calcium up up and away please.

[daplatapus]

When I helped a friend set up their 3rd tank last fall we had similar issues. Ca was low, alk was low Mg was low. She tried dosing all three at separate times of the day for a week. Nothing really wanted to move. I showed her the dosing calculator on BRS's site and we started just trying to get the Mg up to 1300. The dosing quantity recommended didn't raise the levels as much as I had anticipated, but we just kept with the schedule, recalculating every time we dosed. It finally came up to where we wanted it. Then we were able to slowly bring up the Ca and alk. It almost seemed to me like the rock or sand or something was absorbing the chems and until they were at equilibrium with the surrounding water, then the values started to rise.
During the whole process I spent $100's on test kits thinking the same thing. Either test kit or handling errors. Salifert, Elos, API.

I wonder with new tanks and people just starting dosing if some systems need that extra little kick start before much happens or shows up on the test kits.