kh reading high

[mytank90]

hello i am starting to do better test on my saltwater tank and my kh reads at around 16 ?what would cause so high of a reading and how do i lower it .my ph was little high calcium at 460 and magnesium at 1050 .i have no hard corals in tank just leathers ,mushrooms and 10 fish in a 180 tank

[coolhandgoose]

The first obvious question would be what kind of water are you using? Are you using ro/di and is it testing 0?

[Reef Supplies]

Your system seem a tad out of "ionic balance", but not by much. The first thing you need to raise is your mag, that is waaaay to low. Try to raise it (showily) to 1300-1350 and keep it there, it will make your CAL/ALK much easier to balance and keep stabilized.

With that being said, the ionic balance for a CAL reading of 460 is right around 14 for ALK. I would try to aim for 420 cal and 8 to 8.5 alk.

Read more on this here http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-04/rhf/feature/index.php scroll down to the balance table.

Have you tried a different test kit to make 100% sure it is indeed at 16? Maybe borrow a friends?

[Aquarium_Medics]

I did the tests on his tank and at first couldn't believe that it was that high and tested again. I know the test kit is good as it was bought about 2 months ago and i get typical test results on my tanks and those of my clients. I did ask about his RO/DI filter and was told he had to change the DI insert.

I didn't think about it at the time but next visit, i'll test the ro/di filter output.