alkalinity too high?

[Murdoch98]

A little background. I have an 8 year old system, 75 gallon tank 75 pounds live rock, no corals, 9 small fish, shrimps, crabs, stars. I am trying to get my alk/calcium and magnesium levels ready to attempt a coral or two.

I just recieved my elos test kits today and found that my alk is 13dKh. I was using a 4 year old fastTest kit and got a reading of 7dKh, previously. The other odd thing is that my water change water, which consists of tap water and instant ocean salt, is checking at 11-12 dKh. I also recieved today my TLF C-balance solutions. My calcium is at 250. Can I use the calcium portion of the two, alone, to raise the calcium and will this bring my alk down? My first thought was to do water changes to bring the alk down a little, but the makeup water is already high. Will it hurt anything being that high? If so, what is the safest way to bring it down? Thanks.
Mark Metzel

 

[Aquarist007]

If your going to go into corals then you should consider using r/0 water instead of tap water
The calcium proportion will not affect the alkalinity

I would use Kent turbo calcium to bring up the calcium levels(its a chloride which doesn't affect the alkalinty that much)

You also need to check your magnesium levels--should be 1300 ppm which help support higher levels of calcium


What is your pH

 

[Murdoch98]

PH is 8.3 and my mag is 1100, and I am dosing with Kent tech-M to get that up there. I am looking into an r/o set-up. The tap water here in the chicago burbs (lake michigan water) actually checks out very well for phosphates, so I never bothered. But am considering it.

 

[boxfishpooalot]

ELOS are NIST certified. So I would trust the results.

If you suspect its inacurate, read my sig and make your own at a pharmacy. Then you know for sure!

 

[HBtank]

And what test do I use to make sure the scale is accurate?