need help please

[lemkerailroad1]

this morning i tested my tank as follows on my 220g reef

pH 8.06
mag 1140
temp 80.5
cal 288.4
alk 16.0/5.71

alk is through the roof and double checked it, found out why tank is a cal hog --- well i thought --- been doing h20 changes every 2 days of 5 gallons using ro/DI, going to leave the lights out for the day 2day


anny thoughts what i could do,

[rbursek]

Getting your Mg up first, low Mg is hard to get Ca up and keep it up, then see where your ALk is. What salt are you useing?

[rbursek]

May want to post it in the Chem forum and get the real experts.

[lemkerailroad1]

let me edit this

16.0 dkh and 5.71 meq/l

[lemkerailroad1]

were using red sea salt

[Hingeback]

Hi,
I am not an expert by any stretch of the imagination but to get a alk reading that high I would think your new saltwater would have to have a high alk reading.
I have done water changes every 2/3 days in the past and i found no issues such as this.
Even if your tank alk was say 10 and your new water was 10 it would not give a higher alk reading in the tank after the change because you have taken 5 g out which is at 10 and replaced with 5g with an alk reading of 10. If you are replcing with saltwater with an alk reading of 16 then your tank alk will rise.
Check your new saltwater.
I have ran my reef with an alk reading of 15 for a number of months when it was first set up. There were no issues with corals ect.

I am sure more experienced reefers will be able to give better advice than myself.

Best wishes.

[Hingeback]

At the time I was running my reef with a Dkh of 15 I used Red Sea Coral Pro. Unknowingly I was using very poor R/O water from an LFS.
When I found out and purchased a R/O unit my RSCP salt mixes with a considerably lower lower dkh.

[lemkerailroad1]

i have bought a new ro/di unit last week and am not buying water anymore going to do a 15g water change and try to get the mag up some more