Heya Mark! I'm doing great! Thanks for asking! 
Allright... Mr or Ms. LFS has a different agenda than us reef geeks... they gotta maintain an organism for a short time... We need to do it long term... AND make them thrive and prosper... If your Mag is at 1100 and your Ca+ is at 350... then that just means that your animals will wither away a little slower than if the levels are at 900 and 250... 
And lookit... I ain't no expert here... but what I do know is that 1250 - 1400 ppm Mag, 380 - 440 ppm Calcium and 8 - 11 dKH Alk is what NSW values are around a natural reef and what the animals grow and calcify at optimal rates that are equally as tied to current, lighting etc etc etc etc... there are almost too many variables which is why there is no ONE way to do this right... but these chemical elements are well within our grasp to control, so we might as well do it right? 
It's taken me a few years to get as much figured out as I have which probably doesn't amount to much more than a pile of coonsh*t, but what the hey... I just can't help sharing...
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135G Mixed Reef. Bullet 2, 25 gal refugium, 2 X250W MH + 4X 96W PC\'s, DIY Calcium Reactor, Coralife 1/6 HP Chiller, Phosban, Tunze, 2 closed loops & SQWD\'s, Seios, Coralife 4 stage RO/DI & a bunch of other expensive gadgets... I may never retire, but I'm gonnahavahelluvanaquarium!
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