bad alk test kit

[ihavtats29]

ill never use a red sea alk test kit agian, ive been using it till today when i picked up a salifert kh/alk test kit due to the red sea only reading to 3.8 meq/l and a balanced cal alk needing to be at 4.9 meq/l so i checked the water with the new kit and wow my alk is way off the roof i followed directions correctly and performed the test twice and it took more than the 1 ml of reactant to get the color to change giving me a kh of 20 !!! and a meq/l of 7.4 what is the best way to safely lower my alk in my tanks?

 

[Mako Shark II]

I’ve found that Rea Sea is a beginners test. I've changed brands too, because of the same reason. Now I use the API brands.

And I’d do a water change. Let things settle down, then re-test.

 

[Mako Shark II]

Hey, I also just read another thread where you said you keep your SG at .026.

With that, you'll also have elevated KH (alk), so you probably want to drop that SG down to .024 for a while until your readings reduce.

Your mix might be a little stout.

 

[ihavtats29]

i was actualy dosing to get the alk up my mix tends to be on the light side for alk it may have been fine to begin with before i started raising it

 

[just dave]

You are making an assumption that may make things worse. You assume the Salifert kit is correct when it could be the Red Sea kit that it is. Salifert did have some issues with some of their Alk test kits. I'd also apply a little common sense to the situation. Are you having big problems with your animals? You would if it were really that high.

 

[ihavtats29]

it came with a test soulution would that possible be wrong too? can i bring you a sample dave and check to see if its reading right? i just bought it from kermits earlier today

 

[just dave]

Sure.

 

[ihavtats29]

i forgot you closed at 4 o'clock today ill bring it by tomarrow

 

[crpeck]

A couple years ago, Salifert had some major issues with the Alk tests. I got a bad Salifert Alk test, and ended up pm'ing with the Salifert people over on that vendor thread. When they heard the batch number on my test kit, they sent me another one without question.

I still use Salifert, but if I got a reading that far off I sure would get another brand to double check both the Red Sea and Salifert.

 

[ihavtats29]

well the kit wasn't bad i just have high alk it was reading 17 kh today on a diferant test kit

 

[crpeck]

Wow! That's huge. I'm surprised your critters weren't looking sad.

 

[ihavtats29]

if fact they look pretty good surprizingly

 

[crpeck]

It must have built up gradually. On that note ... I'd be careful taking it all the way down too fast.