Balling overview

[Aqua-Digital]

Many of you would have read this already here on Canreef but I think its an important message to get across especially as we still are getting important questions sent to us why 3 part dosing or "balling light" is not the same as the Hans-Werner Balling system made by Tropic Marin, and in fact how 2-3 part of balling light systems are an issue for all of you that dose these.

The important part is learning about the relationship between the ions of Calcium chloride and sodium Bi-carbonate is important when dosing minerals into your delicate system, learning especially how the coral polyp takes in the calcium ion from the calcium chloride element and the carbonate ion from the sodium element and what is left behind "UNBALANCED SODIUM CHLORIDE" . In balling light system or 3 part THIS is where your imbalance comes from.

Left behind is sodium from the Bi-carbonate and chloride from the calcium, these two together of course make sodium chloride, and here lies the imbalance in 3 part, all of a sudden you have extra sodium chloride with no other elements attached to it floating around in your tank, and by doing a water change you are only removing the percentage of that water change of the imbalance.

So if you are dosing 2 or 3 part light systems and rely on water changes alone to address the imbalance you are only removing for example on a 10% water change, 10% of that imbalance.

Now - by adding into the mix Part C the remaining sodium chloride has something to balance it which includes the 70 trace elements

Now of course there is an argument that this system too raises your sodium chloride level, and yes you are right, BUT and here is the defining factor, it is doing it in a balanced format in the same way you would be doing by adding more sea salt to your system, because it is balanced there is no ionic risks, and even the most minimal water change would cater for any salinity rise, however due to being in balance and such a very low level this is not an issue, where as an unbalanced system with just sodium chloride floating about is.

What is an issue however are 3 part or light systems that allow for free amounts of sodium chloride in your system with nothing to balance it allowing for a complete imbalance that can not be addressed wholly by water changes as you only remove the % of water change and as such only remove that % of imbalance.

There is only one way to keep a system in balance when dosing calcium and sodium Bi-carbonate and that is to add in proportion NACL free salt. (Part C)

To make the point clearer, the very first original Sea Salt mix from Tropic marin that still to this day forms the basis of all their salts is a 100% mixture of A B and C of the Tropic Marin Balling system together!

So there is no argument chemistry in itself proves it, if you dose a system with nothing to balance the excess NACL you create an imbalance, and this is where part C comes in which is made up of everythign you find in a sea salt mix including all trace elements without adding additional NACL, hence the term for part C as NACL-FREE sea salt. But lets be clear Part C is not just magnesium as in every other other 3 part system, it is the whole bells and whistles found in sea salt as stated before WITHOUT any NACL component.

This is why Tropic marin balling from the inventor Hans-werner balling is so popular to those that care about doing this 100% right.

The truth is not in showing a fancy colorful SPS, the truth is in hard fact chemistry. Impossible to disprove. Reefing is a lot to do with chemistry, if you dont get that right you are always going to come across a hurdle somewhere, nature can not be bent or twisted, if a system creates an imbalance then there is a natural reason why the imbalance is not found in nature.

Whether you use all the 3 parts of the Tropic marin system (which makes the most financial sense) the important topic here is the understanding of part C and not just any NACL free salt, but one that does contain all the trace elements found in sea salt other than sodium chloride.