But what I'm saying is you recommend a product that's all well and good but in this situation until he has a 100% accurate ALK test last thing he needs to be doing is adding alk and he should not really have a need to in a FOWLR setup if he has a good waterchange shedule.
It's not just ALK you have to think about either it has to be in balance with Calcium and then you have MAG ontop of that in a reef system so adding one may mean you need to buffer another to keep them in balance but it's always easier to use a salt with the desired levels you require as this will save buffering when mixing ect and helps a lot with stability.