alk can rise over time.
I have an alk monitor (tests every 6 hours) and two ph probes so I have a pretty firm understanding about how it all plays out. Some people ofcourse wouldnt notice this or it could be offset by an increased demand of corals that have grown larger, its just something for people to consider if their goal is stability. I try to keep it everything as stable as possible.
I believe almost all of my additional carbonate consumption is due to increased calcification, but people who run much higher dKH than me (im only 7.1-7.4) and maintain lower nutrient levels/dissolved organics/magnesium levels could have a significant increase in precipitation as a cause for part of that uptake instead.
That's my $2.00 worth
@bubbaque
Great idea on the dual/back up scrubbers. Do you find it impacts your skimmer performance running two in like like that?
