Short and sweet, after being gone for almost a week, and preparing to transfer in a mate this weekend, I thought I should take a quick snapshot of my water quality.
pH – 8.2
Alkalinity – 4.25 meq/L
Calcium – 420 ppm
Magnesium – 1170 ppm
Nitrate – approximately 2.5-5 ppm.
I’m continuing to dose C-Balance 2 part, although for a few days while I was gone I asked Frank to suspend the doses as I was getting emails about the pH being to high (via the Apex Lite controller…yes, insurance policy equipment added on before my vacation – more on that later).  I’ve since resumed 2-3 doses per day and haven’t seen the pH getting excessively high – the big difference is I’m dosing late at night and in the morning before the lights go on.  Given the slightly lower Magnesium reading, I dosed the tank with Seachem Magnesium tonight.
There’s been an explosion of baby Stomatella snails in the tank – I witnessed them spawning the day I added on the Vortech MP10w ES circulation pump (another of several equipment-related posts I still need to find the time to write up!).  Coral colors are restoring (I had some bleaching going on) although the Astralomussas I have remain bleached out but not dead (so there IS hope I suppose) – Jay thinks it was my getting the lights on a timer and lowering the photoperiod (the main LEDs are now on for 11 hours – I may cut to 10 soon).   Overall, corals are growing and doing well – the biggest problem is the Turbo snails knocking everything over even when it’s glued down or buried.  I’m looking forward to soon being able to remove these snails from the tank, as the hair algae crisis seems to have been solved.
Oh and that “damage” I thought I’d have to live with on the Lightning Maroon – it’s healing up.