The water is crystal. I just had a guy stop by who runs a high end tank service. He went over most of the normal parameters (Ca, alk, phosphates, nitrates, temp, salinity) and took a close look at the filtration, lighting, pumps, etc but couldn't find a smoking gun. All parameters are in check. Phosphates are a touch high but not high enough to cause concern (I just added my GFO back last night and haven't been doing VSV in some time so this wasn't too unexpected). My heater had a little condensation in it but it was not 'wet'. I pulled it anyways. Pumps are clean on the inside. My vortec, Gen 2, shows no signs of deterioration. He felt that flow, lighting, everything was good. In the end, he recommended that I break off anything and everything that might possibly be infected and hope to 'get ahead' of it rather than hope for recovery. I just filled about a 1/3 of a 5 gallon bucket. Last night I probably filled a 1/4 of a bucket.
About the only thing we didn't check for was copper. He had a high range kit that came back without a reading but I'm going to bring a sample by his place later this week to do a low range.
I tested my top off and water change water earlier this week and didn't find anything (Ca, alk, Mag, ammonia, and pH in the water change water). TDS is good.
No, I'm not measuring my ORP. I used to back in the day but don't have a meter these days and never found it particularly helpful. I used to obsess over having good ORP rather than monitor the health of my inhabitants and made a number of bad decisions as a result (I think watching my ORP drove me too far towards a nutrient starved tank). That said, if I had one I would like to get a reading although I'm sure it's terrible with all the malay going on in the tank.