It is not the tank reading that was off in my case as it seems that the tank equalized the higher alk all by itself after awhile
but the high alk reading ( 3 to 6 times normal
) when it was just mixed and subsequently introduced to the tank ... the fish/inverts that came into direct contact with the new salt water are the ones that died
my question is whether he has tested a fresh batch of water for alk and what that reading was.
if it turns out that it is not the alk then I would send a sample of the salt to Randy Holmes Farley at RC Chemistry forum for analysis.