Getting 9.8 alk reading from Red Sea salt

[ReefSlice]

Ok, I have been having some strange problems with my tank and can't quite figure it out, however tonight I discovered something very odd that is just baffling me. I noticed last week that my new bucket of red sea (blue bucket) was mixing to 9.8 alk (at least thats what my red sea kit says), so I ordered a small bucket to see if maybe I had gotten a bad batch. The new salt arrived today, I mixed up 15 gallons to 1.025 and it is still testing out to 9.8. The batch # is nowhere on this bucket so I can't see what their analysis was, but the last bucket that tested to 9.8 was analysed by them to have an alk of 8, which is appropriate for this salt. My magnesium is also testing out to be 1440 when it should be 1280 according to their analysis. Now, my refractometer is calibrated directly before being used to mix the water, test kit is almost brand new, I bought a new bottle of calibration fluid last week just to be safe so I know the fluid is dead on, so why are my levels so off? This is seriously flustering me, my tank is not doing well and I just cannot figure out what is off here. My corals/tank all together does not uptake alk or calcium in the last 2 months, something is wrong here. Any suggestions?

 

[WWIII]

That's pretty high for blue bucket @ 1.025. I used this salt for years and never tested a batch that high. Since your pretty sure your refractometer is calibrated correctly I would personally try to get another alk test on it. My personal favorite is the Lamotte alk test. It's a little expensive up front, but is a very controlled and consistent test. Or is there any lfs near by that could run it for you?

 

[ReefSlice]

I'm quite sure it's got to be a test kit error, I'm going to bring my water to an lfs tomorrow to get my numbers double checked, hopefully I will find the route of the problem. I'm very doubtful that two buckets are off, just wanted to see if anyone had any other suggestions.

 

[WWIII]

I'm quite sure it's got to be a test kit error, I'm going to bring my water to an lfs tomorrow to get my numbers double checked, hopefully I will find the route of the problem. I'm very doubtful that two buckets are off, just wanted to see if anyone had any other suggestions.

Let us know what ya find out!