Bad test kit, chemistry off, still need kalk for ph...

[noj3333]

So I have an issue. After some poor maintenance over the past 18 months I’ve been very good with my tank over the past 4-5 months. Lately (a month ago) I started running kalk and testing with a Red Sea kit.

Yesterday I just happened to flip the red sea box over and I noticed my test kit was about 1 year expired. My tests were running very good (with this expired kit), and my corals looks happy and healthy. Out of caution I brought some water to the LFS to have my numbers checked, my tests were:

CA – 400
ALK – 8.68
Mg – 1200

The LFS test numbers were:

CA – 570
ALK – 9.8
Mg – 1480

In the past few days I had dosed CA and Mg, but not ALK.

My question is this, in order to keep my ph in a safe range (over 7.7) I need to run kalk. Without kalk my ph falls quickly from about 8.1 to about 7.7. My idea was to switch my ATO water over to pure RO/DI, and then to run my kalk for 40 seconds and hour to try to keep ph up slightly. Before I discovered this issue I was running kalk via my ATO for about 2 minutes an hour (all tracked via apex neptune).

Does this sound like an ok idea to more experienced reefers?

I was going to track my chemistry with tests every other day, until my numbers come down. Once my numbers come down naturally I would slowly increase my kalk drip time until I had stable numbers.

Thanks for any help and advice.

[dkeller_nc]

Does this sound like an ok idea to more experienced reefers?

In so far as trusting an LFS numbers in lieu of the numbers you got with an expired test kit, and making changes on your tank wherein the creatures in at are doing well, no, it doesn't sound like a very good idea.

Get new test kits first, and confirm the LFS numbers before you make any changes.

[noj3333]

I did get a new kit and confirmed the lfs numbers. The only number that I thought was a big deal was the CA. I read that elevated mg levels have not been confirmed to be detrimental to a reef tank, and the alk levels are a little high for my liking, but not off the chart imo.
I'm really looking for what other reefers would do in a similar situation:

Large water change?

Stop kalk drip and let ca/ alk/ mg fall naturally (which would also drive my ph down to 7.7 or so)?

Follow my plan of greatly reduced kalk drip with a much slower return to ideal water parameters?

[bertoni]

Those levels are safe as is. I personally would stop dosing calcium and let that level drop over time. Magnesium could be left to fall on its own, too.

As far as dosing Kalk based on pH, that can cause the salinity to fluctuate, which might be worse for the animals than the pH. I'd be careful about that. Using Kalk as ATO should be safe if it's dosed properly, though, and the evaporation rate is constant enough.