Ok so I got my alk up a bit to high . I raised it up to around 10.
Nothing at all wrong about an alk of 10 dKH. I try to keep my tank somewhere between 8.5 and 10 dKH (3 - 3.5 meq/l). I think you reach a point of diminishing returns at alk levels much higher then 10 dKH. The abiotic (non-biological) precipitation of CaCO3 starts to become significant and you end up having to add copious amounts of Ca and Alk in order to maintain that high alk level. That's just been my experience. This graph (from a very interesting research article) shows graphically what I mean by diminishing returns:
I have got it to go up a little by dosing pickling lime.
I think pickling lime is a fine maintenance additive if your tank struggles with a low pH.
Should I start dosing more and more aggressive until I get to desired ph? Or is there another problem ?
No. Alkalinity additives are added to maintain or adjust alkalinity. You'll get yourself in a heap of trouble if you try to control pH by adding more. While a higher alkalinity will help to stabilize pH (and increase it slightly), the controlling factor in our tanks, when it comes to pH, is dissolved CO2. If you have a lower then normal pH then you have too much CO2 dissolved in your tank water.
The first thing I would do is scoop a glassful of water from your tank, place an air stone in the glass, aerate for 20 minutes and measure pH. If it comes up to normal then you don't have enough water circulation in your tank. If the pH is still low, take the glass and airstone outside and bubble for another 20 min. The pH of the water should increase up to normal. If so, then your pH meter is ok and you have excessive CO2 in your home. Increasing tank circulation will have little to no effect in this case. Kalkwasser, increasing the amount of plants in your tank and turning off or not using a calcium reactor are some possible fixes. If the pH in the glass doesn't come up to normal with outside air then I'd say your pH measurement is at fault.
until recently my alk has been very low. Around 4.5 or so. I guess I let my sps corals get the best of me.
That's easy to do. I've pretty much ignored my tank all summer. But a couple weeks ago I notice that my halimeda (I've got tons of the stuff) began turning white. I checked my alk (which is usually rock steady at 9 dKH) and it was 4 dKH. A quick search found that my calcium reactor had run out of CO2.