LST or Topping? Darkness during flower?

Questions
I've been training them by hand, but I'm gonna start some heavier LST. I'm gonna pull down the main stem so the top section lays parallel with the ground and use loose rubberbands with paperclip hooks to hold it to the side of the pot. Good idea/bad idea? They're right around 10" and very sturdy.

I'm also going to top one of the taller plants to even it out. I've been reading a lot and I'm not sure if I like the idea because of the recovery time. I've heard you can get just as much growth from good LST, without having to wait for plants to recover. But Ima try it and see how it goes. Maybe I should look into SOG?

I'm still struggling with Ph. How can I safely raise the Ph of my water? I havn't done a soil test but my runoff is way low. I've bought two different kinds of distilled water and neither has had a good Ph.

How should I protect my plants from light during the dark periods of flower? I was planning on using the black silk sheet that you can see in my first post I think. I have nails for it to hang from inside the closet. Is that good enough? It's just barely light permeable.

For sog I LST and top all a week before I throw them into flower,to give them time to recover.Sometimes I do it during flower when I'm lazy but I wont touch them after a week into flowering.This black plastic is great for light proofing an area, sold at Lowes or Home Depot.Also Panda film,which I like best its black on one side white on the other.

i lst in 5 gallon buckets with holes drilled around the rim that i use to tie branches down with i use jute twine, or bailer twine prolly have pics of one in my album

well i have top'd on 3rd week of 24hr veg and left for another 3 weeks of 24hr veg. they should recover in less than a week if ALL is good. i use string in flower once they get bigger to spread the canopy abit more and let some light down.

the plastic above with black and white sides is really good for blocking out light.

if your wanting to change your ph of water i think hydroponics phUP&phDOWN should do the trick but i'm not 100 percent.

i was also going to bend my plants horizontal but ended up not doing it... just aswell because the plants would have easily outgrown the sideways space i had but it does sound like a good idea as it should even out all the buds rather than tops being really phat. all buds "should" be roughly the same according to theory. would love to see the results. be carful not to rip the roots out or snap the stem maybe do a little at a time. ideally i'd imigine it be best to start bending as early as possible to prevent snaps etc good luck either way