Good advice John,I would get that mag up in the 1400 to 1500.Increaseing your mag will not hurt your corals and it helps keep your two part seperated for easier absorbtion for your corals,I would bring the alk up slowly.Alk is the measurement of the ability of the Ph to buffer so it's important to keep it up in atleast the 8 dkh area.I try to keep mine at the posted level of the salt mix so it will perform as advertised,Once ya get things leveled out resume your normal doaseing habits. Andrew Calfo writes allot about the test kit issue you experienced and it is very common to find extreme diffrences in the brands and how quickly they go bad.I find his recomendation of looking at the habitants and comparing the results to their apperance and behavior.If both are positive indicators stay with that brand I like the idea of the digitals tho and plan to get some to try em out.They work by measuring the clarity of the water sample after the reagent is added,So it has a base of the sample before and after so it should be more accurate then my old eyes LOL