Cannot keep alkalinity up

[whalloper]

Hello everyone,
Can anyone give me some suggestions for keeping my alkalinity high? In my small tank (26 gal) I have been dosing like crazy because I almost lost my corals (sps, lps, and soft) since my alk dropped to 6 dkh a few weeks ago. Even dosing a lot more than the directions (Seachem Reef Carbonate), I am BARELY keeping it at 8 dkh. Everything is recovering nicely now that it has been at 8 for a couple of weeks, but I would really like to get it to 10 dkh to prevent that from ever happening again. Here are some of my parameters

pH - 8.2
alk - 7-8 dkh
calcium - 425-450
nitrates - about 0
iodine - .7
phos - 0
salinity - 1.023

Thanks in advance for any info you can give me
~Ron

[fragaholic]

cheap and easy way=baking soda.

[DrBDC]

bump it up 2 and then do a daily or every other day 2 part balanced supplement. Depending on your stocking level you can lose 1-4 dKh per day. You can use either alk or ca alone to get where you need it for a 1, key word 1 time adjustment but NEVER dose only an alk or a ca by itself.

[horseflesh]

Make your own 2-part system on the cheap:

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/april2004/chem.htm

I used the baked baking soda for my alk supplement. When you mix the powder with water it kind of turns into cement, but moving it into the blender got it mixed up. :)

And here's a calculator to help you figure out how much to dose:

http://home.comcast.net/~jdieck1/chem_calc3.html

[mikeatjac]

might help to let your calcium drop to 380.