Please Help!

[fishwatcher]

I found the rift lake recipe from cichlid forum dot com. I tried it, but am having big problems. So far I've used 1 tablespoon of epsom salts, 1 teaspoon of marine salt and 2 tsp of baking soda. I think the epsom salt was too much, so I'm going to cut it back to 1/2 tbs (the gh was 32). The ph so far is only 8.0, while the kh is 17. Something seems wrong here.
I want the ph about 8.4 and the kh about 12, I think, but I can't get that balance.
Can anyone help???
Thanks!!!

ETA: This is for my shelly tank I'm setting up. I'm trying to get the water right before they come in this week.

 

[nukeonekitty]

Move this to the cichlid part of the forum for more response

 

[fishwatcher]

Oh, no -- I thought that's where I had put it!
Sorry!!