I’m continuing to get the tank “dialed in” as they say.  Thursday and Friday I dosed the tank 3 times per day with .25 ML / gallon (6 ML) of each C-Balance 2-part solution.  Thursday evening, Jay stopped by and brought his Salifert test kit for Magnesium.  We ran it side by side with my Seachem Magnesium test kit.  The results were pretty dramatic.
My Seachem test, which is probably 3-4 years old, tested out at 950 ppm again.  Jay’s Salifert test kit came out in the 1200 range.  That’s a BIG difference.  Of course, it makes me wonder, and it speaks to a general wisdom that test kits don’t last forever.  Arguably, use ’em or lose ’em!  Makes me think the Nitrite readings (< 0.1 ppm) are nevertheless false.  It is probably time to just go buy a new base test kit as the few I have are now all quite old.  Afterall, how often do you test for Nitrite once things are really doing well?
So this morning, Saturday, I tested the water for 2 things:
Salifert Calcium – 435 ppm
Seachem pH = 8.1
Based on the math from Wednesday’s test, dosing with .75 ml /gallon two part over the course of a day will raise up the Calcium level by 10 ppm per day.  Based on the subsequent 2 days of dosing, that would’ve brought it up to 440 ppm.  To test out at 435 ppm could easily be within the margin of error for the test, or could also represent an update rate of 2.5 ppm calcium daily.
So for today, I’ll once again do the 3 doses for the day and see where I come out in the morning.  I’m also thinking that today might be an OK day to move the Lighting Maroon into the tank.  We shall see…